ÜBUNG EXERCISE No. 6 — Gender Render
Performance
report by Shannon Cochrane
The Woman with the Vibrating Skin
About ÜBUNG / EXERCISE No. 6 – Gender – Render by Dorothea Rust
I’m endlessly curious how artists make decisions about (and for) their work. Which elements and materials from initial concern or creative impulse will survive the long and abstract journey to the first presentation of a final performance? What happens to all the ideas and objects, or the directions that are lost (or, get lost!), forgotten or are simply discarded along the way. Why this and why not that? One’s own logic–say nothing of the sense of satisfaction when all of the puzzle pieces click into place–is often, if not entirely, subjective.
One’s own system is another person’s maze. My logic is your chaos: your puzzle, my personal disaster. I’m interested in how artists navigate this terrain because I am invested in how I navigate this terrain. I have to be invested because no one else can do it for me. Again and over again I manage to make the treacherous crossing from intent to action, but I am willing to admit that I couldn’t tell you how I do it. I don’t have the habit of charting my own course. I simply set off. I wonder if other artists employ this same (non) strategy, or if having long ago recognized the street value of this information, found a way to turn blind faith into a step-by-step guide, transforming the jumble of half-baked go-to tricks into something that constitutes a dependable way of working, or more precisely named–a process. ...