Episodes of Exposure

​We attended Susan Bendall’s dance / performance / video projection / installation work on a rainy (crazy weather - hail!) Sunday afternoon at D11 at Docklands. We have been to D11 before, it’s located inside the ghost-town, labyrinth, wasteland that is Docklands Melbourne, and although the area is a bit of a strange, alienating mess, D11 (and Foodcourt) is actually quite cool and interesting activated spaces. Initiated through Renew Australia - these projects are bringing something cool, human and authentic back into the lifeless husk and contrived non-humanity of the area. D11 is a great space - ran by a friendly, passionate and casual group of people, the space is a little unassuming, the first time we visited it was difficult to find hidden behind an old full-glass window shopfront - but it’s a fantastic space. A large main gallery area with nook for video or installation work up front, then out back is a warehouse-style darker room, perfect for video, performance or interactive multi-media work. Sunday afternoon a small group of participants were treated to quite an intimate, beautiful and at times uneasy performance work by dance writer and Masters student at VCA, Susan Bendall. Entering the space, we stood awkwardly around, not being directed to stand and become an audience in any given area, we dispersed uncomfortably within the room. The space had been directed into multiple areas, one data-projected wall, one overhead projected wall - and the anachronistic clash of these two technologies immediately created a tension. When Bendall entered the room, she transitioned between naturalistic movements and flourished, beautiful, choreographed ‘dance’ movements - weaving in and out of us, she herded us, people moving 'out of the way' - although what way was uncertain.  The push and pull of being made 'uncomfortable' by the sheer nature of the 'performance' and the performer and then being brought back into the passive comfort of being an unmoving audience member was really interesting - our relationship with her body is what spoke the loudest. "I am not an artist therefore nothing I make is art" was scrawled along a large piece of paper scattered over the floor.  Bendell herself created a fragmented and broken narrative by intermittently scribbling onto the gallery wall - a strange, poetic and melancholic review of her own body's relationship to dance appeared - and at the end, we, as audience members were invited, silently, to add to the wall, to the work. Bendell's background as a dance writer - and essentially this whole work - is  a conversation about dance and writing, in general. However, for us, it was about the body and value systems in relation to how our bodies interact with others. "Dumbass" she scrawled in charcoal down her own leg.  A beautiful, interesting experimental performance that we were so, so pleased to be a part of. Take a look at our short video and make sure you subscribe to D11 and attend the openings and events- they are always interesting. “I identify some of the relationships between dance writer, the act of dancing and dance performance by displacing the writer into the space usually occupied by the dancer and dance-maker. This process creates “episodes of exposure” for the writer. Hence I am investigating the complements and antagonisms inherent between written and embodied language and attempt to locate some of their interstices. I also consider how my participation in dancing informs my production of written text about dance.” -Susan Bendall