Palmistry of Pointlessness
“Palmistry of Pointlessness” for One Night In Footscray 2019 festival concluded the trilogy of participatory “pointlessness” performance works for the festival over the last three years.
Beginning with “Parade of Pointlessness” and then “Poetry of Pointlessness,” - “Palmistry” engaged patrons to have their palm scanned and a “digital palm reading” printed out for them to take away.
Opposed to roaming, as per the last two Pointlessness works, Palmistry was static and located at the Footscray Library, this saw larger crowds find, engage and gather around the work in contrast to previous works and years performances.
My “Pointlessness” performance trilogy over the last three years has attempted to examine festival-based art in regards to patron participation through the use of semi-personal crowd engagement. In addition to exploring themes of existentialism, nihilism and “the spectacle” I use a cynical or critical lens to present the artist body, or art object, as one of labour in reference to the Sysiphis-ian existence of the modern worker.
From the wesbite:
“In this day and age, even witches, soothsayers and mystics need to work a 9-to-5… Come get your own very accurate, real and totally not pointless palm reading.”
"Matto’s here to offer you a very accurate and totally-not-pointless palm-reading… because in this day and age, even witches, soothsayers and mystics need a 9-to-5 gig.
Palmistry of Pointlessness is presented by Arts House as part of Housewarming.
Come lay down your palms for a one-on-one reading guaranteed to change your life, or at least your lunch break. Following on from his Parade of Pointlessness and Poetry of Pointlessness, Matto Lucas continues his exploration of art and labour with a sly solo encounter that’s less about magic than paying the bills.
Like the bastard offspring of a water cooler and a tarot deck’s one night stand, this satirical take on contemporary office life conceals hidden depths, tapping into the existential and nihilistic unmentionables that underscore the worlds of both artistic and white collar workers."
Image courtesy of VU in the Community | Photographer: Shuttermain
Image courtesy of VU in the Community | Photographer: Shuttermain
Image courtesy of VU in the Community | Photographer: Shuttermain
Image courtesy of VU in the Community | Photographer: Shuttermain
Image courtesy of VU in the Community | Photographer: Shuttermain
Image courtesy of VU in the Community | Photographer: Shuttermain
Image courtesy of VU in the Community | Photographer: Shuttermain
Image courtesy of VU in the Community | Photographer: Shuttermain
Example of Reading 1
Example of Reading 2
Example of Reading 3
Example of Reading 4
Example of Reading 5
Example of Reading 6
Example of Reading 7
Example of Reading 8
Example of Reading 9
Example of Reading 10
Still from Dennis Murphy Visual video
Still from Dennis Murphy Visual video
