Ines Doujak and John Barker (9/10/2019)
Freaking weird... Raising questions of social responsibility and consent, when is appropriate to use performance art, when does it push the audience too far - is it better to have an option to take part? Are there some moments that you ought not to sully with performance art? Is The Investigator an appropriate outfit to wear to carnival, is it disrespectful to the people she supposedly reveres? And the textiles she adores...? Why did she choose this character to embody her investigations? Is the point to make you feel uncomfortable? Why would it be supposed to make you feel uncomfortable? How is that a useful interpretation of the Andian textile industry? Do I like it...? Do I get it...? Do I want to...?
I am so confused by the performance art element of this long term project, I find the posters Ines Doujak created brilliant; they combine important moments in textile history with the beauty of Andian textiles, and the history of the Andian peoples, but I don’t understand the connection to the performance art.
I have read the book Ines Doujak and John Barker have written that documents the length of the project, and I’m still not sure I understand what they are trying to say, or maybe ‘understand’ is the wrong word because I do feel like I comprehend the concept behind The Investigator but I’m not sure I can comprehend how they believed it was the best way to go about it... For me it doesn’t seem an appropriate response to a people you supposedly respect and admire, nor an appropriate imposition into an event that is so culturally significant for those people.
I think I find myself lost in the carnival performance section so much that I am disconnected from the actual message the project is attempting to convey. I’m finding myself unable to stop thinking about it which I don’t think is what the aim was, and I think that might be on me and my experiences and not on the artist and performers.
So I will consider the posters that they created because I really do love those. I love the way they showcase the traditional dress of the people, display the garments in the correct settings, and particularly how they draw attention to moments in history that would be lost to non-Andian people, simply because they are not from the affected country. Each poster asks you to question why you haven’t heard about a particular date, why do we only learn about our own history, know about the other parts of the world only when necessary to provide context for our own history, and even then it is through the eyes of us - not necessarily reality?
