Millionaire PM: A Political Performance/Art Series # 1

This is the first of a multiple disciplined series of 3 spanning the 3 months from the New Zealand hosted Rugby World Cup 2011 through til the NZ Elections 2011 at the trendy Golden Dawn Bar in Auckland.

Situated in a bar in Auckland's Ponsonby Rd, a fairly swanky upmarket area in which I grew up which has been vastly gentrified in the past 20 years eradicating its former bohemian and or multi-cultural milieu to be replaced by multi-coloured poodles and suits- this event series created by me is/was an attempt to creatively and politically intersect a mainstream hedonistic scene with cross-fertilised multiple art communities in a slightly guerilla style.

First time.

SUCCESS.

Tick.

Yes I'm used to facilitating such events, having done so with Late Night Choreographers many years ago and a number of smaller group shows which embody an underground community vibe of performance art and dance/theatre something splatterings of film and a little art. Why not some djs too?

Because community has been systematically destroyed by consumerism, capitalism and corporate greed and as we embody 'the society of spectacle' (Guy Debord) detaching from humanity these kinds of events become increasingly radicalised.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Society_of_the_Spectacle

So, this time the focus is POLITICAL.

Having just spent nearly 2 years living in Berlin recently (nearly 1 year back now) in which I watched a city in post-traumatic recovery from the fall of the Berlin wall 20 years ago preceded by a Stasi communist regime and master race ww2 puppeteering and now increasing gentrification in the form of hipster artist influx, hollywood celebrities buying up, capitalists in to exploit the former communists.. etc etc, eradication of turkish areas.. caused by.. i got thinking about NZ while I was away. Quite seriously.

Here's a video from the first event in Millionaire PM (named thus because Our current National Party PM is one of the 10 top earners in NZ - hence a Multi-Millionaire businessman) .. made by fellow NZ Berliner while I lived there now living in Sydney due to lack of jobs in NZ (we came back around the same time over a year ago) Mark Rickerby- aka Maetl... online writer, novelist, freestyle rapper.. which really sums up the conclusions I also came to about NZ and why it's so politically fucked up... while I was living in Berlin...

http://vimeo.com/29309489

Having run around like a chook with its head cut off for the entire day with at moments 5 people talking to me at once, leading up to the eve - nothing new for me - I am used to this kind of thing- underground dance at its finest.. having had the adminstrative help of 3rd dancer at Unitec Natalie Clark I was on my own to set up... we DID manage to pull this thing together with no money, 1 technician and the regular cliental showing up at 4pm to watch us stretch or install videos...

Breathing is my best friend.

With fine artists Addison Course, Francesca Gallo and James Wylie installing paintings related to politics (eco, emotion, politicians) on the bar walls -some great emails from politicians framed from James about what they see the role of the arts in nz being, spattered about also like menus on tables and video artists Brydee Rood and Karin Hofko showing up early to install work and videos.. some of which never happened, tv not turned on in shop next door, player not working.. and dancers/performers/djs/musos showing up in the change over between 'regular' Golden Dawn crowd and 'our tribe'.. I suddently felt the event shift from their space.. a bit of a scene, a bit corporate at times.. and thanks to Matthew Crawley and Kelly from the Golden Dawn who aided this event as I know they both enjoyed us changing the space.. and I WAS EXCITED.

Natalie Clark and I put on orange workmen's jackets provided by Mark Harvey from Auckland uni and I use caution tape to cordon off the outside space attaching it to cones...

I take up the microphone from its stand and Introduce MILLIONAIRE PM.

Intro from me.. 'so whose voting...?

Labour?

1 person, 1 person is voting labour. 2 people are voting labour.

Whose voting green?

ooh lots of people here proud to vote green.

Act?

What about... National? Don't be shy, there's no secrets here..

No one puts up their hands.

Curious. The tables where regulars sit become increasingly quiet.. realising what company is now in the space having introduced the show as 'MILLIONAIRE PRIME MINISTER'
and hearing 'I wish' from these tables.

What about Maori Party?

No its ponsonby.. not anymore. (I just think I don't say this)

So

let's get the show on the road..

It's hard to tell whose here for us and whose here for $10 Golden Dawn drinks..

I love it.

We hold up a screen like its a banner and project onto it a video of mine, naked banana eating, tampon popping, megaphone old video dancing in the back yard with projections of animals.. in a tiger suit, pig mask. I keep talking over the video. I tell the audience notice how the space divides once you get people to define themselves politically. To take a moment to 'notice', I use an ambiguous tone.

I invite anyone to come up and speak through the mic about anything political on their minds. I put the mic on the stand infront of my video and we wait. 5mins go by. No one speaks.

This is no surprise. I take the mic and once again draw attention to this. This is NZ. Shy.

When its over we remove the sheet and reveal 3rd unitec dancer and rapper Matthew Moore and his friends who acapella rap an awesome freestyle which cuts the space completely with sound so sharp. Voices so clear unaccompanied by music. If people didn't know what was happening, they do now...

They command the space, its electric.

We then, Natalie and I bring the sheet back and I ask stragglers to get out of the projection light.. please. We project up Mark Rickerby's video (above link) 'The End of the NZ dream'. Its 6mins, our arms get tired.. the 'screen' is wonky. This is all part of it, our 'accident'/'roadworks' construction site cordoned off with cones and tape is a 'work in progress', though this is a digital moment, our arms tiring as we hold the sheet up for a video is part of the show's overall concept. Watch us sweat. This is human-exploitation behind the machine.

I can feel again the space change, people reading and watching are very moved by Mark's video. Its beautiful, its apt.. it speaks to Nzers.

We have a voice. We have understanding.

Once again, a p.l.u.g. http://vimeo.com/29309489

The video thanks me at the end. Thanks are mutual Mark.

Then its Karin Hofko.. she's brilliant. German artist studying at Elam art school. She is a natural comedian. Dry. Low key entrance. She's wearing a poncho, black rider boots pants tucked into it, a beanie with NZ on it, she puts a top hat over the beanie to look 'classy' like this space. She improvises through the microphone, referencing my own attempt at audience interaction consciously failed- no one in this crowd, bar, country wants to come up and be part of our show. She is setting herself up to fail the same way. It is funny.

She presents about 4-5 'characters' with facebook profiles which the audience is invited to be for a weekend.. to sign up to be.. there, then. No one moves. We have a corporate business woman scorpio- favourite book 'the power of success' who doesn't like long hair on either men or women. We have various strange profiles.. are they real people? Has she made them up? Each is detailed.. hilarious. Finally someone comes up to sign up as a guy. One of the profiles to be is a tomato sauce bottle, another a 'troll' which she says is a friendly troll. I step in to 'take over' at this point to be 'a troll'.. by correcting her in a self-referential moment saying that trolls are the names for people online who try to take over and dominate a thread or online debate. I'm not sure if she's with me on that and maybe I'm being just being dick troll yep. Its borderline.

Yay, the power of success.

Lots of slippage.

Fun times.

A friend whispers to me 'Did you make the video (by Mark/maetl)? Its brilliant writing. Really succinct and accurate and clear'. Yes, I will tell him. He's not here. Thanks Anna.

Then we move spaces... to a cordoned off coned space in the corner.. to watch Briar March's film 'Michael and his Dragon' - about a post-traumatic stress Iraq vet.. a student film she made while studying in America, which won a student film award at a festival I attended in Berlin- at Potsdam. Its very earnest and moving. There are technical glitches.. The video is not screening. I let Dean Roberts the technician sort it out.. Its a bar, people are happy to drink and chat.. I am ready for this anarchy.. it works. I just explain who Briar March is to the audience while we wait and that she made a full length doco 'Once there was an Island' about a sinking island in the pacific which is the result of climate change. Anna corrects me that the ocean is rising not that the island is sinking. I relay this info. Thanks again Anna.

The video is much clearer on the white wall than expected, the film is powerful and short. Then to unitec 3rd year student Jessie McCall's dance about superficial NZ politics. I am warming up behind the cabaret stage about to perform so I miss it. Matthew Crawley tells me Dean needs me, something else is wrong. The internet is down. Jessie's John Key (PM) video is online due to her arriving quite late (students being overworked syndrome), we can't get internet, its out. I try several times.. no success. The performers ask for it in mid dance, we tell them its not happnening.. so we switch to the track, they keep performing. Lots of wooping and cheering, its fun and I presume people are enjoying it. I am backstage warming up.

Then Brydee Rood's video in her Trash dancer series of someone dancing with trash or trash bins.. from a recent residency in Berlin. Also inside the bar itself we have set up me doing the same thing- my style - dancing 3mins to dubstep in sleet/snow in Berlin when I was there with trash on my head, next to someone's rubbish bins- with taxis and kids watching me.. on loop. I'm more crump. Dave's style is butoh.. there are framing issues, Brydee is not happy. Everyone is happier with the loop of me in the bar.. I agree - glad time was taken to set this up.

Then Mike Holland and I- our sound starts.. we enter in t-shirts and shorts with towels slung over our shoulders.. through the cabaret curtains, space still caution taped.. and lay down our towels, one pink one blue onto the concrete. Its cheesy electro.. we are talking over the top on the sound recording, about money. A conversation about poverty, about ponzi schemes, about derivatives, about greed, about power and money and exploitation and banks, about our system failing its people, about the rich wanting to thin the herd, about them profiting from the misery of the poor who are ignorant, in debt. Swan lake music, its a man woman intimate duet, 2 tracks play through to completion over it. Then a track 'The captain' by The Knife, its a sad song to complete.

To begin we oil each other up with sesame oil, we rub it into each others legs, arms, then we do very precarious, dangerous contact improvisation.. on concrete, with oil on our skin. Its structured improv. People laugh, its intimate and intense, its sexual, its struggle, its tense, I am lifting him climbing right over my shoulders to birth between my legs. He's twice my size. I lie on him face down, its awkward, we are like creatures, yoga sex for two, its awkward as hell. Its dangerous as hell. I fall from his shoulders and he catches my oily leg and i dangle. He nearly sits on my head. We each take turns speaking through the mic about an injury we have and how to politically contextualise this. I talk of my hip, he oils my hip, under my shorts.. he talks about his sterum fracture, his heart. I oil under his shirt his heart beating fast.

We twist, and lift, and fall, and squirm around each other, finding ledges and spaces and momentum always connected, we touch and oil each others faces, pouring down the face kinda gross, just a little.. we rub our faces all over each other... like we're pashing or necking.. down onto our bodies... onto the ground. Squash. We pull each other up and down. I talk about the oil in my eyes, how I can barely see through a film of oil, how its sometimes impossible to see the things closest to us. I refuse to state the obvious. I'm squinting through oil, this is all improvised. Then we finally massage each others limbs and face and heads.. connected at the pelvis.. its intense and tense, solid and fluid, in the moment, we trust each other, and its funny. We struggle to find space between or around each other.. as we exit back the way we came. Its tender and loving, caring.. the conversation recorded attempts to find something positive to grasp onto. About community, about non-compliance with system. About looking about our and each other's bodies. Its ridiculous and its earnest. We leave. We come back and bow.

Then Gem Indigo starts to set up as the rappers freestyle again. This is my favourite moment, he is an eccentric older man with tattoos of flowers on his face, a massive sign with his name GEM INDIGO.. on it behind these young white rappers saying 'fuck National'... He introduces himself and does a spiel barely anyone can hear about how polluted the rivers are, how overpopulated we are etc and how his eco-friendly conscious punk is going to help raise the vibrations for us (Kelly from GD tells me this later as I can't hear any of this)> he then sets up 6 pedals and plays psychedelic guitar for 40mins until I ask him to stop. It makes some people leave and others laugh. He is brilliant. Moppy sets up, plays a kick arse electro set as always... people dance and rock out. There's some confusion over djs.

Finally djs Caroline Ward and Tobi play awesome dancehall tracks about poverty and money and I fucking love this shit. I have the best dance in ages with mates in a space that no one ever dances in on a thursday night especially. What a relief.

The night descends into the usual drinking partying hedonistic vibe as various people tell me how much they enjoyed the event, how rare and special such an event is. Deimos calls me a superhero. Lol. Do superheroes live on the dole? Thanks Deimos, that's real sweet you super man.

And indeed it is. In a climate of capitalism, in the arts, the business of the arts, encouraging people to continually sell themselves and their culture within a climate of hedonism and consumerism.. to charge $5 for artists from a variety of art forms.. having fun with political ideas.. getting very serious and so on... connecting artists from also round the world... over causes passionate to them, it feels like the power of success to me.

Even in its failures, in its pitfalls.. in the tech fuck ups, and hey yeah maybe I do need more support, like always..... where IS extra that support? Of course I forget things, like the line up on a menu board, introducing works or the artists in the rest of the space- whose work I hope people did look at.

The line up is bigger next time... will it go ahead? DO I have the energy for it? Will I have more help?

BUT

Just doing it.. just making it happen. People feel connected, it subverts this mainstream space. The people chatting and ooing during mike and my performance, made to think by Mark's video.. may go home and wonder, what was that about? Why was I asked about my voting options? It may make a difference, it may not... its an experiment. Matthew Crawley is happy, Kelly is moved by Mike and I. People love Karin, the videos.. the rappers.

But its also my old hood...and I enjoy bringing back old school community artsy ponsonby vibes..

Just for its own sake. If nothing else ; apparently there is also a NZ political posters exhibition around the corner at Artstation (old Outreach where I learned how to draw/paint as a kid), there are protests happening down Queen st on the night of All blacks vs France... not everyone cares about Rugby. I think to mention rugby at the start, but I don't. I save it. All that exists in ode is 2 NZ flags flanking our cabaret stage.. left over from a work I made on mixed Ability company Touch Compass which are spray painted on 'Injury to one is injury to all'.

Thanks for all those who came .. the audience once again makes up the community, I am interested in cross-fertilising communities, the leaking into mainstream, relational art etc.. and them chipping in makes it all the more rich and fertile, funny and fun. The politics of fun times.

And yes I've applied for Creative Communities funding for the pre-elections nove Mill PM. And I'd like to do a very special shout out to Sean Curham who has pretty much at times single handedly been my support, sponsoring me at this time with free rehearsal space knowing I have no money, helping keep my practice alive when there is no other support there because what I do is largely 'too radical' for the conservative arts administration of NZ, and yet we shall see. Sean is a community superhero.

I say to Georgie I'm dancing with the next day as part of Anna Bate's brilliant show- 'I don't know why I've been in major poverty for the past 2 years from Berlin'.. perhaps to open my eyes really bout this world to channel some stuff..? 'and why why why.. do i keep getting directed back to NZ?' She says to me 'Lol, Auckland needs you Alexa.' And yes Europe has its own probs.

Thanks Sweetheart.

My mate Kelly says the show is "PUNK"> fuck yeah. In the best way baby. Dean Roberts the technician says that only a handful of people really 'get' what I'm doing, that it needs to be intellectualised as cleverly fun and subversive and reminds him of events he was part of in Europe, not NZ.

Thanks Community.

Even though I've had some bad experiences with community in the last decade and felt exploited by it in moments, there is nothing like rising above, believing in and keeping empowered. Tall poppy syndrome doesn't wash, there IS a thriving body of open minded people in NZ and in NZ dance.

We are not separate.

Peace community.