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SUSAK EXPO, AN ACCOUNT AND RECOLLECTION
I present this account and recollection of my experience as a participant of the Susak Expo 2006. The text is really a script and helped inform me of how it might read. The criticism, in the main is directed at the project’s failures and as a group member, I do not exclude myself from this. Furthermore, I feel that it would be rude and ungrateful to write this account without crediting Daniel Devlin: his efforts in getting everyone there, making sure they had accomodation and good food during their stay on the island. The texts quoted are … a piece of … from Bruce McLean. Descuors Susacki and the social contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau – the book I struggled to read on the island.
Eddie Farrell (August 2006)
It’s a train drunk flight boat No expectations
Theres a chase: a drunken taxi too fast too fucking fast
Then a wait a delayed ferry wait more beer smoke smoke beer
Ferryon Ferryoff another taxi drunk in the back too loud too loud
A Madangry driver too fast too too too fucking fast
I dont want to die on these dark roads being forced to listen to very loud rock shit cds
Theres a bar theres booze then an hour and another then drunk drank swim swumming
Then sleeping on the pavement and crawling on a ferry
Then sleeping on the open seas an irritating cold breeze up the back of the shirt
7.30am and we are there
Fuck its hot
A tiny square toast breakfast – I could eat another four
Up steep stepped slopes steep steep Then this and that then sleep
A shower then a walk then a shower
Down the hill and up then a shower
Down for coffee cigarettes then a shower
At the hour of six thirty an address……a talk!
Am I back in the schoolroom is it time for another shower
No Ideas circulate the dripping heat air conditioning concepts take off up and down the steps
head inside the chapel bell pissing on mosquitoes
sprinting past the nuns
Water in your lungs thoughts between your toes
Kkkkkierkegaard and Freud
sanding and scraping and painting wheelbarrows
Like a hand car wash they wait in line
then leave branded orange- Tate a tet or easy jet
Grub- up in a garden one misplaced Croatian painter
too much wine threes a crowd
Four and five in the morning then Done Dwo Dee Dour Dive Dix – the bells back on
Shower Steps Osmans Coffee and a toast
nodding off nose in a book
Born as I was the citizen of a free state and
a member of its sovereign sovereign sover…nod nod
Born as I was………………Borrrrrrrrr
The shops open : fags twentyfive largo the odd bit of fruit
no newspapers
(there are no newspapers) and water-
water water she gave me water
Fuck its hot
Off up a hill in the midday sun to find north shit this is hot
shit this is hot shit hot this is not
An isolated gable end window ledge shadow is all that stops drowning in your own sweat
This is north no that is north which is north –
ask the cat with worms im too dizzy
staggering through beautiful wild grassland
dangerous white patches invade the vision
a billion butterflies flip and wibble in hedgerow heaven
I am crying blinding tears of salt sweat
The end is near my friend the end is near
a cemetery bleaches into view
The path splits : one is home shower then a shower
a sleep and a shower and read nod nod
The other a short trip for a dip in the sea
cooling and caring and kindness itself…the sea
The sea the sea walk walk through vineyards the sea the sea walk walk around vineyards
The sea the sea walk walk walk walk oh fuck its hot walk walk look snake tracks walk walk
clouds of dust walk walk walk stop : look way way down that dangerous descend……the sea
The sea is pure and bluer than the bluest blue
your beautiful blue eyes have ever seen
but the sea has rocks of angry razor teeth to slash your skin The sea will not let you in
Its either ascend the descend again or round the coast…
the village must be round the next ridge
Walk stagger balance totter trip stagger balance totter trip stagger balance totter trip over rocks
The facter 400 sun block applied earlier in the day
is sprouting holes
Red nose red cheeks red neck
and blistered hands stroke sun stroked skin
The last of the plastic bottles harbour stagnant tepid frog spit Fuck its hot its really hot
The village is not round the first corner
the second third fourth or fifth
Slowly but with increasing density
a welcoming party of blistered bodies herald civilisation
A ruddy hairy arse from Austria
winks a sphincter of support in crispy bacon
A burnt umber family barbecue tits fannys cocks and arses-
nude jersey style
But a stagger balance totter trip over body beach is the village and a coke and another with ice
then for a sleep and a shower but first those fucking steps
Diogones is on the 6.30 menu tonight
served on a bed of healthy discussion
Is this a group dynamic beginning to form
is the magic of the island beginning to work
Perhaps the shit shack gallery in hoxton
and guildframe signatorie of cork street are behind us
But wait some words
SHOW GALLERY PRESS PUBLIC OPENING DEADLINE UHH!
Flicking mental pages of Extended platforms:
no plans, just a time and place
What about all the new tracks and paths to share
and explore that can crisscross one another
This is single track railroading and certainly
no escape from margins of the studio and city
The dinner goes down in more worried lumpful forms
The mosquitoes are making themselves more visible
by handing out more lumps
And theres a sense of enemy guns rumbling just over the horizon
The absence in Susakian of this word “art” is a gift
It was becoming increasingly clear
not all here would agree with this statement
For my piece im going to .im going to make a piece that will….my piece……your piece…
His piece and her piece A piece a peace a piece of shit
Off the island tomorrow
Mali losinj is only forty minutes from Susak
on the anti clockwise route of the Jadrolinea
Sitting up on deck air is plentiful
like a lost friend returning it tickles cheeks and eyebrows
Most of the people on board seem like old friends by now
they all live and work in Susak
We have all spotted each other
countless times on the island in the past three days
Nose in book i am determined to read a passage before dozing off
Born as I was the citizen of a free state
and a member of its sovereign body,
the very right to vote imposes on me
the duty to instruct myself in public affairs
Harbour side is buzzing when we tie up
cafes and bars are baited with canopys of shadow
Hooked immediately I sit and order coffee and a croissant
The drink opens my eyes
The pastry opens up on first bite and spurts sickly yellow custard its all too sweet
I order an espresso and plan the next five hours of shore-leave : things to get then read
In a hardware store I hear Croatian
morph into broad Nu Joysy Einglish
It beats Americans shouting
Jambon goddamit Jambon! At Parisian waiters
I fancy I spot a sausage roll in a bakers window
ah ha no more custard and chocolate shite
I point grunt look vague and somehow order it
its warm chocolate and nut mush I discover later
A large blonde lady newsagent with a swollen chin
and a scrunched up paper tissue pressed to it
charges a trillion kunas or something
for a collection of Croatias daily newspapers
This extortion is temporarily undetected:
too relieved am I at having communicated my order
Sitting quayside at a bar- cum- bookies I prepare to read
at a small round table
loaded with espresso water cigarettes ashtray notebook glasses-case matches & lighter
Fuck its hot
How many times can you read the same line over and over again and then wake up
Under a bad government this equality is only an appearance
and an illusion, it serves only……
How many times can you read the same line over and over again and then wake up
A pattern is established: I read from top of the page
nod off wake up start again from the top
nod off wake up promise myself to get to the end of the page start again nod off wake up
the land is heating up this bastard sun is finding elaborate ways to come and get me
what was once a cool dark shadow of shade has been eaten away into a pallid flickering strip
the harbour feels like its on the end of a pizza paddle thats gradually being shoved into the oven
How many times can you read the same line over and over again and then wake up………….
Back on the boat the reviving breeze is welcomed
like wafts from a seconds towel on a boxer
my camera card is full of Susak shadows
flicking through the familiar dark images
I realise how fond of the shapes I am
they come with the sun and leave with it everyday
They snuggle against doorways and windows and lie under tractors and barrows
They prop against gables and hang over alleyways all this while providing shelter for man and beast
This generous and essential service leads me to reappraise some old saying about being
Kept in the dark
THIS SUNLIGHT BRINGS DARKNESS
SEEKING SHELTER IN SHADOW THAT ALLOWS ILLUMINATION
DODGING BETWEEN ZONES OF SANITY
ALL AROUND – CONSUMPTION
NAKED BURNT INSANE
MOPPING UP ALL RESISTANCE
THIS HEAT WILL NOT ALLOW ME TO THINK
At Susak harbour theres an unruly pile of paper :
a ream of 500 A4 sheets stuck together end to end
On being constructed it has been notated and scrolled upon
it contains its own history
An attempt to lay it length wise on the road ended in it
catching the breeze and flying off
Perhaps tomorrow will be calmer and better for laying it out but then something strange
Its getting dark the atmosphere is suddenly dead
not a puff of air perhaps the moment is now
In no time at all the line is laid out
from the harbour to Osmans a new pathway is opened up
Children balance along its length tractors and wheelbarrows crisscross and dogs bark at it
As quickly as it appeared it is rolled up again
seconds later the rain comes
Sitting under cover beer in hand soft smiles recognise the sharing of a very special moment
Saint Jo Melvins last talk tonight
her presentations have offered us a crucial focus and context
They have been open and questioning without trying to conclude in order to leave a tidy package
This flies in the face of other pressures that appear to be demanding results that will give
Croatian TV a story and the locals a typecast role of smirking and scratching their heads..Artists!
someone said if we fall into that trap we will be letting ourselves and the locals down
I think that is the case
Fuck its hot
The rain had stopped its beach barbecue night tonight
and not the arse tits fanny kind
Downing the beer I struggle out of the chair and begin the lengthy trek to the beach
Im going to be late and I don’t want to miss the last presentation I pick up a painful pace
The beach was deserted the rain must have changed the plans im exhausted I feel like shit
Jo never did do her presentation
The last group of people had just arrived from the UK
when I finally got back up those steps
They must have been trying to weigh up
what the hell they had walked into
A beach party a monster truck fest
or the Royal academies summer show
I ate little drank nothing
it was time to use the most expensive newspapers in Croatia
with the help of friends a template was made
of the room were our discussions had taken place
(I had brought another template to Croatia
from the Torriano meeting room in Kentish Town
This was unfurled later in the week at Osmans
and then at the harbour it remains on Susak)
I had thought it would be interesting
to move this new template around the island
the beach a vineyard on the steps up a slope
at the harbour on a boat
there we could continue to meet visible and audible
thirty two artist in conversation and action
Naked without sunblock or an all over tan to hide behind –
a piece a peace a posing pouch piece
I got drunk that night talked until daylight
BUMBUMUMBUM BUMBUMBUMBUM
Oh my head my red wine head
S h o w e r S t e p s O s m a n s C o f f e e
and a toast and another coffee and another
F u c k i t s h o t
This afternoon we will attempt to draw
with an old wheelbarrow thats not the drink talking
It was agreed last night admittedly through a drunken haze
We will knock a hole in the old barrow we found
and fill it with a sand/soil- water/pigment mix
As the third hangover coffee is ordered disturbing edits of last night conversations filter through
cv portfolio correct documentation name size and medium contact details artist statement cv
I was shocked at such blatant conformism
in ones so young on this experiment island!
You say Susak [expo] will become a platform enabling all the different elements to combine
I say Fine why not also invite the Pope /a murderer / a military general and a prostitute
Not just lame artists pawing over limp sketchbooks and their deadly dull pieces [ myself included]
An irritating situation was developing aggressively boxing some people in [myself included]
it lay somewhere between the openness feeding the opportunity for something very special to happen
And a variety of pressing obligations dragging everyone towards a very dull and formalised exhibition
Now if anyone tries to claim that that was the chance polemic set up to determine Susak Expo
I would tell them that they were being a little ingenuous with me and perhaps worse with them self
A lot of shrewd and intelligent people had come to Susak in good faith [id like to include myself in this ]
I came to learn and share ideas with others and in doing so perhaps learn a bit more about myself
I did not come to be just another piece in
some undirected stage-managed romp
I am serious about this Very Serious
BUMBUMBUMBUM BUMBUMBUMBUM
Fuck its hot
Im off to find a healthy dark fat shadow to read under
Under a bad government, this equality is only an appearance and an illusion, it serves only to keep the poor in their wretchedness and sustain the rich in their usurpation. In truth, laws are always useful to those with possessions and harmful to those who have nothing ; from which it follows that the social state is advantageous to men only when all possess something and none has too much.
The wheelbarrow drawing was a technical disaster
but in every other way very funny
It was filmed : the flopping speeding tyre is reminiscent
of the chariot scene in Ben-Hur
We meet as usual at 6.30pm in the upper room with a newspaper template on the floor and without Jo
Whos piece is this is it staying I attempt an explanation
but where do you start?
We dont seem to have even clarified a context
for us all to be in the same room together
Whats more is this a room to meet in
or is it a gallery as some are now calling it
And what is more the newspapers taped together
on the fucking floor are not a fucking piece
A rather limp attempt is made at filling in the new arrivals with the expos progress
This is then countered
by a set of rules and regulations of military issue
Advising us all on how we must engage with the press
as professional soldiers
Theres unrest in the ranks
It is agreed that our energies may be better spent
speaking to each other first
Who knows maybe then we could produce
something a bit more challenging
Both for ourselves and the islanders
The air is cleared a little a fresh start
We shall assemble here at dawn [well 10am]
Someone points out that a troopship of DJs are heading towards the island this evening To entertain us
An open air SusakFest :
drugs and sex and double decks in a vineyard
In that case tomorrow mornings 10am gathering is perhaps a touch optimistic Not at all Not at all
The citizens of the new republic of Susak
will gladly crawl out of their pits for an early morning chat
With that we part some assemble to dance themselves dizzy others go to bed [ myself included]
Six oclock reveille is struck on the chapel bell
all around you sense the sound of artists going to bed
A glorious morning sky idealistically beams
but is that the dull murmur of cannons in the distance
Outside I pass a miserable looking nun her I told you so glance is directed straight at me what
On the steps the fattest wormless black cat is sitting with a wriggling gecko clamped in its mouth
Apart from these three the place is deserted
I must deviate a little here for ive just realised my recollections have somehow missed a day
The morning I have just been talking about
is the Saturday of the Expo event weekend
that was the day that the Croatian press arrived
and in my view any chance of development ended
The day my chronological recounting has missed contained one event I feel I must document:
The re and de construction of the template that had covered the upper floor were we all met
In some disturbingly frenzied territorial dispute I chose not to witness until the deed was done
The original whole was hacked up into a pathetically sad little island that lay to the right of the stairs
It would seem that unimpaired space was required to view
THE PIECES OF ART
This act of segregation although nothing to me
in material terms spoke volumes about the
serious lack of dialogue between those participating
as to what the expo was or could be
had we really all just come here to hang our shabby little art trinkets in a cynical cv building exercise
and was it also being claimed that the situation were
some had come with those intentions
and some had not was an intriguing polemic that would make the expo a unique event
Bollocks count me out
Fuck its hot
There is no gainsaying that Adam was the king of the world, as was Robinson Crusoe on his island, precisely because he was the sole inhabitant ; and the great advantage of such an empire was that the monarch, secure upon his throne, had no occasion to fear rebellions, war or conspirators.
Seven people turned up that morning
I was late after hobbling back up those fucking steps
For some it was the last straw:
the only thing left for them was to abstain
by defiantly spending their last day on the beach
enjoying themselves
A few of us waffled on
as a number of latecomers tripped up the stairs
By 10 .45am it was all over
The new republic of Susak had collapsed on its first morning …………Artists!
The rest is a mishmash of unconnected events
Some good some not so good
There were times when I began to quake at the feeling of being in some kind of duran duran or jamiroquai beach party video
But then the unforgettable experience of a group of us going for a midnight swim under a clear starry sky in the warm sea was out of this world
Maybe its me perhaps I just cannot mix work and pleasure but I have to say hand on heart I fucking hate summer beach holidays Body fascism and burning skin make death a more attractive option to me
The third floor suicide plunge of a watermelon onto the pavement below was an intense moment
However my spirits sank at the slide show that was constructed and shown in the upper room
nothing against the images but I did feel it rang hollow and had an air of the arts council when they desperately cobble together evidence to secure another years funding for some dodgy community arts event that they have not taken seriously
at source The thing was we had nothing to lose or prove and that was the beauty of expo with that came a truly exiting challenge a challenge I have to say we did not measure up to and no slide show will convince me otherwise
The informal discussion that a small group of us had around some work and ideas that had come from being on Susak was the closest it got for me as to what the Expo was it did not take much effort to organise but to see what fellow exposees were thinking making and finding-out seemed to be a more fruitful and generous activity than the precious polishing and window dressing going on in preparation for the arrival of the Croatian press and tv
On the penultimate morning I borrowed a spade went down to beach and using the shape of the reconfigured template dug an island while the tide was out a folly to the artists farty little need for attention perhaps
The wheelbarrow parade looked great and due to Daniels close relationship with the island and the locals should have possibly been the Susak Expo itself had that have been the case it would be less confusing for everyone taking part to know before they agreed to participate that they would be expected to do no more than paint some ones wheelbarrow and the rest of the time would be there own to swim shag sunbath sketch drink draw wank walk talk think or read but then that would have been Daniels show
On Jo Melvins last evening someone had commented
that it would be a sad state of affairs
If we could not sustain a group dialogue without Jo being there to hold our hands
After all she had begun the dialogue and together we had started to developed the conversation
It was sad!
that the moment she left the will was not there to explore and enact on an evolving conversation
A Schools Out atmosphere set in allowing everyone to do exactly what they would do at home
Only this time with a lot more sun and sand and toilets that did not flush
Susak did offer a huge potential for us all to step outside the narrow margins of the studio and city
And that’s what makes the pedestrian response that resulted hugely disappointing for me
At sunrise as I made my last trip down to Osmans before boarding the catamaran for Rijeka
I snapped a photo of what was left of the island I had cut into the beach the morning before
It was very satisfying to see nature doing what it does best to mans solitary monuments
The newspaper template [ whos shape and dimensions were determined by ignorance indifference and territorial greed] was packed away in my case and sits on top of the plan chest in the room were Im typing this now
HAVE I COME TO THIS ISLAND
TO CREATE AN ISLAND
ON AN ISLAND ON AN ISLAND
SEPERATED AND ISOLATED
LAND – A LITTLE LAND
FLOATING AND UNCONNECTED
I CAME TO THIS ISLAND
AND LEFT WITH AN ISLAND
in my bag