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This recording is a compilation of only natural sounds – those immediate to Flossie’s and my lives. For me, the surrounding water and wind bring me peace. For Flossie, her love of animals has been a constant throughout her life. By manipulating the different samples throughout the recording, the bark of Priscilla the dog turns into a howl with a melody of its own. Also, the wind sample used I first heard singing through the gaps in my house’s walls, playing a melody that I’ve never heard anywhere else. The running water recording was recorded in a small town cave in rural China in pitch black after a heavy rain. The experience of being alone in a cave is unsettling enough and a rare opportunity to experience. Coupled with the inability to see anything, the stream seemed to grow into a river, into a roar, where the blackness quickly painted itself into creatures by my fertile imagination. The blocks of silence are added to allow our ears to breath.

‘Visible creatures are like a book in which we read the knowledge of God. One has every right to call God’s creatures God’s “works”, for they express the divine mind just as effects manifest their cause.’ Thomas Aquinas. Seeing the creatures, the creator is made visible. The created world is the thing we are ‘a part of’ – not ‘a part from’. In this expansive and edgy installation – the mirror, the bodiless mask, the shifting plates, the sanctuaries along the dark corridors, the stand-up feet – each element constructs a path and platform where one can consider one’s own place in the world, amongst all its existing mysteries.

During the Opening, someone filled in a BLOG sheet for my attention. Here is what was written about my performance art:

“I didn’t know if I can interact with the performer and the communication of the following reflection which is inviting but the mask distances this. What are the barriers of communication in the work and other possible areas?”

My response:

Thank you for writing this reflection! Feedback for an artist – like myself – whose art is conceptual and requires the viewer’s genuine input or puzzlement to open the discourse, is invaluable!

You have already grasped the answer to your own question. I think ‘the barriers’ are ‘the point’. 1) The mask is clearly an un-nerving barrier to the viewer. It suggests someone who is here but not available as the mask has no opening mouth. (However, some people did push in close anyway and asked me questions expecting a reply through the plastic. Interesting, eh?) The mask observes you observing the art. 2) The mirror held by ‘the mask’ is also a barrier. If you come close to it, you will find yourself reflected back to you. In fact, you are observing yourself observing the art. 3) Not displaying ‘the obvious’ usual motifs (skull, fire, garbage) of environmental issues is also a barrier. Viewers need to think for themselves. 4) The bodiless feet are also a barrier to communication as their message is unclear. Again, viewers need to think for themselves.

I think ‘the barriers’ are ‘the point’. People are used to being ‘in charge’ and understanding things intellectually. This exhibition suggests other voices in the disciurse. Viewers are tipped out of their comfort zones to be led gently but firmly, given a chance to think about the world and its creatures. Here, intrigue through another’s voice prevails. Environmental issues are not black and white, are they?

Immerse chose to hold the Opening of the entire project at The 1812 Theatre from 7:30 to 9pm. There were speakers from the Council and a few Art Prizes awarded. Light supper and drinks were provided for the group of exhibiting artists and their support groups. Plenty of the partakers made their way – nervously – down the dark corridors of HABITAT. The disquieting soundscape keyed their ears. They were mesmerized by the eerie blue-lit display they encountered. Soooo powerful is the lighting (what a brilliant idea for Robin to use the black lighting tubes!), audio and visuals on/in HABITAT that many people came through several times in Saturday night and stayed a long time!! One person said he kept returning as he loved being in the space! Two women stayed chatting and pointing for twenty (20) minutes!

KEY WORDS: Environmental Conversation, QR Codes, Creative Thinking for our Time, Pattern and Design, Spirituality in the Everyday, Interactive, Non-traditional mediums

EXHIBITION Description: Various sculptural and wall-mounted objects – including 44 legs; several long cloth panels arranged as a floor-based installation; 3D found objects altered for intrigue; various presentations of QR Codes as fine art; seven (7) large cloth panels of precision, performance art and more.

Blog;http://myblog.flossiepeitsch.com/

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Email : flossie.peitsch@gmail.com
Website: http://flossiepeitsch.com/

PhD, 2007, Victoria University; MFA, Monash University, 2003; BFA (Hons), Monash University 2000; Fellow of the Royal South Australian Society of the Arts

Dr. Flossie Peitsch, a Creative Thesis PhD from Victoria University and MFA, BFA(HONS) from Monash University, Melbourne, is a much sought after conference keynote speaker, internationally exhibiting multimedia, performance art, and installation artist residing in Australia . A cross-disciplinary artist, community liaison, academic and art educator, Peitsch is a ‘visual art’ theologian with interests in social sculpture, generating creative communities through the arts and contemporary spirituality facilitating the self-realization of being.

Her outstanding commissions for public and community art found in Melbourne’s challenged western suburbs and now, the Illawarra of NSW are projects noted for their expansion of the definition of Fine Art – many largely having been fabricated through free public art workshops.

THE IMMORTAL NOW: Visualizing the Place Where Spirituality and Today’s Families Meet, the Fine Art PhD exegesis supported by five (5) galleries of Fine Art production is the research which led to the notion of SPLACE. The precipitating questions are ‘Where am I? Why am I here? Who am I?’ where one begins to construct meaning within the interior self. Not finding a satisfactory term to name this important site led Peitsch to construct a new term, contracting the words place and space to become – SPLACE.

Immerse Catalogue Text

HABITAT: Not Black and White is an edgy new installation of art by local artist Flossie Peitsch. She is a PhD in Visual Art, holding a MFA, BFA(HONS) from Melbourne. Peitsch’s career – internationally exhibiting multimedia, performance, and interdisciplinary art – has interests in social sculpture, facilitating the self-realization of being. HABITAT – whose 44 footed legs relate to the nearby ‘1,000 stepped walk commemorating the Kokoda Trail’ explores the global environment as a major site of exchange. The anomalous perspective may be that view as seen by a ‘lower’ creature, a dog perhaps, who as most people, know does not see colour.   Peitsch has exhibited internationally in multimedia, performance, and in interdisciplinary art and has extensive academic history and qualifications. She has interests in social sculpture, recently facilitating the self-realization of being.

Vote for your favourite artist…maybe me? https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ImmerseArtists2016

A Knox City Council Initiative

30 exhibitions; 30 Venues; 30 Days

November 12th – December 12^th, 2016

FLOSSIE PEITSCH

  HABITAT: Not White and Black

   IMMERSE @ 1812 BAKERY THEATRE

   Curator: Jeannie Mueller

http://www.knox.vic.gov.au/immerse