Worktable

Worktable
Festival of Live Art. Arts House, North Melbourne Town Hall. March 14 – 25, 2018

Worktable is a new participatory live art installation by Kate McIntosh and is part of  the Live Art Festival from 14-25 March at the Arts House, North Melbourne Town Hall.

As part of the test audience for the new show I feel at ease to say it was quite an inner exploratory adventure. The workstation ambience had a pensive atmosphere. Worktable is an active, creative, meditative and or destructive participatory exploration of live installation.

The installation unfolds in a series of rooms. As an active player in this hands on creation at Worktable, I was required to choose one of the many everyday domestic objects that sit neatly on the shelves in the waiting room. I chose a small plastic bedside clock. I was ushered into the first workstation where l was to work alone and deconstruct my object with tools such as hammers, saws or scissors. I then entered workstation two to rebuild a different object with glue, tape and nails. I chose a deconstructed wooden musical box, and proceeded to build up by gluing together a new concept  - it would have made Marcel Duchamp proud. It was a solitary and reflective experience and l felt rather perturbed by the proccess as it could no longer be the same object but in the name of art l created my very own surreal masterpiece.

New Zealand born, Brussels based McIntosh is fixated on her own notion of the misuse of everyday objects and the playful interactiveness of inviting people to deconstruct and construct in a space that allows creative freedom.

As this was only a test run l am looking forward to returning to Worktable and also exploring other Live Art Shows at this year’s festival.

Flora Georgiou

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