Study for Durational Performance (Occupy LA)

Study for Durational Performance (Occupy LA), 2011
3-hour live performance with 60 feet of fabric

At the entrance to City Hall, CamLab stood at both ends of the fabric expanse, inviting passers-by to cut their own head holes and occupy it with us. While we stood together, many different kinds of conversations materialized, from the private and personal to impromptu televised interviews.

Try-Relational Feedback

Try-Relational Feedback, 2011
handmade soft sculpture, borrowed bedroom, monitor, chairs, blankets, coffee table, plant, beers, magazines, tequila

CamLab related to and through a handmade soft sculpture while sequestered in a private bedroom, with the live feed playing to viewers on a monitor in a den-like 'hang-out' room nearby. The durational broadcast cultivated psychological space generated from pleasurable embodiment, indulgent role-play, and intimate speech.

Press.

Gathered in a Clearing

Gathered in a Clearing, a group show curated by CamLab at LEVEL in Brisbane, Australia, February 5-25, 2011.
With work by:
Andrea Bowers
Leslie Dick
Alexis Disselkoen
Candice Lin
Elana Mann
Wendy Mason
Gina Osterloh
Louisa Van Leer

Wholly Well

Wholly Well, 2010
sewn vagina, glassware, plastic, cards, coins
8' in diameter

Visitors were invited to throw coins into the glasses, vases, and bowls in an effort to make our wishes come true. The concentric folds of the quilted rug echoed the circular architecture of the "The Onion" (Church of the Sepulveda Unitarian Universalist Society, North Hills).

Press.

Gentle Extended Performance

Gentle Extended Performance, 2008 and ongoing

performance documentation

In this performance, CamLab invites one person at a time to put her/his head through the third hole in the costume in order to have her/his hair "combed" by the hands of CamLab. Each person who participates signs the costume afterwards. The lightweight fabric garment is extremely mobile, allowing CamLab to stage the performance virtually anywhere. It was initially developed for the Anarchist Bookfair at the Southern California Library for Social Research in Los Angeles, and will continue to be performed until there is no available signing space left on the costume.

Bagism

Bagism, 2010
performance with bag, microphone, and amp

In the tradition of John and Yoko, CamLab entered a bag and took questions from the audience. Topics ranged from existential to everyday. The bag facilitated CamLab's enactment of a variety of voices.

Press.

Dear Poi...

Dear Poi, At the end of our summer residency in Chicago, we planned to have our long hair fully braided together so we would live co-joined for the last 24 hours we were with each other, after which we’d cut off Anna’s hair so Jemima would wear it back to Australia. As we researched in preparation, we came across fetish websites devoted to amateur photography of women with extremely long hair. Often the visceral prominence of the hair in the images began to form another body. One photo that made us laugh was of a guy masturbating using a woman’s long hair. In the end we didn’t end up making our ‘hair work’ because it was too psychological for us to handle at that point in time. However, the project is still very much on our minds. Love, CamLab, 2010
digital photograph

A Day in the Studio (Viewer as Relational Object)

A Day in the Studio (Viewer as Relational Object), 2009
digital print, 40” x 30”

To Do To

To Do To, 2009
xerox wallpaper
dimensions variable (8.5” x 11” paper)

Speaker's Mound for Internalized Research

Speakers’ Mound for Internalized Research, 2009
microphone, amp, research binder, all our clothing
dimensions variable

Visitors were invited to step up to the sculpture to read aloud from the research binder provided. The documents explored “psychoness” and were gathered from various sources including CamLab’s personal archive.

Recessional Objects (for Demonstration)

Recessional Objects (for Demonstration), 2009
performance with glass, spectacles, plastic jewelry, lampshades, clothing, shoes
“New Shapes” soundtrack for performance by Josh Mannis

During the course of the exhibition opening for Emodes of Research, CamLab performed six 6-minute demonstrations of relational objects made from found materials. The performances took place in the “Night Alcove,” while the objects themselves were displayed in the gallery’s other (unmodified) recess.

Emodes of Research Press Release

Emodes of Research Press Release, 2009

Press.

Whip What Stat

Whip What Stat (video still), 2009
performance for video
dvd, 9:01 minutes looped

A performance for video that took place on a temporary stage in the woods. The two performers began by tying their hair together, then pulled apart until separated. The remainder of the performance consisted of the pair taking turns whipping each other with their hair.

Social Sculpture

Social Sculpture, 2009
secondhand clothing purchased in Bridgeport, thread, rope

Constructed out of secondhand clothing sewn together into a piece of provisional architecture for visitors to inhabit throughout the evening. This conglomeration of clothing linked participants’ bodies and forged intimacy. The asymmetrical web of everyday attire wove its way through the architecture of the backyard. While the sculpture had a domestic logic visible even without inhabitants, the work was completed through embodiment and the social interactions that resulted from these material parameters.

Things That Have Once Been in Contact

Things That Have Once Been in Contact, 2009
performance documentation

Using a 45’ expanse of fabric that extends between CamLab's bodies, this live performance made the gallery’s presence in its surrounding neighborhood visible. While inhabiting the ephemeral architecture, CamLab’s “duologue” functioned as a meta-narrative that theorized the performance as it unfolded. Consisting of texts both found and composed, topics included architectural theory, feminism in popular culture, and walking under umbrellas in the rain. The hermetic back-and-forth across the length of flapping (in the wind) fabric continually took its cues from the physical realities of the situation.

Selfy with the Whites of Our Eyes Black with Eyeliner (Bridgeport)

Selfy with the Whites of Our Eyes Black with Eyeliner (Bridgeport), 2009
digital photograph

Either/And

Either/And, 2009

11” x 17” take-home flier
Either/And Example Wall (Try Hard! Get Wet!), 2009
10’ x 10’ installation

A double-sided 11” x 17” xeroxed flyer that uses two previously completed CamLab drawings. One side is a copy of Houndstooth Cameltoe (2005); the other, Futurescher Butterknuckle (2009). Both images use patterned fabric to articulate genitalia. Although each image originated as a drawing, we present them as an easily reproducible graphic for visitors to take home or distribute at their discretion. In the gallery we assembled a demonstration wall as an example of how the fliers might look en masse, in different combinations, or customized for specific environments.

Butterescher Pencil-Pusher

Butterescher Pencil-Pusher, 2009
dvd, 5:00 minutes looped

A looped video work that presents male genitalia clad in futuristic patterned fabric. The rise and fall of the penis in this work gives the viewer an opportunity to both meditate and scrutinize. The banal special effects and ubiquitous reference to Euclidian space produce a crude depiction of an event not typically represented in popular media. The video’s singular focus on this readymade narrative intends to produce a complex illusionary experience that implicates the viewer in a bodily way.

Check Out Spoonerism

Check Out Spoonerism, 2009

circulating suit (hand-drawn fabric, thread and boning)

CamLab used hand-drawn fabric to create a suit that is available for gallery visitors to take out of the gallery for up to three days at a time in order to perform with it. When not in use, the suit hangs on the wall at ThreeWalls, acting as a kind of 3-d drawing. Each participant agrees to document their performance with a photo, which will then be added to the collection of images posted near the costume.

Clongloberation

Clongloberation, 2009

circulating suit (secondhand clothing, thread, spraypaint)
Performances by (from top to bottom):
Deirdre McConnell and John Passmore, Untitled; Leopold Lincoln and Cunt, Hazardous Materials; Alice Cunt and Roller Monkey, Conjunctiondysfunction (photo Hector Torres); Theda Techopichetwongsa and Hector Torres, diaspOrganism (photo Elizabeth Mireles)

Temporarily separated--living in Brisbane and Los Angeles--each half of CamLab created one half of the suit, which was then sutured together in LA and handed off to the project’s first performer, Brian Getnick. He was invited to engage with the suit, which requires two bodies to fill it. He documented his performance with a photograph, then chose the next participant to receive the suit. The architectural garment is passed from participant to participant, each one extending his or her inclusion in the project to another person of their choosing. The suit continues to circulate.

From Brain to Labia and Back Again

From Brain to Labia and Back Again, 2008
performance documentation

After being apart for over a year, CamLab edited the emails they sent back and forth to each other during that period into a non-linear, seemingly multi-voiced text. As one member of CamLab read an excerpt, she was hugged tightly by the other, after which the hugger became the reader. The back-and-forth duologue continued for the duration of the 20-minute reading.

Studies for Durational Performances

Studies for durational performances, 2009
(Beach, Ox-Bow)
(Lookout at Straight Vert)
(Coyote Mountain)
digital photos

Using graphically patterned expanses of fabric 60’ long, we map the space between our bodies and various landscapes.

Swoon Soon Suit

Swoon Soon Suit, 2008 and ongoing
performance documentation

This three-chambered suit is designed to be occupied by CamLab and one or two other people at a time. Viewers are invited to zip themselves into the middle section in order to participate in a "non-verbal exchange". The internal walls are quilted with tactile fabrics that incorporate slits and tubes to facilitate the exchanges between chambers. Swoon Soon Suit premiered at a performance night at Los Angeles' oldest drag bar, the Silver Platter. Subsequently CamLab staged a more durational performance with the suit in Mandarin Plaza, Chinatown, Los Angeles.

No News is News No Better

No News is News No Better, 2008

performance documentation

Performed between LA and Brisbane on November 4, 2008, Jemima phoned Anna from Australia, where it was November 5, and read a newspaper article on the subject of the US presidential election in its entirety. Anna relayed the article to the LA audience line-by-line as Jade Thacker transcribed the transmission onto multiple large sheets of paper. During the duration of the 40-minute performance, John McCain conceded the election.

Our Mark, Their Mark

Our Mark, Their Mark, 2007
performance documentation

A site-specific work for a gallery space that exists on the bodies of another LA-based collaborative duo, John Barlog and John Burtle, each of whom has a rectangle frame tattooed on his forearm.

Pillow Talk Foreplay with Blue Skies and Scissors

Pillow Talk Foreplay with Blue Skies and Scissors, 2007
performance documentation

A 6-hour performance on a bed placed by CamLab in the dining room of 29025 Eveningside Drive, Val Verde, CA. CamLab modified various participants' clothing using swatches of fabric cut from the bed's duvet cover. The physical proximity achieved during the process of sitting on the bed with participants and hand-sewing their clothing allowed for intimate conversations and non-verbal exchanges.

Apex Cryptophores: Critical Field Craft

Apex Cryptophores: Critical Field Craft (production stills and video still), 2007
dvd, 4:30 minutes looped
Apex Cryptophores: Critical Field Craft (installation shot), 2007

The video consists of footage of two identical creatures moving through various idyllic landscapes interspersed with talking-head broadcasts from frustrated hunters. Originally it was shown on a monitor placed on the two pelts made from fabric and nets that were used as costumes for the video.