Rural Utopias Residency: Tina Stefanou in Carnamah #6
AUDIO TRANSCRIPT
Mixed field notes from Amangu country, read from Crete, February 17 to March 30, 2023.
Back in Carnamah. Tired body. Grief gut. Neat streets after a searing hot day. Sweat builds, even under air-con bed. No performance here, just secretions.
Walking when the golden hours sings:
ping…dab…ba…summer seed, green shimmer purple…
a granular quiet, so much industry standing still.
The grain of this land intoxicating and laced with old hungry gods.
Out here in the face of mono crops, city CV inflation, agribusiness writing, and, reading begin to collapse[1]
*Silent silos
The relentless heat of a Western Australian summer insistently disrupts the writing of these field notes, provoking a question that smoulders at the back of my throat. My time here necessitates a peculiar merger, weaving my work with the cultural artefacts of the Art Gallery of Western Australia an imperative for the future exhibition.
But what can the treasure trove bring to the table? And how can the socialities of this place, transform the Art Gallery of Western Australia's State collection?
Inspired by Denise Ferreira da Silva's poet(h)ics, I propose a move away from typical constraints. Her approach urges us to liberate these encounters from the shackles of representation, and the legal and economic structures that rigidly maintain them. It contests the established practice of the Artist as a voice giver to: objects, locations, people, systems and beings, within a collection generating foreseeable or incidental, pastural or social connections.[2]
*A heavy ball drops on artificial lawn at Carnamah long balls club.
The agri aspect of agripoet(h)ics operates on dual levels. Firstly, it recognises the agricultural dimensions that shape our lives, codes, practices, and historicity, as well as the structural formations associated with value, statehood, globalisation and production. Secondly, it seeks to aggregate adjacently and agitate surreally those tendencies that govern selfhood across various realms of existence.
Commodities, like grain under this light, are not merely secondary products of social structures or methods of production, destined to be consumed or replaced by capital, instead, agripoet(h)ics reveals the inherent significance of relations in process, in motion, and “if tuned carefully, can become robust enough to grow and proliferate, proliferate through and beyond the institution.”[3]
Just as Roland Barthes famous, The Grain of the Voice[4], moves beyond discursive language — grain, identity, and wool represent aspects that exceed market relations, opening the space for the “reevaluation of value.”[5]
Rural Utopias Residency: Tina Stefanou in Carnamah #5
March 1st, 2023:
"I'm not suicidal, I'm homicidal," declares a man wearing a cochlear implant as he plonks himself opposite me. We are both savouring our medium-rare steaks on a Wednesday night at Carnamah Pub. Even the axolotls in the corner seem slightly unsettled by his remark. I relax into my body, trying not to invoke thoughts of the Australian Gothic. Shane, who openly identifies as a 'shit kicker', spends long days on farms digging holes for soil testing. Initially, he had difficulty understanding me, but as the meal progressed, he no longer needed me to repeat myself. His blue eyes and weathered skin are marked with countless stories. An ex-army veteran, now dealing with PTSD, he prefers working alone, enabling him to vent his violent moods without causing harm to others. In many ways, he reminds me of my cousin Nick, a closet philosopher dressed in Hi-Viz.
Rural Utopias Residency: Tina Stefanou in Carnamah #4
Dags, skin, and wool surround us and I feel a sense of bodily discomfort, as my nose begins to twitch and my eyes water. The image of a Madonna crying over the body of a lamb conjures a sense of mourning, a lament for the paradox inflicted upon these gentle creatures.
Open studio in Carnamah: Building a collective skin for the agribusiness dag.
Undisciplined Socialities and other offcuts
Bulletin Issue 71 (December 2022)
Bulletin Issue 71 is now available for download!
This issue was brought together by guest editor Tina Stefanou and features Kristina Susnjara, Juundaal Strang-Yettica, Selena de Carvalho, Kat Gaynor, Meera Rai and Lisa Salvo.
Contributors were invited to express what they want, without the constraint of any specific discourse or theme. The contents are undisciplined snapshots of people’s inner worlds and processes. As Tina notes, "Not a bouquet dominated by blossoms of rhetoric or a single demographic, but an offering of moments, from childhood musings to religious satire."
Issue 71 also plays with the structure of a publication—the editorial and colophon are tucked away in the middle, page numbers are removed and the front cover graces the front and the back. Dip in anywhere you like!
Link here: www.womensartregister.org/s/Bulletin_Issue-71_December-22_FA_Digital.pdf
Undisciplined Voices (Workshop for Hi-Viz Satellites with Chamber Made and Punctum Inc)
On the 19th of November, I was invited to host a workshop for the 2022 Hi-Viz program with Chamber Made, Punctum Inc and SAtheCollective. This event was taking place simultaneously across two locations in Bendigo and Singapore.
My proposition was: That we undress our practices together, to find a place of integrity and ease in our voices when we speak about what we do, how we do it and what comes next. Moving beyond professionalism or industry speak. How can we talk, act, sing, and move our practices into a planetary dimension? Which is always a collective project. How can the voice support that?
Documentation by photographer Diana Domonkos.
Hym(e)nals
Multi-Channel Immersive Equine Film and Sound Work ‘Hym(e)nals’ Debuts Melbourne Cup Week.
An imaginative counterpoint to the competitive sport 3rd-5th November at Mission to Seafarers.
Hym(e)nals is a new multi-channel immersive film and sound work by Greek-Australian sonic and visual artist Tina Stefanou, featuring six teenage female horse riders and their elderly equine companions. Premiering on the week of the Melbourne Cup from Thursday 3rd November till Saturday 5th November, the work will be projected on the Norla Dome ceiling at Mission To Seafarers, accompanied with live musical performances each night. Hym(e)nals both mimics and challenges themes in religious paintings, speaking to local ecologies and communities as well as current global events of female solidarity and equality, collective strength, and interspecies communication.
tickets at: https://events.humanitix.com/hym-e-nals
Field noting with Lou Cole and Tina Stefanou. August-Sept, 2022
Rural Utopias Residency: Tina Stefanou in Carnamah #1
Tina Stefanou is currently working with the community of Carnamah. This residency forms part of one of Spaced’s current programs, Rural Utopias.
Here, Tina shares an update from Carnamah.
Field noting with Lou Cole and Tina Stefanou. August-Sept, 2022:
Driving on red gravel roads in the Wild Flower West, Lou an emerging community-arts producer and Tina an emerging artist connect over living in fibro homes, family stories of factory work, and the murky waters of large-scale farming. They are also soaking up the temporary power of wildflowers, only grown in this region; these rare minor blooms provide relief from agribusiness landscapes. The following is a loose bundle of reflections and stories.
*the car radio is quietly playing commentary from New Zealand
Lou: Look look! Over there! A small splash of colour amongst the small native bush. It’s a Donkey Orchid! It’s only taken me ten years to finally see a wildflower!
Arriving in the North Midlands, the majority of my work has been seasonal, and heavily linked to farming (shearing sheds in particular) and agriculture.
Rise before the sun
Prepare a decent lunch, and carry water
Long days of fresh air and seductive rays
The never-ending waving of arms
“Shoofly!”
Return at dark again
I always make sure I know how far I am from the nearest shop just in case I get a chance to pick up and refresh the stocks.
As long as I keep a decent supply of:
Noodles
Canned tuna
Tea bags
Long-life milk
When you are so far away from so-called “civilization” most other things are a luxury.
When I first encountered the wildflowers, I thought I was looking at snow. White Everlastings carpeted the ground for kilometres and kilometres. There for a moment, gone again, just as the snow evaporates.
Today, we may have taken a couple of wrong turns, but we finally found the infamous Wreath Flower. Fully formed and blooming. A small triumph.
*Tina starts clapping
Tina: How do I approach the truck divers? A local shared with me that even the small arts community space in town can feel exclusive.
*A voice appears on the two-way radio, its channel 40. “Sue, can you tell Martin to close the gate.”
Tina: Canola! Liquid gold. My eyes hurt.
Lou: The rolling burn of yellow. Money sure does grow in paddocks around here.
You should look at the statistics on how many millionaires live in this area.
How poor is poor? How rich is rich?
*Lou begins to reflect on her question as she checks the rearview mirror
Are you going without the things you normally have?
Like your phone? Food? Electricity? Internet?
Is your struggle one where you’ve got car problems?
Or not having a car? More likely, not having a license?
Is poverty affecting the way you think about money?
Have you had to make life changes to adapt to poverty?
Maybe you don’t have money, to begin with?
Each one of us takes away a different Taonga (treasure) from what we experience.
I think it is important that we take time to understand other people’s situations, and the enormity of their problems, we need to see it from their shoes or hands or eyes or ears or hooves.
*Tina nods three times
Hardships were never ending in my family, no housing, no car, no electricity, and little to no food. These were regularly occurring events growing up.
Coming to Australia is a huge cycle breaker for those of us that make the sacrifice of leaving behind all we know, and the things we love the most.
Struggling was the way we survived. It’s not easy when the average, yearly household income in your suburb is $18,000. When statistics are stacked against you, the narrative that applies to you is you’ll always be stuck in this cycle of crime, poverty, and abuse.
You put more effort into striving for excellence, always finding a solution, and you step into a state of fearlessness. You realise you have nothing to lose. The only way is forward or….
.
Babushkarism: Grandmother's Started the Revolution
Talk on the Art Smitten Podcast and SYN fm radio program with Christina Ulloa Sobarzo about the 67th Blake Prize.
On the Holding of Spaces for Essaying Into By Melody Ellis, Andy Jackson, Tina Stefanou, Peta Murray and Khalid Warsame |
This essay was made, variously, on unceded Boon Wurrung, Waddawurrung, Dja Dja Wurrung, and Wurundjeri Country. We extend our respects to the ancestors and Elders of these lands as well as to the custodians of the land and waters across Australia more broadly.
A version of this piece was performed as part of the non/fictionLab Public Forum Series on Thursday, 26 August 2021. Together, we, the writers and makers of this text, bring practices in and across poetry, essay writing, theatre, sonic and visual arts towards the essayesque.
This essay was made, variously, on unceded Boon Wurrung, Waddawurrung, Dja Dja Wurrung, and Wurundjeri Country. We extend our respects to the ancestors and Elders of these lands as well as to the custodians of the land and waters across Australia more broadly.
A version of this piece was performed as part of the non/fictionLab Public Forum Series on Thursday, 26 August 2021. Together, we, the writers and makers of this text, bring practices in and across poetry, essay writing, theatre, sonic and visual arts towards the essayesque.
Tina
Feels like the world is drooping, sinking, choking, crying, stuck … I’m not heading into a
lament here. Although I feel like from my safety perch with an audience to witness, I hear
millions of voices wailing. This isn’t some convenient metaphor that writers and art
producers use to convey some sort of empathetic credit. All the cv fodder, clever
vaniculations – not sure if being this cynical is helpful but how do we not criticise our own
milieus.
Language nauseates me. Trying to make the sentences fit, some ppl call it craft. Sometimes I
hear it as classist and neurotypical tongues. I feel stuck in between writing-as-power to
writing-as-market protocol as personal fluffing. We (lets omit pronouns ‘we’ and ‘us’) can
still be affirmative in amongst this planetary hospice. I think creative action with others is a
respite. Artist-as-world rather than self–diagnosed extraordinaire.
Shifting through the narrow Universal as humaversal, imagine there was a universal right to breathe. With a large number of people dying of chronic and severe illness in the world – these are the Mn(p)ne(u)monic songs of the contemporary condition. It feels as if this current planetary epoch of relative wellness (I am thinking about the last 10,000 years) is a memory in the making. What are we (this we being us on the page right now and the reader) writing into-reading into? How can writing twirl itself into more-than-market possibilities of sharing stories (rather than more website dressage – circulating within the vacuum of a pat-on-the-back arts culture) embroiled in living states and dying states – where being undone is inevitable and celebrated. Where the creative act is always-in-action and you are just the participant.
In the beginning (never a beginning – only a middle) there was creativity … and creativity created the Catholic church! (Not many people know this, but Alfred North Whitehead belonged to a collective of heavy metal singers in the 30s who began each rehearsal chanting this very saying).
*wax on bubble wrap
Unheard Relations: Thembi Soddell, Tina Stefanou, Xen Nhà, A Hanley and Joel Stern
The following dialogue — between artists Thembi Soddell, Tina Stefanou, Xen Nhà, and A Hanley, and curator Joel Stern — took place across WhatsApp, Zoom, and Google Docs in November 2020. The purpose was to explore and develop common threads in each artist’s practice, which might inform the preparation for the as-of-the-time-unrealised contributions to Liquid Architecture’s program at McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery as part of the exhibition Site & Sound. As such, this text has a provisional, speculative quality, serving as an introduction of the artists to one another, and the reader, as well as an articulation of possible directions for the work to come. By the time this text is published and circulated, the commissioned audio pieces will have also been realised. In that sense, we are writing for future readers, including ourselves, with a more complete understanding of what we mean to say.
The song ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’ is playing on the radio in the back of the room — it begins to distort.
(Tina Stefanou)
There is an opportunity to explore the implications of the ‘heard’, the relationship of sound to the listener, and the sonic agencies that point to ‘something’ beyond human perception. For me, ‘the self’ is a multiplicity (the phrase ‘ecologies of selves’ tickles her right ear), there is social and artistic value in giving voice to these multiple states.
(Thembi Soddell)
I often think about how people’s personalities are known to just be a mix of the five or six people we spend the most time with.
A round of applause echoes from the local stadium.
(Tina Stefanou)
(laughs) This makes me think how my chooks and doggy are the five ‘persons’ I have spent the most time with these past months and what that means for my human relations. Moving beyond human exceptionalism, there is a subjectivity of relational interdependence with other-than-humans. I think in terms of more-than-human subjectivity, where the isolating weight of humanism is transformed, ‘feeling into’ those interdependencies — the polyphonic self is always more-than-one, always a process-on-its way, always being-with-others — regardless of what you make.
Tina begins moving her head, mimicking one of her chooks and growling in a canine-like fashion — Thembi joins her.
Excerpt: 002# Manifesting Voice: 34+ Mn(p)ne(u)monic Actions
002# Manifesting Voice: 34+ Mn(p)ne(u)monic Actions, 2021, video documentation of live action, artist-as-avatar, 14 mins.
‘Mimesis got your tongue’
002# Manifesting Voice: 34+ Mn(p)ne(u)monic Actions is a more-than ensounding event. It is both personal and public and acts as a
political engine and loving disruption. Dissolving words into geo and biophonic murmurings, shifts language from a human culturally
encoded position into a Mn(p)ne(u)monic voice. Mn(p)ne(u)monic becoming memory and breath in relational motion.
Singing-with mother tongues across biological and the more-than brings grief into skillfulness. Poethical gestures and vocal associations reflect what it means to live in a time of limited elderhood and planetary commons.
‘Voice-as-urgency’
This work was presented at the 2021 COVA Memory Conference, University of Melbourne.
Featuring: Artist-as-Avatar Sophie Stefanou
*hummmmm ahhh ohhhhhhhhh slipt tone
voice is not individual
voice includes the whole body and everybody
nerves, tissues, bones and spaces
voice is not specialised
voice is not soprano, instrument, orator or lecturer
*ahhhhhh eiiiiiii
voice is flexible
voice is volcanoes
voice is affected by the market
but is not the market
voice is neither the knower or the known
voice is not god
voice is not total
voice is not self-sufficient
voice is not an ideal
voice is not evaluation
voice is not contained yet it contains socio-economic, biological and cultural realties
voice is not object, form or content
voice is not type A
voice is not administrated
voice is not cleverness
is not edited
*aaaaaaahhhhhheiiiiiiiiiyyyyyyooooopig noises
voice is polyphonic subject making
voice is not one
voice is repetition
voice as activities
voice is crafted out of ecologies of practices and never primarily human
voice contains the all-too-human
voice as life-living
voice as the voice-less
voice as shifting law
voice determines its own reason…
*kkakakakakakakkakaahhhhhhhhhhhh