On October 5th, I participated in my first public performance at ACCA for its opening exhibition “Power to the People: Contemporary Conceptualism & Object in Art”. I was one of the 20 people, most of which were VCA students, who performed in Roman Ondak’s work, Resistance. The performance lasted 30 minutes in Gallery 1, where we stood in small groups, socialising with our shoes untied. At the end of the performance, we all collectively tied our laces up.
During the performance, we observed for visitors reactions. One woman walked by, stared at our feet, and smiled. I saw her in the lobby after the performance and asked her what she thought of it. She said she felt so proud of herself for having noticed it.
I liked the idea of having been involved in a performance that what kept secret from the public. Ondak’s work “consists of subtle interventions into sociocultural structures, which denote processes in society that are often outside of direct public visibility” (Kontakt gallery). Resistance was about questioning social behaviours and our perception of them. I wonder how many people noticed.