Photo: Yi-Hsin Tzeng
Stuart Horodner
Several years ago I curated an exhibition called Walk Ways. It included Hamish Fulton, Francis Alys, Janet Cardiff, and other artists who examine walking as a rich activity linked to thinking, cities and nature, activism, leisure, etc. Your recent walking performances in Atlanta intrigue me. What prompted them?
Aerge to Walk, — is inspired by a few of the precedents you mention and they continue to inform me as I continue to develop my own language of walking. Aerge is the “act of plunging into an immediate environment, with an awareness of time and mental state of a special quality separate from everyday life”. In Atlanta, there is not much walking for the sheer enjoyment, or need, the car rules the built environment in this city.
Which means that one rarely enjoys the freedom to encounter the real textures of the city—places, people, the surface of things.
There is no flirting, no subtle observations and casual social interaction in a car with the environment around you, you are contained. With walking, the physical form of the body elaborates on the mantra of “form follows function here” It is in this sense that moving forward with a stride, a gait, the stance and start of walking hints to a human endurance, a primal function of moving forward – in this sense the physicality of the act of walking from point A to Point Z.
Photo: Yi-Hsin Tzeng
How did you decide to use color as a key element of the walks?
The performance pieces initially sought to examine the idea of walking as a subtle activity of endurance, a physical and performative drawing process in the city spaces of Atlanta. I am interested in marking or drawing with color as a memory with monochromatic charges of color for the observers, mainly those who drive by in cars. The use of color is a statement of action and immediacy, and will mark the space. Do you have to know its art in progress? No, rather the blur of red, a snippet of blue or a slow moving figure of yellow – all in one color ensemble creates a moment in mind, that people can wonder, cause attention to the act as a performance, or create a new memory of that location while in progress. It is fascinating to note over three days of walking I only encountered about 19 pedestrians total…another topic on itself!
Yes. Since the South is often understood as a storytelling culture, it may be that people noticed you and told someone later on. “You know, I saw this dude walking down the street…” No matter who noticed and what they thought, you gave yourself these experiences. What did you learn through the process?
Atlanta, is the center of hysterical post modern city planning! Such an odd sense of disconnection, awkward zoning and self conscious design. Walking from Center Point along Buford Highway was the most fascinating, people honked car horns, people waved, there was a sense of open spirit and this for me created the much talked about, and often missing “sense of place” in the built world. Stopping along the way, talking with people was great, and people who you think are not interested in “ART” or care about it, actually “get it” and want to contribute in some way or are encouraging. This was inspiring. At times the pace was slow, other times it was more clipped and quick, the constant was a slight dream state, the noise of traffic, the uneven walking surfaces became a new mantra of a site specific experience within a self mandated art context. Marking place with memory is personal, quiet and an interesting private activity in the public realm.
The piece became very much about social mapping, my connecting, or trying to connect with the city and its geography. Some people assumed I was absolutely insane, dressed head to toe in one color, while others seemed to acknowledge the celebration of color and the fact that I was walking was a ritual of some type, and a cause to comment, or to smile. This is interesting to me. There were many stops along the away, it is through this that new stories, new ideas, new experiences of “my” Atlanta has changed.
I like this notion of actions that become part of the memory of a place. Bruce Chatwin examines this in his classic book, The Songlines. I wonder about the numerous Atlanta sites and histories that go un-recognized and un-felt because not enough people are walking them, knowing them with their bodies.
SK
This is interesting Stuart, as I have been fascinated by the historic markers here in “The South”, they remind us of such epic events as The Battle of Atlanta, Sherman’s March to the Sea, Peachtree Battle and other epic Civil War based actions. On the walk up Buford Highway I noticed there are three such markers hidden amongst the overgrown brush marking a history that I deem is largely forgotten or foreign to the current culture? In the vein of Chatwin looking at the Aboriginal culture and the act of “dreaming” while in motion on foot, this is a celebration of place, a rite of meditation as a true relational aesthetic before the buzz began! My walking piece in Atlanta seeks to examine and create a personal story while simultaneously claiming a place.
Filed under: Interview, Aerge to Walk, Atlanta, —, Stuart Horodner, Stuart Keeler, walking
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