This is the primed canvas belonging to primed canvas (Naples yellow) included here to give some idea of the sculptuation.
Size: small
-
Negative space.1
Encyclopaedia of hidden messages
The undercover intelligence agent looked for the secret message code name negative space hidden
here, somewhere, but couldn’t find it.
– chair -
poster: a sculptural situation (drawn in)
a SCULPTURAL SITUATION by gail hastings
Goddard de Fiddes Gallery
7 July to 29 July 2000
31 Malcolm Street, Perth, Western Australia[Imprinted in fine print on the left]
Issued by the Bureau of Sculptural Situations, including tricky ones, as an edition of 150 -
a sculptural situation, drawn in
Encyclopaedia of a Tricky Situation
– Half a desk — on which rests some drawing paper for planning a bridge over the strawberry field from paths blue to orange. And yet, there are no pencils
– pencils, ruler and set square on the desk, but no paper
– br room
– idge room
– cd player on: pianist Clara Haskil playing, drawing us in, a Mozart concerto
– a strawberry field without passage from paths orange to blue
– path blue
– silently saying: a poster on the wall, a situation somewhere -
Untitled discussion no. 4
Chairs part of family room in which gallery installed sculptuation, San Francisco
Encyclopaedia of Missing Art
I was looking at the yellow monochrome below when a square part of it went missing. I asked a passing Art Authority if they had seen the missing part anywhere, and they had, but as an handbag resting on a chair close-by. What sort of qualifications do Art Authorities receive these days? Although the difference between an ‘art’ object and a ‘real life’ object[floor plan]
has now disappeared, surely the difference between the two and three dimensions remains.
For the sake of sanity I did not inspect the chair and so now report that on this day [Tuesday 3-2-98] and at this hour [5:06pm] , a part of the above monochrome continues, albeit regrettably and due to no fault of my own, to be ‘missing’.
~page 3~[floor plan details]
– chairs for leaving handbags on
– counter for registering found handbags
– staff only
– Lost & Found Handbag Department
– storage walls for hanging up lost handbags
===
– desk for the occasional cross-referencing between departments
===
– Incomplete Monochrome Department
– storage walls for hanging monochromes with missing parts
– staff only
– counter for registering incomplete monochromes
– chairs where Art Authorities sometimes sit -
site specific art pattern no. 21
at home in a private collection, Düsseldorf
The collectors kindly enacted the sculptural situation by adopting its specific placement
ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF SITE SPECIFIC ART
A secret agent from the Site Specific Bureau has been given the job of locating the missing part of the contemporary art pattern no. 21, below. Disguised as an artist, the agent one day joined our art discussion group hoping, I believe, that I might reveal something about the part’s fatal disappearance as I was one of the few who worked on its overall pattern. In the middle of a heated discussion on the passionate weirdness of contemporary art today, the secret agent cunningly diverted[floor plan]
missing part
the group’s attention to the moment I last saw the art pattern no. 21 complete. “Regrettably”, I replied “this knowledge is lost in some missing room of my memory, but I do recall something about looking at a tree through a window”. Everyone laughed at this, the secret agent the loudest, and asked what possible relevance could a tree seen through a window have to this contemporary art pattern. I took a gamble and replied “the specificness of real life” which, annoyingly, made them laugh louder. Yet I did notice the secret agent secretly write this down, ending with, as they do, the time [11:17 am] and the date [Mon. 20-10-97] .[floor plan]
missing part
– window through which can be seen a tree
– couch
– missing room -
Encyclopaedia of Ideas in Art
Encyclopaedia of Ideas in Art
To see and thus complete the idea hidden behind this work of contemporary art, select one of the four objects below labelled I., D., E. and A.. Hold it above the following page 206. Close your eyes, think of something you once lost and let the object haphazardly fall. Open your eyes, see how it has fallen and ask someone the time [12:26 pm] and date [22 April 1997] . Now take this lost and fallen object of I. D. E. A. and hang it on the following piece of wall. You have now revealed and thus completed the idea behind this work of contemporary art.
————page 25——— -
Encyclopaedia of Time in Art: pp. 34–36
Encyclopaedia of Time in Art
To find the time in this work of art, enter a room in which the air is warm and listen to the soft noise from outside.While listening, hold a pen above the grid on page 35, close your eyes and let your hand fall. Open you eyes and note the time and date of this fallen mark, on page 36.
~34~
[floor plan details]
– room of warm air;
– shelves of books on atmospheric conditions;
– books containing conversations about the weather;
– table with fan;
– windows.—————
Encyclopaedia of Time in Art
~35~
—————
Encyclopaedia of Time in Art
At the moment your hand fell and marked the part of the grid below, the time in this work of art was found.In completing the instructions from page 28, please note here this moment’s:
time ____[7:24pm]_____ and date ___[Monday, 12 February ’96]______________ .~36~
[floor plan details]
– room for loosing words;
– part D of an artwork;
– room for finding time;
– table for noting the time and date;
– wall seat;
– part A of an artwork.
[nb: ‘loosing’ should be ‘losing’] -
36 pages about time: pp. 28–30
Encyclopaedia of Time in Art
To find the time in this work of art, enter a room in which there is a dining table and think of your last swim in the pool.With this swim in mind, hold a pen above the grid on page 29, close your eyes and let your hand fall. Open you eyes and note the time and date of this fallen mark, on page 30.
~28~
[floor plan details]
– room with dining table;
– entrance for half of the dinner guests;
– entrance for the other half.—————
Encyclopaedia of Time in Art
~29~
—————
Encyclopaedia of Time in Art
At the moment your hand fell and marked the part of the grid below, the time in this work of art was found.In completing the instructions from page 28, please note here this moment’s:
time [10:06pm] and date [Saturday, 10 February ’96] .~30~
[floor plan details]
– room for chance in the passages of water and words;
– window;
– table for noting the time and date;
– book shelves. -
Encyclopaedia at the Heart of Art: 3–24 October
Encyclopaedia at the Heart of Art
To find the heart in this work of art, share a packet of 15 bonbons with friends and eat all but one.
Return the remaining bonbon to the packet and adhere it to the blue square above. Take note of when the first and second-last hearts were taken.
page 9
Encyclopaedia at the Heart of Art
And now to be at the heart of this work of art, please complete the information below.
The first heart was shared on [Tuesday, 3 October 1995] leaving the remaining heart on [Tuesday 24 October 1995]
page 8
- table
- couch
- plate on which the Jois Coeurs bonbons were served to friends
- Look – O – Look art gallery
(heart exhibition currently showing) - shelves for storing the red volumes of the Encyclopaedia
- yellow volumes
- blue volumes
- shelves for the recorded dimensions and changing shades of hearts
- chair
- table for writing the dates of the taken hearts
- shelves containing Geometric Abstraction exhibition catalogues and books
- storage room for 15 (minus 14) hearts
-
Encyclopaedia for writing the time 12:40 pm Saturday 30 September 1995
Encyclopaedia for writing the time
Table, empty, for writing the time
page (the time) [12:40 pm Sat 30th Sept ’95]
- ledger for recording lost time
-
Encyclopaedia of Unseen Time: 9.08 pm
Encyclopaedia of Unseen Time
To select the colours for this watercolour wait until night, turn out the light and draw out from the watercolour box three watercolours.Turn on the light and note down the page number as the time now seen. Repeat the above guidelines two times more and complete two further watercolours.
page Wednesday 26th Sept ’95, 9.08pm
-
Encyclopaedia of Unseen Time: 8.44 pm
Encyclopaedia of Unseen Time
To select the colours for this watercolour wait until night, turn out the light and draw out from the watercolour box three watercolours.Turn on the light and note down the page number as the time now seen. Repeat the above guidelines two times more and complete two further watercolours.
page Tuesday 26th Sept ’95, 8.44pm
-
Encyclopaedia of Unseen Time: 9.27 pm
Encyclopaedia of Unseen Time
To select the colours for this watercolour wait until night, turn out the light and draw out from the watercolour box three watercolours.Turn on the light and note down the page number as the time now seen. Repeat the above guidelines two times more and complete two further watercolours.
page Monday 25th Sept ’95, 9.27pm
-
Missing Rooms, ‘Collins Street’, 5 pm
<p><strong>Encyclopaedia of Missing Rooms<br /> </strong>What about if we meet outside the bank in <i>Collins Street, 5pm</i> and I’ll tell you about how the movie ends.</p> <p>page 5</p> <p><strong>Encyclopaedia of Missing Rooms<br /> </strong>Sure – except – that bank isn’t in Collins Street, it’s 137-139 Flinders Lane.</p> <p>Page 5</p> <p><strong>Encyclopaedia of Missing Rooms<br /> </strong>Yeah, but the story goes that at 5pm Brack will concertina the street and some parts of the city, bringing together particular bits while folding the rest into recesses behind.</p> <p>Page 5</p> <p><strong>Encyclopaedia of Missing Rooms<br /> </strong>Ah! So at 5pm the bank will end up in Collins Street, I see.</p> <p>Page 5</p> <p><strong>Encyclopaedia of Missing Rooms<br /> </strong>H’m. Life will be pretty treacherous around 5pm so mind you don’t get caught in any of those rooms folded behind – or we’ll never meet – and that’s not the way the movie ends.</p> <p>Page 5</p> <p>———</p> <p>floor plan details:</p> <p> fig. 5 – library: <i>Collins Street, 5pm </i>1955 by John Brack</p> <p>– Room for those in <i>Collins Street, 5pm</i> with names beginning between B-G</p> <p>– Room for those in <i>Collins Street, 5pm</i> with names beginning between H-M</p> <p>– Room for those in <i>Collins Street, 5pm</i> with names beginning between N-S</p> <p>– Room for those in <i>Collins Street, 5pm</i> with names beginning between T-Y</p> <p>– missing room of memory</p> -
Movie Movement, between streets Lonsdale and Collins, Queen and Swanston, Melbourne
<p><strong>Encyclopaedia of a Movie Movement<br /> </strong>so you see, to play this scene, you really have to get a feel for the place. People in the city pass through here everyday. They walk along these corridors, enter these rooms and gaze out these windows. A library, stocked to overflow with memory, though, as for the actual location of the books, no one knows. It’s become a vault of vaporous time, a ruin of past expectations, a remnant of wiped away lives. Its secreted information disallows understanding of the walls between which we walk; the loss with which we speak. And so, you’re to enter</p> <p>page 1</p> <p>————</p> <p>[details]</p> <p>fig. 1994</p> <p>[diagram caption] fig 1994 – library: city block surrounding the GPO, between streets Lonsdale and Collins, Queen and Swanston, Melbourne</p> -
Stairs, Princes Bridge, Melbourne
Encyclopaedia of Stairs
Intoxicated by fatigue, she grabs hold of the rail and slides giddily upon the step. No further can the beating, blaring city entice her to pursue the echoes ahead. The city’s garble plays medley with her thoughts: she’s forgotten whether she was desperately seeking or instead chasing away.page 5
Encyclopaedia of Stairs
Steps descend: a child sits beside her and says … “I know exactly what’s happened – I read about it in the Encyclopaedia of Stairs – and these stairs in particular are notorious. Have you heard, shall I tell you?” Bewildered, fatigued – she listens.page 5
Encyclopaedia of Stairs
“On page five it’s written that at the foot of these stairs – near the river below – there waited a woman. She waited and waited, through the night’s darkness and cold, mist so thick, through to the day’s sunlight that follows. She waited for Hope.page 5
Encyclopaedia of Stairs
“When One day – hearing steps descending, presuming them to be Hope – she hastened, ascending: but at each step the stairs extended, never taking her from whence the echoes came. She fell here, fatigued, between expectation and disappointment.”
page 5
Encyclopaedia of Stairs
“… My friend says this is a stupid story – fiction, not fact. But upon passing I recognised these stairs as those described in the Encyclopaedia; and upon descending – what luck – my speculations found you just as described. One day I’ll find the Missing, confiscated, Expectations: well maybe; One day.”
page 5
———
fig. 5 – library: Princess Bridge staircase, Melbourne
-
Movie, on the pavement outside the State Library, Melbourne
<p><strong>Encyclopaedia of a Movie<br /> </strong>but you weren’t meant to go into that room, that room’s been closed for years. No movie’s been made in that room. That room has no passage ways, no light switches, no chairs: it can’t be used, it’s got no meaning. It’s dark and dank, and quite frankly, horrible. No one’s meant to go into that room. No one knows of that room. Do you get it – so let’s do it again, the camera will track behind as you enter the next room, the one that every-</p> <p>page 4</p> <p>—————</p> <p>[floorplan captions]</p> <p> fig. 4 – library: spot of afternoon sun on the pavement outside the State Library, Melbourne</p> <p>–<em>shelf full of page 1’s</em></p> <p><em>-shelf full of page 2’s</em></p> <p><em>-shelf full of page 3’s</em></p> <p><em>-shelf full of page 5’s</em></p> <p><em>-shelf full of page 6’s</em></p> <p><em>-shelf full of page 7’s</em></p> <p><em>– room for memory</em></p> -
Movie, corner of Swanston Street and Bourke Street, Melbourne
Encyclopaedia of a Movie
room. We’ll pan in just as you’re paying for the raining computer. Then you’re to enter the room and place this raining computer next to the computer calculating the quantity of surfaces touched by the sun at given moments of the day. Now, this is the last take for the day and we all want to go home, so don’t — whatever you do — take the raining computer into the room where the computer calculating the various degrees of loneliness resides. And when youpage one
—————
[details]
– room for emotion number 1
– room for emotion number 1
– room for emotion number 1
– room for emotion number 1
– fig. 100
– fig. 100 – library: corner of Swanston Street & Bourke Street, Melbourne -
A Moment’s Evidence: a spatial probability edition 1993
photo: Carl Warner
photo: Carl Warner
photo: Carl Warner
Encyclopaedia of a Moment’s Evidence
a spatial probability edition 1993
—————List of Illustrations
Moment …… Page
12:56pm …… 1
12:57pm …… 2
12:58pm …… 3
12:59pm …… 4
12:00pm …… 5
12:01am …… 6
12:02am …… 7
12:03am …… 8
12:04am …… 9
12:05am …… 10
—————Moment 12:00pm
At 12:01, she hurriedly enters room A in urgent search for the evidence of moment 12:00 pm. She finds it.
[5][entrance through lowest room, A, listed anti-clockwise]
room A
room B
room C
room D
room E—————
Moment 12.00pm
At 12.01, assured that the evidence of moment 12.00 pm was in room B, she entered, but too late. The evidence had been wiped away.
[5][entrance through lowest room, B, listed anti-clockwise]
room B
room C
room D
room E
room A—————
Moment 12.00pm
If evidence of the moment 12.00pm existed, it would be found in room C. She enters room C at 12.01 and she finds no evidence of moment 12.00 pm.
[5][entrance through lowest room, C, listed anti-clockwise]
room C
room D
room E
room A
room B—————
Moment 12.00pm
With trepidation, at 12:01 she entered room D. Evidence of moment 12:00 pm was not found — but lived.
[5][entrance through lowest room, D, listed anti-clockwise]
room D
room E
room A
room B
room C—————
Moment 12.00pm
At 12:01 she entered room E and without remorse, remembered moment 12:00 pm.
[5][entrance through lowest room, E, listed anti-clockwise]
room E
room A
room B
room C
room D -
library no. 5
[square room central watercolour]
library No. 5
of words
without meaning
lost of all feeling[top circular room]
words of friendship[left circular room]
words of counsel[lower circular room]
words read[right circular room]
words of love——————
[square room with window, without a door, in upper circular room with door]
that soothe, sometimes[square room with window, without a door, in lefthand circular room with door]
words too painful to hear[square room with window, without a door, in lower circular room with door]
words which fall, fumble and touch so close[square room with window, without a door, in righthand circular room with door]
words barely said in return -
Truth’s spatial probability
Truth’s Spatial Probability
Unbeknownst to him, for he was daydreaming out the window. Truth stepped into Room B and loitered there a little. While he roused from his dreams to again take grasp of reality — Truth, undetected by him, slid from Room B with the ease of time and hid in Room A.
~ 5 ~– Room A
—————
Truth’s Spatial Probability
He rushed from Room B into Room C in desperate search for Truth. During his scurry, he did not notice Truth’s narrow escape from Room C to Room A at the moment of his entrance.
~ 5 ~– Room B
—————
Truth’s Spatial Probability
Having been told that Truth was in Room A, he quietly entered in an unobtrusive manner so not to frighten and cause Truth to scamper. But upon this cautious entrance he discovered a fig: that Truth was in fact not in Room A but Room B.
~ 5 ~– Room C
—————
Truth’s Spatial Probability
While resting in Room A pondering his next move, he heard scandalous rumours concerning Truth’s entrapment in Her Room. Fearing to dare enter Her Room, he thought it wise to instead wait in Room B where the view was more pleasant.
~ 5 ~– Her Room
-
spelling mistakes: a Pictorial Knowledge publication
A Pictorial Knowledge
Publication
1993—————
Spelling Mistakes
List of Illustrations
Mistake … Page
truce … 1
trepidation … 2
timidity … 3
trust … 4
mistake … 5—————
Spelling Mistakes
~ truce ~
[1]—————
Spelling Mistakes
~ trepidation ~
[2]—————
Spelling Mistakes
~ timidity ~
[3]—————
Spelling Mistakes
~ trust ~
[4]—————
Spelling Mistakes
~ to never be mistaken ~
[5]
