HAYLEY NEWMAN

City Vista

Watching the city between mid morning and late afternoon.

Hands and Feet

We each dug two large holes and planted our feet in them. The earth released its smell. Our leg muscles displaced tightly packed soil from around the ankles as one hundred toes wiggled to feel the grit between them. Twenty hands dug holes large enough to bury themselves. Our hands and feet are in the land. We should be planting or pulling up vegetables but, as we donít know how, we sow ourselves instead.

Photo: Charlie Murphy

Blossom Time

Sausages are positioned lengthwise along the boughs of a tree while cup cakes appear to bud in its branches.

Daisy Chain

The group formed a human daisy chain, which moving through the garden spelt out the name of the city. The mayorís speech and raffle followed.

Transmarketeering

Travelling on a tram between two cities, we sell fruit and vegetables to passengers. From a market stall built in one of the carriages we sell potatoes, cauliflowers, swedes, carrots, broccoli, cabbages, plums, apples, bananas, pears, peaches and nectarines. Along the route, prices vary and the cost of produce rises and falls according to our location. As we get closer to the city the prices become higher, only getting cheaper again as we move toward the countryside. There the produce becomes free before ≠ at selected stations ≠ we begin to pay people to take them away.

Piddle Puddle Paddle

An empty underpass: the bladder slowly leaks a puddle into the shape of the cityís ring road.

Bubbler

A series of interventions into the boundaries between road and air. The group forms, disperses and re-forms at ringroads, crossroads, roundabouts, flyovers, crash barriers and junctions while blowing bubbles into the air.

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Eyeballing

We out-stared drivers and pedestrians from the back of this van. Our staring stopped after an hour when the window was accidentally smashed.

Woolly Tachometer

The number 31 bus travels toward the city centre. A strand of wool is teased from its ball and tied to a small stone, which is lowered onto the road from a bus window on the top deck. The wool unravels slowly to begin with, drawing out as the bus accelerates. Another yellow line or a long thin exhaust: both measurement of distance travelled and a way to get home.

Impressions of . . .

A shirt is customised with a detachable sleeve that is designed to be removed before leaning against a building. After an impression is made on the skin, the sleeve is replaced to cover and hide this private event.

180 Ditto

At the annual autumn festival exactly the same audience turns up for two entirely seperate performances.

All Everything

An afternoon spent looking at every individual object in a shop.

Night Life of the Jewellery

All the necklaces, rings, earrings and bracelets from the window display of a local jewellery shop are put on. For one night only, liberated from the darkness of the night safe, they sparkle in the lights of the pubs and clubs.

Whistle Concert

A whistle blowing concert with Matts Wand, Steve Beresford and Mick Beck

Index

This forefinger was used to record the city by touching everything it came into contact with on a single day.

Appropriated poster of the work, exhibited in Melbourne 2002.

How to Catch a Cold

You go to the cinema and buy a ticket for the coldest film in the program. Find a seat in a draught. There is just enough time to eat an ice cream and drink a cold drink. Remove your coat, hat, scarf and jacket to expose the skin on your arms, neck and face. Blow the hairs on your forearm until they stand on end. Close your eyes and imagine yourself into the film: thereís snow and ice against your bare feet and freezing wind on your face. Trying to remember what it was like last winter, you start to believe that you can see your own breath at which point your jaw relaxes and your teeth start to chatter. Blowing your nose repeatedly makes it sore and red and mountains of tissues accumulate around you. Position a polo mint in your mouth to suck in the cold images off the screen.

Shopaholicism

In a local hotel room, the task is to recall the names of different shops in the city centre.

Paid and Displayed

We paid £1.60 each to park on the top floor of this multistory car park for 2 hours. After paying and displaying we lay down to begin our various internal transformations.

Thanks to: Di Audi, Harmeet Beetle, Doris Bentley, Andrew F. Escort, Isobel Isuzu, Laura Lada, Alan Mazda, Aikiko Mini≠Cooper, Zena Opel, Ioana Porsche, and Rose Royce.

Into Air

It takes 25 minutes to climb the stairs to the top of the highest building in the city. It is just me and the building manager and thereís some tension: some embarrassment about the slightness of the situation. Once at the top, shoes and socks are removed while blue, white and grey paint is mixed to match the colour of the sky. The same pale-blue, rubbed into outstretched arms and legs, camouflages them as they dissolve into the air.

Choco Gothic

An educational workshop running alongside an exhibition at a local gallery. Working with historically resonant material from the area, the group devised this work in an exploration of free expression.

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