A sonorous draft; a lexicon of windjamming

Abbra Kotlarczyk, Benjamin Woods

30 Jun–7 Aug 2021

Continuing the artist's investigation into expanded modes of publication, A sonorous draft; a lexicon of windjamming is the first in a three part installation reading room series and eventual publication on labour and genealogy. Part one opens up to non-conventional forms of kinship and sound-perception as a queer strategy for displacing the visual (as akin to the biological) gaze. It employs hybrid narrative strategies to frame a break with the traditional family tree, situating expanded imaginings for togetherness through modes of botanical drift, co-constitution, biotic "rubbings" and through a cross-pollination of intimate contact zones for queer relationality and resistance. Starting from the premise of a lexical body of inheritance in the passing down of a family name in the absence of a bloodline, the sonic imaging of a six week journey at sea in which my grandfather taught himself the English language becomes a seeding event for a deep web of connections across times and geo-political coordinates.

Rather than framed as an essay—an attempt—this work is a draft: it is an ongoing state of becoming; a play on words to suggest that the air that endlessly moves around us also creates the conditions and climates for the trajectories of our entangled lives.

a sonorous draft; a lexicon of windjamming, audio, 48:19

artist bio (post-nature vs nurture), audio, 7:56

A frottage for sound in the night

performance by Abbra Kotlarczyk and Benjamin Woods

Thursday 15 July 6-7pm

DUE TO THE CURRENT SITUATION THIS PERFORMANCE WILL NO LONGER GO AHEAD, PLEASE DO NOT COME TO THE GALLERY AS YOU WILL NOT BE ADMITTED.

An evening of ambient, improvised sonic offerings in music and spoken word from artists Abbra Kotlarczyk and Benjamin Woods. A frottage for sound in the night will extend the premise of the exhibition A sonorous draft; a lexicon of windjamming towards an occasion for physical communion within the gallery reading room.

Experimenting with ongoing permutations of handmade beeswax flutes and metal pouring vessels, Benjamin and Abbra will sonically and materially draw out connections with readings from the exhibition's central poetic essay.

While all are welcome to attend, places are strictly limited in line with current COVID-safe restrictions. Please register your attendance here.

DUE TO THE CURRENT SITUATION THIS PERFORMANCE WILL NO LONGER GO AHEAD, PLEASE DO NOT COME TO THE GALLERY AS YOU WILL NOT BE ADMITTED.

Please register your attendance here.

Abbra Kotlarczyk, A Sonorous Draft; A Lexicon of Windjamming, Blindside 2021. Photograph Christo Crocker. Courtesy the artist.

A sonorous draft; a lexicon of windjamming Publication
Abbra Kotlarczyk

Onsite, Exhibition, Publication

Overview

A sonorous draft; a lexicon of windjamming stages a reading room for part one of a three-part narrative on labour and genealogy, opening up to non-conventional forms of kinship and sound-perception as a queer strategy for displacing the visual (as akin to biological) gaze.

Key Dates

Opening: 1 Jul 2021, 8am–10am

Acknowledgment

This program takes place on the land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded - this land is stolen land. We pay respects to Wurundjeri Elders, past, present and emerging, to the Elders from other communities and to any other Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders who might encounter or participate in the program.

Biographies

Abbra Kotlarczyk (based Naarm/Melbourne) maintains a research-based practice that is articulated through modes of conceptual art making and writing of criticism, poetry and prose. She is a freelance academic editor for socially-engaged artistic research and practice as well as an independent curator. Her practice is hinged on visual and linguistic inquiries that often take place trans-historically through expanded notions of care, queerness, publication, citizenry and embodied poetics.
Born 1984, Mullumbimby, Arakwal country, so-called Australia.
Lives and works in Naarm/Melbourne, so-called Australia.

Benjamin Woods was born in Melbourne in 1988, and grew up with two older sisters, who were role models for a creative life. With their lead, Ben got on the path to become an artist early, studying sculpture at VCA from 2007-2012, where he received BFA Hons and MFA. He has been showing artwork since 2011 and is a current PhD candidate at Monash University (MADA). His research stems from experience in embodied practices, and how sculpture can express and connect these experiences through processes of forming over time, across contexts. Ben enjoys complex Venn diagrams, yoga practice, queer theory, and honey.

I would like to pay respect to elders of the Kulin Nation past, present and becoming, the traditional owners and custodians of the lands, waters and airs that make all our lives possible. I acknowledge that First Nation sovereignty of this land, and all Aboriginal and Torres Straight Island lands, has never been ceded.

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