SCULPTING FEAR: JULIAN HETZEL

I was fortunate to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of Julian Hetzels latest work-in-progress: a 'Sharing' of thoughts and ideas, with an invited audience, to give shape to the mass of possibilities characteristic of early-stage work. Even with the best of plans Art; Life; Relationships; the Weather – all find their own form, and are subject to...well, who knows! Often we try to use the past to predict the future – there's always the need to pin the future down – sometimes at the expense of the present. As we made our way along the corridor to the dance studio we came across a man lying on the floor. Collapsed? Unconscious? Drunk? It was unexpected. Questions were immediately triggered; a response required. What was one's responsibility? How was the situation to be assessed, or dealt with? We were assured all was in hand, so continued to make our way to....

Enlightenment in the Dance Studio

We had just witnessed the 1^st Enlightenment: the interactive element of Sculpting Fear the very title of which encompasses the tension of opposing forces. Fear: the stuff of rapid heartbeats; sweat (hot or cold); the jellification of limbs, fluid; in flux; changeable; hard to capture or fully define, yet the desire here is to confront uncertainty using questions and responses to create meaning around the unknowable, and in this way sculpt the materiality of fear. To be open to observe all the permutations of the situation; our responses, and that of others, all of which, like clouds, are constantly subject to change. 

When we step out of the accepted predictability of our own domains we expect a certain amount of predicatability in the everydayness of what's out there. But, what are we to make of one body found lying down in the street? One cloud in the sky is a clear day; several clouds might signify an impending storm. Would a series of bodies imply an epidemic? A trail of victims? If the body was of a policeman / sex worker / senior citizen – would our attitudes be any different? Is there a hierachy of caring? How much are we influenced by what we 'read' into the situation? What do we make (sculpt?) out of clothing? Status? Age? Race? This is what Julian would like (us) to find out.....

RUN – HIDE - TELL

Now for the 2^nd Enlightenment: the unpredictable Dance of Life. Each of us saw the same thing unfold, but what did we see exactly? Air being blown into a canopy of black plastic against a hum of ambient sound, yes, but Anaias Nin said: We dont see things as they are, we see things as we are'. Now a world of possibilities opens up; now we might see a tired stormcloud; a struggling soul reluctant to leave this earth; a cancerous lung, or womb; apprehension. It appears there are people 'under the covers'. What are they hiding from?

Here Julian has 'caught them redhanded'.

As it was in the beginning....

From the darkness of the womb; to the darkness of earth: the cycle of life turns; we end as we begin. We had talked of unpredictability; uncertainty, the unknown; of questions and projections; technology; symbology, community; the apocalypse, and psychopolitics; of unrest, and tempests. It was time to wrap the evening up; wrap ourselves up, and head for home.

I had entered the building with others, but left the studio on my own, emerging from the lift in a place I didn't recognize: disorientated, a little panicked: feeling trapped. I heard voices behind closed doors – another studio. I popped my head in and, shamefaced, asked for directions. The exit was just to my left, leading into a sidestreet, not the way I'd come. I was apprehensive. Shady figures shifted in the background, bodies settling under a concrete staircase. And this chap - laid back in his hi-visibility jacket shielding his eyes from the light; under the watchful eye of his guardian angel. 

Or, was there some other story? Hmmmm....