Today, I met up with Alexis for her to exchange some documentation for me to review and compile as well as taking an opportunity to ask Alexis some more questions. She revealed to me about how 'slow going' she thought her practice was and referred to the 'hard copies' of work produced. She has one book and one CD released in 8 years (both of which she gave a free autographed copy of to me). This took me back to my research around issues of documentation, and how artists measure themselves perhaps not on the number of performances produced, but more on how much 'evidence' of their work exists, provoking me to once again ask myself the question whether performance documentation and detritus is necessary for the economics of art. I also thought about what Marilyn Aslem said at a panel discussion at the NRLA; "We make the work, and we want to keep it as well". Even if performances are committed to tape, do they still 'die' in our memories? This was furthered when Alexis spoke about being filmed professionally. As she finished her performance, he then said 'Can we try it from a different angle?"
To which she replied, "This isn't the kind of performance that can be reproduced; it's improvisational". This adds to the credence of 'liveness' to performance artists, although when I quizzed Alexis on the se of analog musical instruments and their 'liveness', she said that that wasn't an essence I had to use in live presence.
I also asked Alexis about the organisation issue. Alexis did say it gets better, but her artistic practice is the only area in which she 'fetishises' organisation
On initial revew of documentation, I see that Alexis' wrk encompasses many different characters... Perhaps me having one is restrictive. I will feedback more on her practice tomorrow
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