Video and Photos by Yannick Soyez
I took the title of this documentation of a beach performance from one of Saint Francis famous quotes.
There are several parts: me holding a simple plasterboard and plaster sculpture of a rectangular box with a small doorway at the front. I originally made this sculpture in 1995 at art school during the master’s course at COFA and videoed it on the shore of Whale Beach on Sydney’s Northern beaches. The video went in a bigger rectangular box and the video was seen through another small doorway with wooden stairs leading up to it. That sculpture was called the Ocean Room and was shown in multiple exhibitions such as Sculpture by the Sea in 1999. It was about me living in an apartment at North Avalon where all I did was surf every day and draw, write and read art books on contemporary art from the COFA library.
I rediscovered that idea by remaking it as my life revolves around me drawing and writing every day and the Zen beachside lifestyle. I showed it in other videos and in a cart on white pillows in recent exhibits at Kirra Hill.
The next part is of me holding the original a4 watercolour paper drawings for my next zine titled: The Saints/ “Never see a need without doing something about it.” Mary MacKillop and the quote is by MacKillop Australia’s Saint.
The drawings are of mainly of male and female Catholics saints and quotes by them and other drawings around the saints and portraits of them mainly in watercolour and my interpretation of their teachings.
The last part is of me crouched over on the sand drawing a portrait of Saint Francis and a portrait of Mary MacKillop with black ink on a4 watercolour paper. I was a bit nervous and shaky but I like how it turned out with a wavering pensive line.