The High Street Project, Christchurch, New Zealand 1998
Project George was a synthesis of durational performance, improvised storytelling and ‘noir’ thriller that occurred over several weeks at The High St Project in Christchurch New Zealand. At the time, I was interested in creating a reverse detective process, where an impending live event was treated as something that had already taken place. Like reading a crime novel from the end to the beginning without knowing that you are. I wanted a group of individuals to make something happen by trying to establish what had happened.
My principle collaborators were artists Marcia Farquhar, Dorian McFarland, Stuart Mayes, Jem Finer, Thierry Malard and Moritz Weidemann. None of the six were aware of the others’ complicity, and each mounted their own investigations six months prior to the ‘event’.
I arrived in New Zealand several days before the dates in question and converted the gallery into a functional investigation office. I hired a secretary, and began tracking what had been uncovered. It was clear early on that the small initial group had expanded into an international network.
We set up a briefing room and all members of the public who entered the Gallery/office were interviewed and fully briefed on the facts as they unfolded.
To this day I still do not have a cohesive idea of what happened or who was involved.
The Jamaicans were in on it, as well as the British ,who hired someone to stake out our building and threaten to blackmail us with suspect reports of our actions. The Ministry of Agriculture searched the premises and confiscated a collection of parcels containing grass seeds sent from Ireland, just before a cubic meter of dirt was dumped in the office. A representative of an anonymous French organisation demanded we comply with instructions to deliver all information to him while wearing a red suit with frog feet. A dance party was organized and promoted from Germany that was to take place in our office and whole suburban streets were placed under surveillance, letter-bombed and told to register complaints at the office.
The night before the last day the Project George office was broken into and trashed by unknown individuals. They scrawled ‘it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye’ in red spray paint across one wall.