THE WELL BUILT AUSTRALIAN

The Well Built Australian, performance details (2009)

Installation resultant from performance, dimensions variable.

"A simple proposition: take $900.00 worth of 45 x 90mm radiata-pine framing (“two-by-four”), build.

Building – the manufacture of residential or commercial structures – holds a privileged position in the Australian collective psyche. Economically, it is understood as vital to the nation’s prosperity as evidenced in the provision of recent fiscal stimulus measures (“Julia Gillard Memorial” school halls, extension to First Home Buyers Grant etc.). Socially, our leaning towards large, free-standing homes requires a large construction workforce to cover the needs of a growing population. Culturally, the builder, and the broader “tradie” genus to which he (the archetype is overtly masculine) belongs, is a venerated figure in middle Australia. Building is more to us than just homes and shops.

Sach Catts’ The Well Built Australian seeks to explore the significance of building beyond its tradeable product. Remove the “homes and shops” part of the equation and you have building in-and-of-itself as follows:

$900.00 worth of 45 x 90mm construction grade framing timber will go though the following process; a length will be cut, anther length will be cut, they will be joined, another length will be cut, this will be joined to the already assembled lengths. This will continue until the material is exhausted at which point the performance will end. No plan will be applied to the assembly and no product will be sought. The structure will remain in the gallery until the exhibition is complete."

(Performance at Serial Space, Sydney, 26/11/09, 12 hours)