Artists’ Statement

In distinguishing place and space, Michel de Certeau in The Practice of Everyday Life refers to two determinations:

The first, a determination through objects that are ultimately reducible to the being-there of something dead, the law of a 'place'...[where] an inert body always seems...to found a place...the second, a determination through operations which...specify 'spaces' by the actions of historical subjects...emerging from their stability, transform the place where they lay motionless into the foreignness of their own space. (de Certeau 1984: 118)

It is through this transformation and defamiliarization of bodies within space that our work reveals itself through the hybridization of installation and performance. By exploring the intersection of the practices from which our work evolves, we investigate the theoretical currents permeating our experimental strategies and praxis within the contemporary milieu.

Our installations relate ideas of exhibition to an activity within a specific context, thereby creating a new porosity or permeability in reading the very structures of the site. “Re-siting” thematically applies to many aspects of our collaborative work. The venues for these works are often sited outside of conventional performance sites which opens new relations to location and to the audience. Because the venues are not traditional performance spaces, the relation of the audience to the work is obscure; there are no seats, no black boxes, no degrees of separation. The relations of site to the installation to the performance is transient and in motion, thus it is imperative that the audience activate itself to fully access the multiple readings. Libby Worth points out in her essay, Locating Space: Dance and Architecture in Rosemary Butcher's 3d, that in interdisciplinary endeavors:

The intertextuality of the performance removes the pressure to seek one or two unified themes. Instead, the reader is free to allow the nuances and references generated by the performance to bounce off each other. This approach emphasizes the active engagement of the viewer in the creative process...entirely appropriate to a multidisciplinary performance of layers and fragments...[which] makes demands on the viewer, as well as the artists, to tolerate a degree of uncertainty. (Worth 1999:188)

This degree of uncertainty is inherent in our collaborative efforts and dislodges stratified thinking generally found in singular discourses. Our collaborations re-site the discourse of architecture and performance vis-a-vis our intimate collusion and certainly invites uncertainty into the process. The 'what if' question launched by a performance landing in the field of architecture disrupts convention long enough to allow a range of new possibilities beyond the limits of the isolated disipline. The hybrid work explores the intersection of the practices from which they sprang to “question their individual autonomy, authority and, ultimately, their history and relevance to the contemporary context.” (de Oliveira 1994: 7)

As the installations engage their sites symbiotically, the performances engage in a dialogic relation to the installations, and, consequently, the existing spaces, to heighten and animate its latent qualities, relations and connections. We approach collaboration as a living, evolutionary path, where we must be attentive to details, open to change, and flexible to influence while engaging in dialogue with the site, the disciplines and each other.

For the past 5,000 years, in an attempt to live a more predictable and safe existence, Western Civilization has acted without hubris in regard to this planet. We look for guidance in our search for solutions and understanding.

Resumé
Dwayne Bohuslav

Education

• Cornell University 1986-89 Master of Architecture
• University of Texas at Austin 1975-79 Bachelor of Architecture with Honors
• Teaching San Antonio College San Antonio, TX 2001-Present
  

Experience

• Tenure Track Faculty
• 2002 San Antonio College Adjunct Faculty Excellence Award
• - First Year and Second Year Design Studios
• - Architecture, Culture and Society Seminar
• Selected Southwest School of Art & Craft San Antonio, TX (Contemporary Art Month) 2005

Exhibitions

• ICE - Constructed Realm/Ephemeral Response with Joanne Brigham
• Friedrich Installation Spaces San Antonio, TX 2004
• Demol;tion Show - Large-Scale Architectural Installation/Performance with Joanne Brigham
• Centre d’Architecture et d’Urbanisme Saintes, France 2003
• Mobile Troubador - PARA-SaInTEs Performance/Collaboration with Joanne Brigham
• Blue Star Art Space San Antonio, TX 2003
• Frozen Music - The Architectural Arts of San Antonio Group Show
• Friedrich Installation Spaces San Antonio, TX 2003
• Friedrich Projects.03 - Large-Scale Architectural Installation/Performance with Joanne Brigham
• ARTSCAN Houston, TX 2002
• Bricollage - Group Show
• Friedrich Installation Spaces “The Modern World” San Antonio, TX 2002
• Wall Be/Wall See - Sound/Installation Artist and Co-Curator with Jack Robbins
• San Antonio American Institute of Architects Beaux Arts Ball San Antonio, TX 2002
• Lift.Air - Site-Specific Installations Artist and Curator
• Joan Grona Gallery San Antonio, TX 2001
• Abstract Machine - Interactive Space Installation
• ARTSCAN Houston, TX 2001
• antibody(snatcher) - Installation/Performance with Joanne Brigham
• Art Crawl Houston, TX 2000/2001 CREAK Interactive Reactive - Installation/Performance with Joanne Brigham
• Lawndale Art Center Houston, TX 2000
• skin reveal+response - Installation/Performance with Joanne Brigham
• Site/Work/S International Sculpture Conference 2000 Houston, TX 2000
• organ grinder - Installation/Performance with Easy Credit Theater
• Studio Gallo San Antonio, TX 1999
• OSHIBUCHI auto-changer - Temporary Space Works
• Buffalo Bayou ArtPark Houston, TX 1999
• Chrysalis Bridge - Installation and Cocoon Performance with Easy Credit Theater
• TOPOS “The Sublime, The Liminal & The Everyday” Austin, TX 1997
• space through which invisible objects are moving - Projection/Installation
• Blue Star on Fredericksburg Road San Antonio, TX 1997
• parallel conditions in a field of fluctuating probabilities - Storefront Installation
• [ArtPace] Hudson [Show]Room San Antonio, TX 1996
• screen memory - Multi-media installation
• TOPOS Gallery Austin, TX 1996
• trans-border:primitive man @edge of virtual forest - Installation/Performance with False Alarm
• PASO '95 Palo Alto College San Antonio, TX 1995
• electronic wind - Site-specific Installation/Projection
• Culture Water Money: The Passion of the Frontier Guerrero Viejo, MX 1995
• The Resurrection Project: Four Stations - Symposium Installation