Full-on Performance, But It's Not This Dingo's Thingo
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday August 10, 2007
WHUMBI the dingo doesn't know much about art, but she knows what she likes. Released into a cage containing an Irish performance artist, she lay down and adopted a hang-dog expression.
The artist, Andre Stitt, did his best to engage Whumbi's interest in the performing arts by pouring her some water and dragging a tin cup on a chain in front of her. He even wore a black vest emblazoned with the word "Dingo", but still his canine audience of one remained nonplussed. Might Whumbi prefer ballet?Stitt, who has burned all his own art and dropped red roses from an aircraft in the name of art, is often controversial. In Britain, the Arts Council granted him more than #12,000 ($28,300) for a project that included kicking a take-away curry carton through Bedford's town centre. Artspace is using $10,000 from the Australia Council and Arts NSW to fund a five-week residency for Stitt, including his rendezvous with the dingo.The curator of the exhibition, Blair French, said the performance would explore the dingo's role as an Australian icon.The dingo, a seven-year-old bitch that has starred in the ABC's Logie Award-winning children's program Out There, was bred in captivity and posed no danger to the artist or his audience, Mr French said."The dog is not going to attack a human unless it feels threatened, and the artist will not be conveying any sense of threat," he said.To meet safety and animal welfare regulations, the gallery has built a secure five-metre by 10-metre cage and arranged to have a veterinarian on standby.Steve Austin, a professional animal trainer from Pet Resorts Australia, will supervise the performance."You couldn't do this to a wild dog, but this is a very well socialised dingo," Mr Austin said yesterday. "If you handle her correctly, she's fine." Stitt is performing at Artspace, Woolloomooloo, until tomorrow.
© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald