POOL PARTY resists a taxonomical get-to-know-you at a freshwater congregation in Arrernte country, creating soundtracks for individuals as part of a broader commitment to keeping the party alive. All images and videos taken on an iPhone 8 staring into a trinocular compound microscope. All beings pictured are residents of a backyard pool at same address as artist, Tyuretye, Alice Springs, Northern Territory.
Videos created for MICRO-(BIAL) TENANCIES - a multi-platform project created by Abbra Kotlarczyk and delivered through an evolving and staggered program of conversations, events and material incubations and interrogations online 18 DEC 2020 – 31 MAR 2021 and on-site at BLINDSIDE 24 FEB – 13 MAR 2021. Through an expanded view to microbial processes of disease and fermentation, MICRO-(BIAL) TENANCIES centres feminist and queer practices concerned with ethics and gestures of hospitality. The always aporetic term hospitality, as Jacques Derrida points out, shares a close etymological and philosophical terrain with its seeming contra-term hostility. From this troubled premise, this project aims to facilitate a decentred approach to host/guest relations within a multi-site exhibition context, in considering the micro-tenancies and transgressions of bodies—broadly defined—in times of crisis.