Exhibits,

Daniel Green Live Forever

Opening: Tuesday 29th April 6-8pm Dates: 29 April-17 May 2008

Daniel Green’s ‘Live Forever’ is a copy. It is a performance-based installation inspired by Korean artist Lee Bul’s series of highly stylised sculptured plastic karaoke pods that were also titled Live Forever. One of these pods first made their way to Australia during the summer of 2004, and were shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. Between the hours of 2:30 and 3:30 daily, visitors could climb into the pod and belt out one of a number of tunes, safe in the knowledge that their act of stardom was entirely self-contained and unable to be heard by those outside. One of the songs available was Common People by Pulp and, to Daniel, this was incredibly exciting.

Daniel’s Live Forever isn’t made out of highly sculptured plastic. It is a cardboard box.

For one reason or another, Daniel never made it to the MCA to sing Common People. To rectify this, he will build his own pod within the walls of Bus Gallery, and come opening night, climb in and sing Jarvis Cocker’s famous anthem with all his might; thus healing an important wound in his past.

As far as Daniel Green is concerned, performing karaoke is a serious responsibility. Whether standing before drunken strangers singing The Locomotion or humming True Colors to yourself whilst doing the dishes, there is a moment of symbiosis between you, the song’s performer, and sometimes the person who wrote it in the first place. Thus, in these private moments, the song is yours. At the same time, as sonorous act, it belongs to the public, to the greater collective consciousness. These are things that can not, and in Daniel’s case won’t, be contained to a soundproof pod. The crowd is part of the act.

And that’s kind of exciting too.