Lau­ren Brincat
Salt lines: Play it as it Sounds

For the 20^th Bien­nale of Syd­ney Brin­cat has embarked upon an ambi­tious new body of work Per­for­mance Instru­ments, that begins with Salt Lines, a site spe­cif­ic instal­la­tion for Car­riage­works. Con­struct­ed pri­mar­i­ly from white sail cloth and incor­po­rat­ing cus­tom-made Church bell ropes and fine­ly craft­ed red woollen hand grips known as ​‘sallys’, Salt Lines is a med­i­ta­tion on the geo­graph­ic bor­ders that exist across the World Ocean — the immense and inter­con­nect­ed body of water that cov­ers some 70% of the Earth’s sur­face. Brin­cat has long been inter­est­ed in points of inter­sec­tion and delin­eation, and the human expe­ri­ence that results from such divisions.

Each day over the course of the exhi­bi­tion a per­son select­ed by Brin­cat is invit­ed to recon­fig­ure Salt Lines, adjust­ing the ropes and pul­leys and rear­rang­ing the instal­la­tion. While not con­sid­ered a per­for­mance, this ​‘main­te­nance’ will occur dur­ing pub­lic hours and will result in the work appear­ing dif­fer­ent­ly each day, swelling and creas­ing at the whim of the aide. Over the dura­tion of the exhi­bi­tion the fab­ric will become more mal­leable, shapeshift­ing and nev­er appear­ing in the same state twice.

Com­mis­sioned by the Bien­nale of Syd­ney and Aus­tralia Coun­cil for the Arts

Salt Lines col­lab­o­ra­tors: Dean Cross, Sal­ly Ches­sell, Cate­ri­na Scardi­no, Bree van Reyk, Nick Wales, Leah Gib­lin, Tina Have­lock Stevens, Mary Libro, Leah Fras­er, Axel Osborne, Kev­ina Jo Smith, Hol­ly McDon­ald, Hay­ley West and Kate Scardifield