Interviewed by Nicholas Zurbrugg
The following interview was recorded in Brisbane, during the Mediaspace exlzibition at the Institute of Modem Art. Allan Vizents is probably best remembered in Brisbane for his readings during this exhibition and for his remarkable recent performance at the Art(s) Now Symposium at Griffith University in 1986. Allan died after an operation in Sydney, earlier this year; a tragic loss to all his friends and admirers and to experimental poetry and performance in Australia. In this interview Allan discusses the origins of his work. May it long be remembered.
Nicholas Zurbrugg: As you know, I'm particularly interested in your work with recorded language and sound. Could you tell me what led you to work in this area at Mediaspace?
Allan Vizents: We were exploring alternative media and we started out working with printed matter using offset press and photocopy methods of producing work. And we were also conscious of looking for a medium that was cheap and accessible for an audience. So audiotape seemed like a clear choice because it was very inexpensive. We could buy a lot of tapes for a small amount of money and send them out to an audience that was formed by our mailing list for fairly inexpensive amounts. At the time we had a grant from the Visual Arts Board and it helped to achieve those ends. The medium also, besides being a non-elitist medium, allowed you to layer the text you were working with, with either sound effects or environmental sound or music – in fact the whole world of both voice and abstract sound is available through simple taperecorders. And that was why the choice occurred.
N.Z. How did the group begin... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline