Lake Fill II - performance works to mark the first filling of hydro Lake Dunstan, Clyde, New Zealand by Lloyd Godman - © Lloyd Godman

PERFORMANCE II  Aug 1993 - Lloyd Godman

On arrival the first task was to find a suitable site, a site with a flattish area sloping away to the rising water a site that faced up the old dying river. As we drove up and down the gorge searching for a suitable location, the topography looked unfamiliar, no river flowed deep in the valley, it seemed strange, and still does, to see the new lake flooded up the gorge where the river had run with such power. Where the tributaries had joined the main river, the junction points were different, the prominent rocky outcrops that projected from the water were all new.

As with the first work, the performance was done with a consciousness of myself as an integral part of the environment, a fidelity and an attention to detail, in an attempt to introduce a physical poetry to the event. After some searching, I had found a suitable area for the performance. Although a little slanting at the top, it ran down to the river from a great rock by the road side and had a series of corrugations where it had recently been flattened out by a bull dozer. It took some time to lay out all the "ceremonial artifacts"; wire, clips, underwater camera housing etc. As in the first performance, I dressed in the black insulation of a rubber dry suit and with slow deliberated movements began to install the various components. First was the camera itself which had to be positioned facing up the lake and to an exact depth in the water so that the lens was giving an angle of view just above the water line. It also had to be held fast with a pile of large rocks as any movement of the housing would ruin the framing for the sequence of photographs.

Lake Fill II - Second performance to mark the filling of hydro lake Dunstan, Clyde, New Zealand Spetember 1993 - Lloyd Godman