Wrap Me Up, Make Me Happy

29 April 2006. Free entry.

Wrap Me Up, Make Me Happy (the Helper's High Remix)
Performance Art Event by Mark Harvey

In Wrap Me Up, Make Me Happy (The Helper's High Remix) Harvey will attempt to wrap himself up in cardboard in order to turn himself into a Transformer™. In the 30-45 minute performance Harvey endeavours to reflect on the contexts of making action art through the physical limits of an imposed body (a cardboard exoskeleton), as well as the constructions of social conformity and acceptability.

Through Harvey's humorous construction of pleasure and pain The Helper's High Remix will also explore the artist's investment in an audience; on the artist's expectations of audience desire; what it might mean to try and conform to the 'dos' and 'don'ts' of current art fashions; and the role of the 'artist's ego'.

The Helper's High Remix extends from a series of performances Harvey has developed over the past two years, which have churned and cheered up audiences, starting with his video Tony and His Mirror (2004, shown in Take: 01, curated by Louise Tulett, and shown at Enjoy, Wellington, City Gallery, Wellington and the Govett Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth). Other related works by Harvey have included When Love Comes to Town: Pride and Prejudice (2004, Auckland), Make Me a Dancer, Make Me Happy (TARI 2005, Kuala Lumpur), Wrap Me Up, Make Me Happy (The Dancer's Edit) (2006, Mau Forum, Auckland), and Twinkle Toes (2006, Luxembourg Gardens, Auckland).

Harvey is an Auckland-based performance artist who sits both comfortably and uncomfortably between the genres of visual art and contemporary dance. He has taught in a range of institutions, including the School of Art and Design at AUT. Harvey currently lectures in Dance Studies at the University of Auckland.