Mark Harvey

Work! part 1 of 3 (2012)

22 min 55 secSingle channel / Digital Video / Colour / Sound

People are ushered into an empty room where they are sat at trestle tables and invited to use hole punchers to make holes in paper alongside the artists, who are dressed as office workers. The artists exit the room, but re-enter with Harvey crawling along the floor and Blomqvist on his back. Harvey recounts a story about working in Auckland’s Aotea Centre as a waiter, saving money from working three jobs, spending all his money on clothes, the introduction of student fees and being unable to pay them. Continuing to crawl with Blomqvist on his back he describes two more jobs undertaken in the same building, one a theatrical production, and secondly serving tea to a famous New Zealand opera singer. Harvey sets up a step ladder, walks backwards in a circle around it. Gathering speed, he describes his former interest in running, the mockery of his peers at the intensity of his training and his subsequent achievement of representing New Zealand as a runner.

Other works in this series

CIRCUIT is the
leading voice
for artist moving image
practice
in Aotearoa New Zealand,
distributing works,
critical review and
dialogues
which reflect our unique, contemporary
South Pacific context.