"In HooP members of the LGBT community in Nelson, New Zealand gather for a mass hula hoop event, in this work about body physicality and visual spectacle. Swaying hips, circular rhythms and shuffling feet resound. Moments of pathos, seriousness and vulnerability are punctured by the innate humour of the mass hula event. This art work confounds the stereotypes of queer communities. The usual reasons queer community might gather are to organise for political or social action, or to socialize without a sense of being 'other'. Something else is happening here. The history of video art as a document of community based action, as well as its relationship to the artist body and performance is both referenced and re-evaluated in this project which is at once a community , social networking and art project."
Director / Editor: Kate WalkerCinematography: John IrwinThanks to the Nelson NZ LGBT community
Moments of contact based on an email exchange between the two artists and friends, as they try to retain points of connection.
Animated maps of the United States are covered in red patchwork cloth, before a hole forms in the southern USA.
Landscape footage of Nevada, USA, is overlaid with Cliff Fell's poem The M at the End of the Earth.
An ordinary and diverse group of students reenacts Raphael's The School of Athens (1510–11).