Know Thy Neighbour Residency: Cassandra Tytler with Town of Victoria Park #1

Jul 22

Cassandra Tytler reflects on her first experiences as resident Know Thy Neighbour #4 artist with Town of Victoria Park, including her public event Soft Assembly: Public Training Session #1.

There’s something about a communal exercise centre that shouts “promise”. Whether it’s the enthusiasm inspired by the possibility of becoming a fitness fanatic, or just the camaraderie that the sweat and toil of being on a team encourages, I feel like the world is a little less horrible when I walk through the doors. Leisurelife just makes me feel good!

I have been provided an amazing space called the Junior Activity Room. It has tiny chairs for little bodies to sit in. It makes me reminisce about my own childhood with my mum carting me off to endless community run sporting activities. “It was to distract you from the divorce” she tells me.

Being in residence in LeisureLife was a wonderful fluke, as my project is about how games and sport can be used to wrestle with the values and expectations within daily social life. What can be offered by messing with the rules of a familiar activity in a way that speaks to larger cultural and political structures within a particular place? But as with all projects, especially those that bring you to a site or a culture that is not a part of your daily practice, being at LeisureLife in Vic Park has expanded my approach, or at least reminded me of something more. It’s hard to name exactly, but it’s linked to the body amongst bodies.

In trying to learn more about the activities at LeisureLife and the people who take part in them, I asked participants a set of five questions about what they were doing there:

What’s an unwritten rule everyone learns after starting?
What behaviour gets someone accepted?
What behaviour annoys everyone?
What would an outsider never understand?
What keeps people coming back?

In response to the fourth question, a young basketballer answered, “the feeling of missing an open layup or airballing a three”. I don’t understand any of the terms referred to, but suddenly in reading this response I was taken back to a memory:

A Sunday morning, the middle of winter, just after the rain had fallen and the pitch was muddy. There were the splat and thud of boots on wet ground, and a mistiness created by my breath. I played soccer for several years but until reading this response had forgotten the feeling of satisfaction that the simple control of my body in space had given me.

I look back and remember how rewarding it felt when I could successfully guard the ball against another player with my body. If I’m being honest, in my social life I’m more agreeable than I’d like to be. What soccer offered me was a space where my physical strength was expected, and where I could use my body in safe opposition. I loved feeling strong enough to shield the ball in that way and it fills me with satisfaction to remember these moments even now. I also remember some of my passes. I played in midfield, often on the wing. When I made a successful pass, cutting through the defenders at just the right angle and timing, it felt both skilful and mathematical. The perfect pass was more satisfying than a goal for me. It felt sleek and crafted, potentially not qualities I occupy in my daily existence…

These reflections sat alongside preparations for the first public event of the residency.Soft Assembly: Public Training Session #1 was a chance to play with some preliminary thoughts in the company of others. Groups rotated between four stations. Hole Pong involved table tennis bats with ball-sized holes carved out of them. The Recovery Zone asked people to spend three minutes resting while a timer counted down. The Maintenance Drill involved fluorescent safety vests, spray bottles and a messy pile of chairs to arrange. Platform Drill involved standing on a podium made from supermarket crates and reading fragments collected from the LeisureLife questionnaire mentioned above. Together, the stations were small experiments in disrupting mastery and rethinking what gets recognised and valued as achievement. I found inspiration from artists Tricia Hersey, Mierle Laderman Ukeles and Martha Rosler. Platform Drill, inspired Semiotics of the Kitchen, remains the least resolved and one I am still thinking through.

The morning was fun and awkward in places, which I was hoping for. Even the smallest activities seemed to depend on trust, care and a willingness to look slightly foolish together.

My soccer memories mentioned above are about me individually, but what also stands out is the outdoor spaces where the games took place. The weather, the hardness of the ground, the way the whistle sounded different depending on how sheltered by trees the pitch was, the scent of souvlaki in some places and pies in others, the birds overhead and the dogs on the sidelines. Those are the things I hold in me as the residency now moves outside. Next stop: Parkrun, Burswood Park!

Images courtesy of Elizabeth Pedler.

More about Cassandra’s project.

More about the Know Thy Neighbour #4: Gestures project.

More about Town of Victoria Park.

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This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.