Biennale anger workshops - Stuart Ringholt
Feeling the rage? There's still time to let off steam at the Biennale's anger workshops, writes Nick Dent
For Melbourne artist Stuart Ringholt, conducting public anger workshops was a natural progression from his 2004 ‘embarrassment' project.
"I was doing performance work where I intentionally embarrassed myself in the street - toilet paper hanging out the back of the pants, wearing snot in my moustache," he says. "It sounds quite funny, but when you actually have to do it, it's very difficult." By contrast, he says, "it's very easy to become angry - we're all experts in anger in daily life."
Ringholt, 36, conducted his high-decibel workshops - "five minutes of anger followed by five minutes of love" - at the AGNSW in the opening weeks of the Biennale of Sydney, and he's bringing them back for the event's closing week. So how, exactly, is rage a work of art?
"It's not about the traditional product, the sculpture on the plinth," he says. "It's about a series of relationships, and that process becomes the artwork. It's about discovering limits: how loud can you scream? How long can you do it for? Can you do it?"
Ringholt, who survived a two-year period of drug-induced psychosis in his twenties, was inspired by the teachings of Indian mystic Osho. "To be angry for five minutes is equivalent to maybe three months of lived life. You're so peaceful and calm for the next two days, it's really lovely."
Stuart Ringholt's free ‘Anger Workshops' are on 1-7 Sep at 12pm & 3pm at the Art Gallery of NSW.