Art pair on the fringe of the fringe

Zoe Crook (left) and Aodhan Madden plan to turn the Blue Oyster art project space upside-down....
Zoe Crook (left) and Aodhan Madden plan to turn the Blue Oyster art project space upside-down. Photo by Linda Robertson.
They are not long out of art school, they want to turn art upside-down, and their opening night act is something of a secret - Zoe Crook and Aodhan Madden are positioning themselves on the fringe of the fringe.

The pair from Auckland and Melbourne, respectively, have cleared out the Blue Oyster art project space in Dowling St and, as Blue Oyster director Chloe Geoghegan describes it, ''everything you expect to see in a gallery is upended''.

That included her office being shifted out the back of the gallery, a volunteer lying on the ground when the Otago Daily Times visited, the lights off, and a cover on the front window leaving the space ''completely obscured''.

The idea, Mr Madden said, was ''changing the way you think about exhibitions and performance''.

Their show, Suspicious Minds, begins next Tuesday at the art space, but the artists have already been taking their style to the streets, rising at 2am to read books in the Octagon or wash the steps of the city's centre.

Dressed in their distinctive blue overalls, and with hair cut short, they have been ''walking through the city, seeing how people react''.

''People expect us to do something - really, we're just walking through.''

Of the opening night at the art space, Ms Crook would only describe it as ''something of a surprise''.

The festival guide blurb describes their act as an ''unprogrammed, spontaneous and evolving performance series with ongoing action, revelation and resistance''.

Ms Crook used the description ''tricksters or court jesters''.

Ms Geoghegan suggested: ''You need to look out for something you don't usually know or expect.

''I invited these guys because they just finished art school.

''They take risks.

''They make us think.''

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