martyn coutts

What is art?

I was told by Lara Thoms on Saturday that Fun Run was the best kind of art and from looking around at the people in City Square in the centre of Melbourne I think people agreed.

But this was no lightweight spectacle, this was a meticulously planned and executed series of events designed to delight and amuse people. And then when you least expected it, the whole work would sink in – drop deeper and hit you somewhere you would never expect.

Perhaps it was that i know Humphrey so well, perhaps his run on a treadmill was somehow a metaphor for his own journey in the producing of the work, or maybe the comedic parts of the work served to endear him and the production to the audience so much that when he started to struggle you cared deeply.

Even though i was documenting the work i often would find myself dancing behind the camera or even in front of the stage – i couldn’t help it. there was this joyous spirit that radiated out of the stage and into the crowd, with Humphrey at the centre of it. In many ways this mirrored the production Yelling at Stars, with Willoh S. Weiland at the centre surrounded in a crucible by video, sound and the Myer music bowl. But instead of Willoh’s careful and poignant observational text, it was just loud techno, dancing and Humphrey yelling things through his headmic.

To feel this artwork is to know Humps – the love, the physicality in which he inhabits the world and his generous spirit. This was not a work for him, this was a work for Melbourne and the loads of non-arts people who stopped and stared were as amazed as those that knew what was happening.

My colleague Jason Maling said to me at one stage that ‘it was fantastic, it totaly debunks ‘durational art’” True, very true.

And i agree with Lara, all art should be like FUN RUN – joy, dancing, smiling faces and emotionally connected.

Best thing I have seen in a very long time.