Like a compilation of favourite singles sitting in a dusty pile in the corner of your lounge room, Sweeney made a mix-tape live event of queer seduction and audience one-on-ones. Made and performed as part of a thematic residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada, this was the beginnings of the full-length solo work, Peculiar, to be presented in 2003. This site specific work was made in two parts – two evenings in different spaces – first up, the 7″ version: in an installation gallery space shared with LA-based artist, S E Barnet, who presented her work Trouble in the adjoining room. Both pieces exploited the concept of intimacy and the desire in full close-up. Both works engaged audiences as if flesh-on-flesh. the 7″ version undertook to introduce itself to three men in the crowd, to press bodies, to drink/share a glass of red, to sing to the crowd, to disappear without a trace. secondly, the 12″ version: in a lecture/presentation room, Sweeney assembled his audience to face each other, separated by ritualised podiums with exposed wine bladders and burning candles. At one end of the space, he sat mixing up texts, high-frequency sounds and found noise. In between his audience he gyrated and flung himself about in a kind of flagellating frenzy. He threw the crowd into darkness. They had to contend with the cries of violence and desire.

Photos by Bryce Ritchie.