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The Ritual of Limbering Up With Mike Whitney

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(1 of 1) Resting shot by Sam Townsend

The Ritual of Limbering Up With Mike Whitney

Hotel Hotel Projects, Performance

Aussie cricket wild-man and television raconteur Mike Whitney came to play with us. Twelve tests, 38 one-day matches in the ‘80s golden age of cricket. Border, Boon, Waugh, Whitney. Anyway… What a guy. Does this man age? No, he doesn’t. Why? He takes care of himself. Clearly.

 

The secret of Mike Whitney’s successful cricketing career is that he can bend from the hips. We learnt this vital sporting fact the day Mike came to stay. He led the Ritual of Limbering Up in the Monster Salon and Dining rooms. Mike is a very bendy guy – he’s been stretching each day for the past 30 years.

Daily Rituals

Anthropologically speaking, rituals connect us to a culture, a sub-culture, maybe even a cult. We have always been curious observers of the repetitive and sometimes strange routines people practise in private. This fascination with human behaviour is the catalyst for a creative project and ongoing study of all the weird and wonderful rituals people do every day. For the project we have created a series of short films directed by U-P and Alyssa McClelland that re-enact the bizarre rituals of others inside the rooms of Hotel Hotel. We’ve also written articles, catalogued everyday rituals across cultures, studied tools and implements connected to rituals and have invited photographers to document their own rituals.

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