A second what if question surfaced in New Zealand: what if this is not the other side of the world? It’s a reaction to the works of art I saw there, all dealing with New Zealand’s position in the world.

So I took my crayons – small ones this time – and wrote. It felt awkward, walking around a Hamilton suburb looking for a place that would suit. Found an entrance to a parking lot that stated ‘keep clear’ – which was inviting. The sign indicates left-hand-side driving, too, which was perfect for I wanted to reflect that the text was done in New Zealand.

So I did the writing, using small crayons this time for the big ones did not travel with me. Halfway through a lady came up from the sports center behind me, and asked me what I was about. I explained about my experiment, she took off again. I suppose she called Hamilton Country Council, for five minutes later two men showed up in a little van. Men of  Maori descent, by the look of them. Without comment, they proceeded to unroll a hose and clean off my text .

Now I’ve done a number of games, none of which ever got cleaned off. The two times I did text, they did not live longer than half an hour. Why? Is it the fact that it is text? Or the fact that I did the games in the Netherlands (mostly), and the texts in England and New Zealand? Is it a cultural thing? Us Dutch have this thing called ‘gedogen’, meaning that small infringements of rules and regulations are tolerated a discretion. Will have to do an experiment  with text in the Netherlands to test this hypothesis.

Anyway, I recorded all, and below are some pictures.