reuben moss /works/finding the toilets

Finding the Toilets Mar 10

Finding the Toilets was a performance which took place in the Octagon on the 4th of March 2010. With the help of a surveying company and archival plans I located and marked above ground, the location of an underground public toilet which had been filled in, in 1989. The outline of the toilet remained in place for several weeks until it was eventually removed by street cleaners. The Octagon is the central civic space of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand, it was redeveloped in 1989. During the redevelopment the toilets were filled in, much of the fittings and original tile work remained in place. The redevelopment was the result of a rationalisation of public space which began in New Zealand during the 1980s; the paradigms of which followed particularly refined Modernist logic. The toilets especially were the target of this redevelopment as they had purportedly become the location of what was considered anti-social behaviour. The toilets had been installed in 1910 with the idea that public toilets were best kept underground, out of sight and out of mind.