It seems like the dead of winter does not dampen the artistic spirit with July-August offering a flurry of festivals around the country.
time machine, serial space
Noiseball, Time Machine
courtesy Serial Space
Noiseball, Time Machine
While several festivals have made Serial Space their home over the last few years, Time Machine represents the first such event to be curated by the current Serial Space team: Pia Van Gelder, Tom Smith, Kate Blackmore, Frances Barrett and Jennifer Hamilton. As the title implies, the festival will focus on time-based practices and includes performance, music, media and visual art. Serial Space will also physically expand for the event—in addition to their usual venue in Wellington Street, Chippendale (Serial 001), action will take place in the former FraserStudio around the corner (Serial 002), the embassy on George Street Broadway (Serial 003) and downstairs at the Civic Hotel in the city (Serial 004), as well as local Redfern bar, Freda’s.
It’s a dauntingly comprehensive program with multiple activities across the 12 days and nights. Music highlights include a concert by US electronica legend Keith Fullerton Whitman (July 20); Noiseball, a handball tournament that is accompanied by a noise set from Aemon Webb (July 26); and an audiovisual feast in honour of the pop music video featuring Marco Cher-Gibard, Scott Morrison, Michael Salerno, Oscar Slorach-Thorn, Jonathon Watts and Marcus Whale (July 28). The final night (July 29) features alternative orchestras with Electronic Resonance Korps (ERK), a laptop only ensemble led by Monica Brooks, and Jonathan Watts’ The Sydney Radio Orchestra which will emerge from a series of build-your-own radio workshops during the festival.
Pia van Gelder, Noiseball, Time Machine
courtesy Serial Space
Pia van Gelder, Noiseball, Time Machine
But Time Machine is not just about media art. The curators (two of whom are members of Brown Council), have also thrown performance into mix. Curiosity is immediately piqued by the very notion of an “in-game” performance of Waiting for Godot in the Massive multi-user online game Glitch, led by Bruce Green (Samuel Bruce and Daniel Green, July 19). The majority of performances are framed as lectures and include Noëlle Janaczewska discussing gravel, actual, cultural and metaphorical (July 22); Melita Rowston exploring the six-degrees of separation between you and Ned Kelly (July 21); and Helen Grogan delivering a performance lecture about performance lectures (July 22).
Another interesting feature is a focus on technology and women—or that ‘dirty’ word for Gen Y—“feminism.” There’s a presentation by Jacinta Kelly on the feminist futurism of poet/artist Mina Loy; a performance lecture by Nancy Mauro-Flude on “the intimate relationship between you and your computer” (website); Bonita Ely and Diana Smith on the ancient cult of the Dogwoman and its current manifestations; and a panel discussion around women and technology with Mauro-Flude, Ella Barclay, Pia van Gelder and RealTime’s Gail Priest (all July 29). And a Serial Space festival wouldn’t be complete without a great debate, this time on the topic “Men Can’t be Feminists” (July 21).
The Time Machine exhibition will run for the length of the festival with works exploring “temporality and presence” (website) and there will also be a publication, Time Capsule, featuring writing by Rebecca Conroy (see RT Traveller: Detroit), Stephen Jones, Douglas Kahn and Diana Smith. Serial Space: Time Machine, various venues, Sydney, July 18-29; http://serialspace.org/
everywhere but here, blindside
Zoe Scoglio, The Human Sundial Project – Travelling Through Time And Space While Standing Still – Journey #3, 2012, video still
courtesy the artist
Zoe Scoglio, The Human Sundial Project – Travelling Through Time And Space While Standing Still – Journey #3, 2012, video still
Another inaugural festival hosted by an artist-run-space, Everywhere but Here presented by Blindside in Melbourne, will be exploring “travel, transitions and place” (press release). At the centre of the event are two video programs, Destination HERE and Destination NOW, featuring the work of 18 artists including Dominic Redfern, Claire Robertson, Zoe Scoglio, Bonnie Lane, Hoang Tran Nguyen and Hannah Raisin (runs Aug 2-8).
Artist Hanna Tai will also present a solo exhibition titled At the outpost beside the rapids. Working across video, photography and installation Tai will explore the iconography of travel through the postcard which “collapse(s) experience, memory and desire into idealised symbology acting as signifiers of a real or longed-for experience” (press release, Aug 7-11). The third exhibition component is Return to Sender where artists around the world have been invited to post their artworks in various formats (Aug 9-11).
Hoang Tran Nguyen, Forklift Island (Abridged), (2011), video still
courtesy the artist
Hoang Tran Nguyen, Forklift Island (Abridged), (2011), video still
Framing these exhibitions is a forum on artist residencies, Anywhere but here!, with Kate Shaw, Carl Scrase and Nic Low (Aug 9). The artists will share their experiences and tips about the much coveted residency including application writing, travel tips and how to make the most of working in new and foreign environments. ArtsClub will also present Escape with AirBlindside, a kind of speed-dating activity where visitors are paired up and share their experiences of arts and travel (Aug 3). So if you can’t get away at the moment, maybe attending Everywhere But Here might transport you. Everywhere But Here, curatorial committee Claire Anna Watson, Shae Nagorcka, Natalya Maller, Andrew Tetzlaff, Blaine Cooper, Adele Macer, Elise Murphy; Blindside Level 7, Nicholas Building, Melbourne, Aug 2-11; www.blindside.org.au
on edge, cairns
Zane Saunders (pictured) & Nicholas Mills, I, Alien, On Edge
courtesy the artist
Zane Saunders (pictured) & Nicholas Mills, I, Alien, On Edge
If you are seriously contemplating an escape, Cairns is offering not only tropical surrounds but also a fine sampling of culture from Far North Queensland and the rest of the country. The festival is mid-way through but there’s still plenty to come.
On exhibition for the entire festival is I, Alien, a collaboration between Indigenous artist Zane Saunders and arts producer and musician Nicholas Mills. Through video and audio the exhibition explores “the human, visual and visceral aspects of displacement and belonging” with particular reference to traditional landowners, urban Indigenous people and migrant populations (press release).
For one night only (July 18) you can catch Version 1.0’s quietly disturbing work The Disappearances Project (see RT103). It is paired nicely with Cherry Tree Creek by Derek Tripper (July 19-20), also a documentary-based performance, exploring the deaths of two women found near Atherton in 1991, one of Far North Queensland’s greatest unsolved murders.
Leah Shelton & Lisa Fa’alafi, Tradewinds, Polytoxic
courtesy the artist
Leah Shelton & Lisa Fa’alafi, Tradewinds, Polytoxic
On a different note is The Last Tuesday Society (July 24), which will bring together the Melbourne collective of the same name with local artists in what is claimed to be “a contemporary vaudeville event like no other” (press release).
Dance also features with performances by Brisbane-based ensemble Polytoxic working with Cairns visual artist Sam Tupou (July 25-27). Their show, Trade Winds, will be presented in the Cairns Esplanade Lagoon. Finally Tamara Saulwick’s Pin Drop (July 27-28) exploring the role of listening in a thriller scenario will swing through as part of its Mobile States national tour (see in the loop quick picks for more on the Mobile States Touring Cluster). On Edge, Cairns, produced by Arthouse, the Cairns Centre of Contemporary Arts, KickArts Contemporary Arts, and The House Of Falcon, July 13-28; www.onedgeart.com/
a futures festival, alexandra harrison, dancehouse
What’s Coming – A Futures Festival
photo Steven R De Luzuriaga
What’s Coming – A Futures Festival
Over tea and biscuits Daphne Kingston, an 85-year old documenter of architecture told Alexandra Harrison that “coming events cast their shadows.” This pearl of wisdom has inspired Harrison, Dancehouse’s current house-mate resident, to create What’s Coming—A Futures Festival, a series of activities created by Harrison and her collaborators including dance, performance, talks and installations, exploring prophecies for dance, art and living.
Each night starts with Forest of Gesture, a video installation and performance work made with Anne Scott Wilson which studies people moving through public spaces attempting to “pause and reflect on the excesses of action” (press release). Each night also includes the Library of Future Forecasts, which documents, through text and visual media, the forecasts of 30 artists, scientists, engineers, musicians and theorists.
What’s Coming – A Future’s Festival
image Anne Scott Wilson
What’s Coming – A Future’s Festival
Following this the program offers a variety of performances. Harrison will open the event presenting her 50-minute work What’s Coming—Dance as Forecast, which will use the whole Dancehouse building as the territory where, via a variety of future forecasting techniques, we are told “the dance prophet” will be created. Other performances include The Build Up, a one hour durational drum roll by Chris Lewis; It’s All Downhill from Here (the warmth of entropy), a 25-minute descent down a staircase by Debra Batton; and Triumph of Activity, a performance by a group of older women exploring “grace, subtlety, humour and wisdom” (press release).
There’ll also be a screening of The Study of Habitual Passengers, made in collaboration with Blue Lucine using 173 portraits cut from maps of England and Wales that become characters in the work. Additionally theorist David Turnbull and Dean Pierides will present a lecture on Mapping as Choreography. The Futures Festival will conclude with The Line-Up, in which 20 dancers offering three-minute previews of potential dances. What’s Coming – A Futures Festival, curator/creator Alexandra Harrison, plus collaborators; Dancehouse July 31 – Aug 4; www.dancehouse.com.au
The Australia Council has announced that Carriageworks will deliver the inaugural National Screen Dance Initiative. 24 Frames Per Second is a program commissioning 18 Australian-based works along with six international films. Chosen artists have experience in multi-disciplinary, intercultural and Indigenous practices and include Tony Albert, Alison Currie, Vicki Van Hout, James Newitt, Byron Perry and Antony Hamilton, Khaled Sabsabi, Aimee Smith, Latai Taumoepeau, Christian Thompson and Lee Wilson and Mirabelle Wouters. The international artists include Sriwhana Spong (New Zealand), Wit Pimkanchanapong (Thailand), Ming Wong (Singapore) and Nick Cave (USA—the visual artist, not the singer). Carriageworks plans to deliver the works via a number of media platforms over the next three years along with a major exhibition in 2015. ABC Television has come on board as a key partner, broadening the potential audience for the works. www.carriageworks.com.au/
mobile states cluster 2012
Thrashing Without Looking, Aphids
photo Ponch Hawkes
Thrashing Without Looking, Aphids
The annual Mobile States Touring Cluster is on the move. This year it includes shows that make the audience work for their pleasure, as in Aphids’ thoroughly experiential Thrashing Without Looking (see RT101; Jana Perkovic’s account in RT105; and John Bailey’s report also in RT105); and Back to Back’s participatory video project The Democratic Set (see Tim Atack’s account of the Bristol iteration). Gothic comedy can be expected from RRAMP (Christine Johnston, Lisa O’Neill and Peter Nelson) in The Collector, the Archivist & the Electrocrat, while Tamara Saulwick explores anxiety and anticipation through sound in her solo performance, Pin Drop. The touring schedule is rather complicated, but if you’re in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Hobart, Launceston, Cairns, Campbelltown, Newcastle, Darwin, Goolwa or Mandurah, check out the Mobile States website—at least one of these innovative performance works is coming your way. Mobile States Touring Cluster, major partners Performing Lines, Performance Space, North Melbourne Town Hall Arts House, Salamanca Arts Centre, Brisbane Powerhouse, PICA, July-August http://performinglines.org.au/productions/mobile-states-cluster-2012/
parallel universes, qut & monash university
Bill Viola, The Reflecting Pool, Collected Works 1977-80
Parallel Universes is a retrospective of seminal video works from both Australian and international artists made between 1970 and 1985. A curatorial collaboration between Dr Mark Pennings, Lubi Thomas and Rachael Parsons from QUT and Matthew Perkins from Monash University, the exhibition is divided into three thematic groupings: Performance, Identity, Video; Video as the Medium, and the medium is the Message; and Politics of Narrative. Artists include Bill Viola, Mike Parr, Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik, Peter Callas, Stephen Jones, Joan Jonas and more. Lubi Thomas says of this period of experimentation, “… cultural and political barriers were falling, giving video art the opportunity to become truly global. This exhibition focuses on influences shared by Australian video artists in relation to ‘parallel’ video art practiced by their international peers” (press release). The exhibition will be framed by a series of talks and panel discussions including “After the Future: The History and Future of Video Art,” led by Dr Mark Pennings and Matthew Perkins. Parallel Universes, QUT, July 24-Aug 4, The Block, QUT, www.ciprecinct.qut.edu.au/whatson/exhibitions/parallel.jsp
inject, herman kolgen, bristol, uk
Herman Kolgen, Inject
photo courtesy In Between Time
Herman Kolgen, Inject
For readers in the UK there’s a chance to experience a truly immersive work by “audiocinetic sculptor” Herman Kolgen. Inject will be projected onto a massive screen above the pool at Bristol’s Hengrove Park Leisure Centre, watched by an audience of happily bobbing bathers. But the content might make waves: an onscreen figure is also suspended in water and over 45 minutes the water pressure is increased and the oxygen decreased affecting the person’s nervous system. With a live-mixed soundtrack the piece explores “a loss of touch with reality and invites a floating audience to consider the relationship between human biology and emotion” (website). Herman Kolgen, Inject, in partnership with In Between Time, Bristol City Council’s Art in the Public Realm, the Watershed and Picture This, Hengrove Park Leisure Centre, Bristol, UK, July 27; http://inbetweentime.co.uk/event/inject-piscine
While Port Adelaide-based Vitalstatistix is still informed by feminist and gender-aware perspectives, the company has, over the last few years, opened out from a women’s theatre company to become what they describe as a “boutique producer-presenter of contemporary theatre and interdisciplinary arts” (website). Vitalstatistix has recently announced a call for proposals for their 2013 Incubator residencies that offer rehearsal space at the atmospheric, heritage-listed Waterside Workers Hall, producing technical and other assistance and a $4,000 contribution to projects in the early stages of creative development. Artists from around Australia working in performance, live art or interdisciplinary art are welcome to apply. Applications due Aug 31, 2012; www.vitalstatistix.com.au
queer residencies, stephen cummins bequest, performance space
Stephen Cummins (1960-1994) was a filmmaker, photographer and curator, perhaps best known for his beautiful and brutal dance film Resonance (1991, before dance film became a genre). On his death, funds were bequeathed to Performance Space. They are now being put towards a series of residencies for emerging queer artists. The residencies will assist performers to expand the predominantly short, cabaret/club act format into longer, more critically and dramaturgically rigorous works. There are three one-week residencies (starting Aug 20, Aug 27, Sept 3, 2012) and each includes mentoring with an established artist, technical support and artist fee. Applications close July 30, http://www.performancespace.com.au/2012/call-out-to-all-emerging-queer-performers/
australia council crowdfunding seminars
If you frequent Facebook or Twitter, you will by now have been asked by a variety of people to “crowdfund” their latest endeavour. While in some ways it seems a bit strange that we are all asking each other for money, it is rapidly proving to be a viable model for both large and smaller projects. In recognition of this the Australia Council is offering a series of seminars around the country to assist artists and organisations in their crowdfunding campaigns. Headed by Caroline Vu of the ArtSupport Australia team and Elliott Bledsoe, Digital Content Officer of the Australia Council, the seminars will offer tips for successful campaigns including case studies and the findings of a recent research project undertaken by Queensland University of Technology Creative Industries. Seminars will take place in Sydney, July 30; Canberra, July 31; Melbourne, Aug 1; Brisbane, Aug 2; Darwin, Aug 13; Perth, Aug 14; Adelaide, Aug 15; Hobart, Aug 16; Western Sydney, Aug 28. http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/events/2012/crowdfunding-seminars
Congratulations to media artist and creative producer Fee Plumley who has successfully overshot her crowdfunding target, raising $27,000 to buy a bus for her upcoming Really Big Roadtrip. She plans to travel Australia sharing the possibilities of digital arts in their many varied forms. http://www.reallybigroadtrip.com
Riley O’Keeffe, Nothing-Object, Forever, 2012, performance of Steve Reich’s Pendulum Music
courtesy the artist
Riley O’Keeffe, Nothing-Object, Forever, 2012, performance of Steve Reich’s Pendulum Music
RILEY O’KEEFFE TURNS STEVE REICH’S 1968 PENDULUM MUSIC, A SEMINAL WORK IN MUSICAL HISTORY, INTO SOMETHING NEW BY USING IT AS AN ELEMENT IN HIS EXHIBITION NOTHING-OBJECT, FOREVER.
O’Keeffe is a visual artist and Reich’s work is performed in the centre of an installation. There are pencil drawings on graph paper, a wall-drawing and expressionistic paintings on raw, unstretched canvas that are all concerned with visual mapping, especially the use of perspective, ways of seeing that have underpinned western art for centuries.
The CACSA Project Space is a large, brightly lit, antiseptically white-walled and gabled space whose almost bare internal planes firmly position you in an architectural perspective. On the floor facing upwards is a row of four loudspeakers, each with a microphone on a long cord hanging above. For the hour preceding the performance, we hear sounds from other elements of the installation—the rhythmic feedback hum of two closely miked electric fans. Not part of Reich’s work, they’re switched off before the performance but warm us up for it.
Riley O’Keeffe, Nothing-Object, Forever, 2012
courtesy the artist
Riley O’Keeffe, Nothing-Object, Forever, 2012
The premise of Reich’s Pendulum Music is simple—when the four loudspeakers on the floor are switched on, four performers simultaneously set the dangling mikes swinging above them. As the mikes swing back and forth, they generate oscillating feedback that begins in synch and then shifts out of phase as the pendulums’ oscillations diverge. The aggregating body of sound gradually moves towards equilibrium and when the mikes have stopped swinging the speakers are switched off.
The performance is loud and we can feel it. We’re entranced by the evolution of the sound and the exploration of phasing that was a central theme in Reich’s early work. Beyond the aural and physical sensations, we contemplate infinity expressed as a feedback loop, the process of entropic decay, the effects of chance and the way the electronically generated signal incorporates ambient noise. We know this piece will be different every time it’s performed, as there are so many variables that affect the sonic outcome. Obliquely, it recalls Nam June Paik’s TV Buddha (1974), the visual equivalent of the sonic feedback loop into which a viewer could trespass.
Amongst the large and enthusiastic audience is renowned Australian artist Margaret Dodd, who tells me of a performance of Pendulum Music she saw in a New York warehouse in 1968, the year it was written. Back then, Reich’s work was groundbreaking sonically and conceptually, challenging accepted musical forms and norms. I think about all that has happened in music in the last 44 years and how this work represents the break from the intensity of the high modernism that dominated musical and artistic development in the first half of the 20th century. In this incarnation, there is implicit homage to electrically amplified instrumentation and its effect on musical composition, as well as homage to Reich himself, a founder of minimalism and process music. It’s good that this is happening in Adelaide, where the sound art scene is not as vigorous as in Sydney and Melbourne. (It’s to be hoped that this performance whets appetites and stimulates development.)
Riley O’Keeffe, Nothing-Object, Forever, 2012
courtesy the artist
Riley O’Keeffe, Nothing-Object, Forever, 2012
O’Keeffe’s installation also includes a curious perspex box containing two speakers with tiny mikes suspended above them, a vitrine containing the apparatus of sound, rendered as sculpture that signifies feedback but which remains mute throughout the event. Another curious element is a form you can complete—you enter your name, the years you were born and died, family members, and a self-evaluation box—an instant obituary, suggesting the finitude of life and the infinity of the beyond.
O’Keeffe’s exhibition contemplates infinity and nothingness from multiple viewpoints. Infinity is suggested by the fugitive horizon line of the artist’s perspective. The horizon is an abstract concept, a trompe l’oeil, for you can never reach it, it recedes as you approach. I like O’Keeffe’s Nothing-Object, Forever, the way he has refreshed Reich’s concept and used it with architectural, visual, sculptural, textual and other sonic devices to demonstrate a proposition. Perspective establishes, and arises from, a viewing position. The concept of perspective is anthropocentric: it’s not about the viewed but about the viewer. This installation is about how subjectivity arises through awareness. We become aware of the pendulum’s movement through sound, of space and (our) location through mapping, and of life through the idea of its termination.
CACSA, Riley O’Keeffe, Nothing-Object, Forever, Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Project Space, Adelaide, June 15-July 15; http://www.cacsa.org.au
FOR THE PROGRAM OF THE 2012 MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, DAN EDWARDS HAS SELECTED SOME OF WHAT HE REGARDS TO BE THE BEST DOCUMENTARIES MADE IN CHINA OVER THE PAST DECADE OR SO.
All of the films in Street Level Visions: Indie Docs from China were produced outside the country's official production channels. These include several films and makers Edwards has written about for RealTime. Two of the documentary directors, Ou Ning and Wang Jiulaing, are guests of the festival.
One of the major figures of contemporary Chinese documentary filmmaking is Zhao Liang. Petition (2009) was shot over more than a decade in the petitioners' community in Beijing, made up of people who travel from all over China and endure often violent harassment in order to seek justice from the central authorities over alleged abuses of power in their home towns. Edwards wrote about Petition when it was unveiled at the Hong Kong Film Festival in 2009. Also screening is Liang's Crime and Punishment (2007), an observational film about the daily workings of a unit of the People's Armed Police (China's paramilitary police force) stationed in a small town on the border with North Korea.
In April-May 2010, Edwards wote about Hu Jie's Searching for the Soul of Lin Zhao (2004) and Though I Am Gone (2007). For Lin Zhao, Hu travelled China searching out those who knew Lin, a young writer who was an ardent supporter of the Communist Revolution and Mao's land reforms in the early 1950s. After defending fellow students at Peking University during the Anti-Rightist campaign of 1957, she was expelled and became bitterly disillusioned with the direction of China under Mao. Imprisoned in the early 1960s, she composed thousands of words into poems and essays in jail, often using her own blood for ink when she was denied writing materials. She was secretly executed in 1968. Though I Am Gone is similarly based on an eyewitness account of history, this time focusing on the deputy headmistress of a famous Beijing high school who was beaten to death by her own students in the opening weeks of the Cultural Revolution in late 1966. Her husband secretly photographed her bloodied corpse and the events leading to her death, images he reveals publicly for the first time in the film.
Wang Jingyao, husband of Bian Zhongyun, with the camera he used to photograph his wife’s body in 1966 after she was murdered by Red Guards, in Hu Jie’s documentary Though I Am Gone (2006)
Ou Ning's Meishi St evolved from the filmmaker's stumbling on the story of restaurateur Zhang Jinli in 2005 while filming just south of Tiananmen Square. Like thousands of other Beijing residents, Zhang's home and business were to be demolished in the lead-up to the 2008 Beijing Oiympics as part of a 'modernisation' of the capital. Ou Handed Zhang a camera and asked him to help document his fight for just compensation.
Edwards describes Zhou Hao's The Transition Period (2008) as “an extraordinary look into the workings of government in China. Zhou followed the General Secretary of a poor inland county during his last months in office, capturing the pressures, the boozing and the backroom manouvering that comprise local politics in China.”
The most recent work in the program is Beijing Besieged by Waste (2011), a debut film by Wang Jiuliang, a Beijing-based photographer who set out to document Beijing's chronic waste problem and stumbled upon hundreds of illegal and unregulated landfills encircling the capital.
Ou Ning and Wang Jiulaing will be guests of the festival, introducing their films at the screenings and appearing at a public panel in the festival bar, chaired by Dan Edwards. This is a great opportunity to engage with rarely seen, adventurous Chinese documentary films in the presence of their makers. RT
Accounts of the films above are based on notes provided by Dan Edwards. Read his Archive Highlight on contemporary Chinese cinema which includes an introduction and links to many RealTime articles on the subject.
“Records, Resistance or Cold War Clichés? Chinese Documentary in Focus,” Ou Ning and Wang Jiulaing, Talk, Tues, Aug 14, 5.30-6.15pm; Festival Lounge, Forum Theatre, free
Tim Watts, It’s Dark Outside, Perth Theatre Company
photo Richard Jefferson
Tim Watts, It’s Dark Outside, Perth Theatre Company
THE LATEST CREATION FROM THE MAKERS OF INTERNATIONAL FRINGE CIRCUIT FAVOURITE, THE ADVENTURES OF ALVIN SPUTNIK: DEEP SEA EXPLORER, IS A SOPHISTICATED, SINCERE AND WHIMSICAL STORY. WITH POISED HUMOUR, IT’S DARK OUTSIDE LAUNCHES INTO AN OTHERWORLDLY VOID WHERE A MAN EXPERIENCES SUNDOWN SYNDROME: A PSYCHOLOGICAL OCCURRENCE IN DEMENTIA PATIENTS WHO WANDER OFF FROM HOME, MOST FREQUENTLY AT SUNDOWN.
The main character is thus depicted as prone to random and aimless jaunts—symbolic of his increasing mental deterioration—embodied in a variety of visual tropes, including an animated tent that keeps him company on his lonesome ventures and a highly excitable, adorable puppet puppy born from a white puff of cloud. The old man and his trusted tent are vagabonds of the sunset, bedevilled by the ineffable and lost in time. Meanwhile, a butterfly net-wielding tracker who has caught his scent is resolute in hunting the man down and bringing him back to this world.
Like mesmeric clockwork, the skilled puppeteers are completely attuned to each other’s kinetic space. Tim Watts, Arielle Gray and Chris Isaacs bring delicacy and detail to the small puppet of the old man; their personification of the tent-as-noble-steed is inspired, as is the cloud-dog and other ephemeral figurations within the man’s hallucinatory state. The recurring motifs of clouds and the attempt to capture them with a net are expressions of the protagonist’s attempts to catch his thoughts before they flit away on the breeze. These are, initially, interesting metaphors for the states of both lucidity and fragmentation the man experiences as the clouds (and his ideas) break up, but ones that are to a degree overplayed.
However, Arielle Gray’s immersion within the character of the old man is flawless; her physical transformation, aided by a malleable mask complete with skin folds and creases, is complete. Her embodiment of the old man is filled with vulnerability along with a cheeky and determined attitude to triumph over the mysterious hunter. The animation designed by Watts coupled with the Ennio Morricone-inspired score by composer Rachael Dease pays homage to the Spaghetti Western’s quest for redemption. A particular highlight is the treatment of a scene using Sergio Leone’s filmmaking style in shadow play. Utilising bold depth of field juxtaposed with extreme close-ups for the staging of a duel, the old man and his tracker come face to face at high noon with only a walking stick and butterfly net at their disposal to fight it out.
Tim Watts, It’s Dark Outside, Perth Theatre Company
photo Richard Jefferson
Tim Watts, It’s Dark Outside, Perth Theatre Company
More than a matinee movie backdrop, Dease’s score traverses a wide range of moods and genres, showcasing her versatility and an ability to draw from the dark and find an unsettling beauty within it. Her use of retro-electronic instruments coupled with sparse rhythmic accompaniments evokes several time periods simultaneously: a reflection perhaps of the old man’s internal state. At other times, we are treated to a Southern Gothic fascination with dread, as Dease’s smoky vocals heighten the mood of the theme song “It’s Dark Outside,” like a soothing promise following a nightmare. It’s tricky to get the balance right when using a theme song in a stage show and the number of times it recurred may have been a tad excessive. However, Dease’s score was like another character, bringing an added dimension to the piece as a whole.
It’s Dark Outside is an incarnation of certain feelings: the fear of being lost in a forest; summoning up deep pain from the past; an endless fascination with the wilderness of one’s own mind. Such feelings can be frightening or liberating for many of us, whether or not we are in the grips of a disease such as Alzheimer’s and this, perhaps, is where the success of the play resides: in its refusal to become merely a stylised public service announcement, It’s Dark Outside speaks to broader themes of social and psychological displacement.
All credit to Perth Theatre Company for commissioning these talented emerging artists to create a new work. There is limited opportunity in this city for emerging artists to move up to the next level of their practice and work with established artists or professional venues. With Perth Theatre Company’s investment in developing and producing the work of emerging artists, coupled with its relationship with organisations such as The Blue Room Theatre, the opportunity for emerging artists to develop their work with a professional outcome is now within reach.
Perth Theatre Company, It’s Dark Outside, created and performed by Tim Watts, Arielle Gray, Chris Isaacs, composer Rachael Dease, set construction Anthony Watts; Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre WA, Perth, June 29-July 14
This article was originally published in RT’s online e-dition July 17, 2012
To meet up with artist-run spaces and initiatives across North America.
d is for detroit
In America it’s very popular to be ‘down on the D.’ You can hear the air being sucked in through the teeth of ordinary folk decrying the fate of a blighted Detroit, a reverse rags-to-riches story. Once the fourth largest city in America, its population has shrunk from about two million at its peak in the 1950s to fewer than 600,000. Derelict, burnt-out, abandoned homes and factories combine with 33,000 vacant lots across the city, giving rise to a new genre in photography called “ruin porn.”
I returned to Detroit after a brief sojourn in 2010. Like many before me, I fell in love with danger, the wildness and the satisfaction of a rust belt being reclaimed by an urban farming movement and all the possibilities that a post apocalyptic playground could ignite. Ranging across the USA on a self-styled rogue tour of artist-run spaces, Detroit in some ways has been the gravitational pull, anchoring the entire trip.
artist run spaces…
Ponyride is a hybrid artist-run space conceived by architect and artist duo Kaija Wuolett and Phil Cooley (Phil also runs Slows Bar BQ by word of mouth, the best bbq restaurant in town). Ponyride’s mission is to use the foreclosure crisis as a catalyst to drive transformation of the area and principally to “provide cheap space for socially-conscious artists and entrepreneurs to work and share knowledge, resources and networks” (website). Residents include a letter press and printmaker, Stukenborg Press originally hailing from NYC; a dance studio for Runjit a Detroit form of hiphop dance; “the empowerment plan,” a social entrepreneur textiles and humanitarian project; various digital media outfits; and a sound recording studio Beehive Recording Co. Ponyride even hosts a fencing club.
artworks by swoon, Powerhouse Productions, Hamtramck neighbourhood, Detroit
photo Rebecca Conroy
artworks by swoon, Powerhouse Productions, Hamtramck neighbourhood, Detroit
Dflux is the home and informal residency program of artists Jon Brumit and Sarah Wagner who famously bought a house in 2008 for $100. Jon now works at MOCAD and this house joins several other bustling emerging projects, many of which have been spear-headed by another creative couple Mitch and Gina from Design99 who are known for a range of urban interventions around the city of Hamtramck, under the moniker of Powerhouse Productions.
capital a art…
If you are looking for more on-the-beaten track art experiences there are of course some fine institutions, not just surviving but thriving. Museum of Contemporary Art, fittingly housed in a former auto dealership, is a hub for emerging contemporary practices with large gallery spaces and two very large residency development spaces. While there I met with Detroit based Performance Company the hinterlands, currently in residence. Hinterlands core member Eleni Zaharopoulos also hosts invite-only dinner parties at the Jamison Social Club which describes itself as “a part time public space hosting a variety of social experiments.” Join the mailing list to get invited.
The Detroit Institute of Arts at 5200 Woodward Avenue houses works by Picasso, Matisse, van Gogh and Warhol, but the main attraction is the large Diego Rivera fresco, Detroit Industry, which was commissioned in 1932 by Henry Ford’s son when he was director. Also in the Riviera Court are free concerts every Friday at 7 and 8.30pm.
for refreshment…
The place to be on Friday or Saturday nights is D’Mongo’s, or its full name Café D’Mongo’s Speakeasy, at 1439 Griswold Street. The cheeky grinned and very friendly Larry D’Mongo presides over this bar located at the back of the hotel he runs with his wife, who also looks after over a very quirky tearoom on the other side of the building (open by appointment only). D’mongo’s serves food, great drinks and packs in some awesome live music. Everyone seems to know everyone at D’Mongo’s.
The first thing to do when you arrive in Detroit is track down a decent flat white. This is a term not understood by many Americans, so it is divine intervention that Astro Coffee on Michigan Ave was opened last year by Australian Jess Hicks and her partner Daisuke Hughes (originally from Detroit). The food is excellent if you are homesick for homemade coconut ice or Anzac biscuits. And…the coffee. My god, it’s good.
play spaces
The Heidelberg Project, Detroit
photo Rebecca Conroy
The Heidelberg Project, Detroit
Visiting Dabl’s African Bead Museum is a must for bead and non-bead lovers alike just to hear Dabl’s stories, plus the amazing public art adorning the site. Looking for a more hands-on synthetic experience, there’s hacker space Omni Detroit and also Mt Elliot Maker Space which has open lab days each Thursday from 2pm. The Heidelberg Project, 3600 Heidelberg Street, has just celebrated 25 years. It started as a protest by artist Tyree Guthrie and his father Sam Mackey when they gathered toys and other domestic debris left over from abandoned houses and used them to make large-scale installation works—as big as houses. The site, having grown several blocks in size, is now recognised internationally as an outdoor sculpture park, having survived two attempts by the Mayor’s office to bulldoze it.
architecture
Michigan Central Station (1913) is an awesome site, located in the Corktown neighbourhood and created by the architects behind New York City’s Grand Central Terminal. When Amtrak moved out in 1988, it closed down and has sat empty, slowly decaying ever since. Other significant sites include United Artists Theater at 150 Bagley Street; Packyard Auto Plant on East Grand Boulevard and the majestic 1920s Michigan Theater, now the most opulent car park in the world. To sample more tasteful ruin, porn check out Parisian photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre.
urban farms
The promise of spoils from an emerging green economy is sparking interest in urban farming, alongside efforts by black communities to bring food justice to a city otherwise known as a ‘food desert.’ The confluence of abundant vacant urban land with the global resurgence in growing and eating local produce is starting to yield results. Check out D-Town Farm; Brightmoor; and Earthworks Detroit. To taste some of this goodness, and to see Detroiters on display on Saturdays go to the Eastern Markets, a public market spanning six blocks, operating since 1891. Grab a bike and ride the Dequindre Cut north from the river frontage.
street art, Hamtramck area
photo Rebecca Conroy
street art, Hamtramck area
accommodation
Hostel Detroit, run as a non-profit, is managed by the affable and critically astute Michel, originally from Quebec. He and his family have resided in Detroit for the past 14 years. The hostel is like a big share house and, like a lot of things that make Detroit great, its reputation tends to filter out the 20-year-old gap year travellers. Bikes are available to rent for $10 a day.
Rebecca Conroy is an interdisciplinary creative and director of Bill+George, an artist run space in Sydney. Rebecca was the Associate Director at Performance Space (2008-2010) and completed her PhD on “Oppositional Performance Practice” in 2006 after an extended period living and working within the Indonesian underground.
A full report on Conroy’s study of US artist-run spaces will appear in RT111.
contentious cut and paste
megan garrett-jones: nighttime: petty theft, performance space
RealTime issue #91 June-July 2009 web
Soundcapsule is a bi-monthly online feature offering free downloads of music by artists we’ve recently covered in RealTime.
All tracks are copyright the artists.
ida duelund hansen, another lament, chamber made opera/rawcus
Mike McEvoy, Ida Duelund Hansen, Another Lament
photo Paul Dunn
Mike McEvoy, Ida Duelund Hansen, Another Lament
Another Lament is a salon opera commissioned as part of Chamber Made’s Living Room series which presents performances in private residences, though it has since been performed at Melbourne’s Malthouse. Co-created with Rawcus, an ensemble for performers with and without disabilities, Another Lament is directed by Kate Sulan and composed by Danish cellist/vocalist Ida Dueland Hansen who also performs in the work. The piece is loosely based on the tragic demise of 17th century British composer Henry Purcell.
In a review in RT101 Matthew Lorenzon wrote: “[Duelund Hansen] utilises a vast stylistic spectrum from baroque to jazz harmonies and mid-20th century Central European atonality, to extended vocal and double bass techniques. Her reinterpretations of Purcell demonstrate an expressive continuum in harmonic and timbral composition from unnerving baroque contrapuntal dissonance to the sickly crackle of cotton thread over a double bass string.”
Kraig Grady is a US-born composer currently based in Wollongong, NSW. He performs with Terumi Narushima as Clocks and Clouds. Heavily influenced by Harry Partch, Grady has an ongoing interest in microtonal tunings, building his own instruments in order to perform his compositions. In fact Grady has created an entire meta-world to encapsulate his compositional thinking, Anaphora Island.
A particularly striking instrument is the Meru Bars described by Gail Priest in a recent review of Clocks and Clouds at Aurora 2012 as “PVC conduit of different lengths, placed vertically and topped with thick metal bars suspended on elastic. The objects are equally musical and sculptural and, at a distance, their faux marble paintwork makes them reminiscent of ancient objects of ritual.”
Reviewing the same concert Oliver Downes writes: “The sound of the Meru seemed to emanate from deep within the earth, its blended resonances suggesting imaginary ceremonies unfolding in forgotten caves. When this opening ‘terrain’ section closed with the exit of the Meru from the texture, the remaining instruments seemed bereft without its subterranean heat.”
a moving song for the earth
oliver downes: clocks and clouds, aurora festival of living music
RealTime issue #109 June-July 2012 web
alternate hearings
gail priest: clocks & clouds, greg schiemer, aurora festival
RealTime issue #109 June-July 2012 web
an aurora over western sydney
keith gallasch: andrew batt-rawden, artistic director, aurora festival of living music
RealTime issue #108 April-May 2012 p14
david burraston, the wired lab
The WIRED Lab
courtesy the artists
The WIRED Lab
The WIRED Lab was established in 2007 as an artist collective comprising Sarah Last, David Burraston, Alan Lamb and Robin Fox. It is situated on a rural property in Cootamundra in the Riverina district around 400 kms south west of Sydney. The collective’s overall intention is rooted in broader investigations into connections between art, science and environment, however the initial project for the group was to further explore the long wire techniques developed by Alan Lamb over the last 30 years.
David Burraston lives on the property and is conducting ongoing research. This track is from the Rainwire project which “forms part of an art/science initiative to investigate environmental sonification of land based natural rainfall using large-scale long wire instruments” (academic paper Charles Sturt University).
The WIRED Lab was established in 2007 on a rural property in Cootamundra in the Riverina district around 400 kms south west of Sydney. It serves both as a physical location as well as an artist collective comprising Sarah Last, David Burraston, Alan Lamb and Robin Fox. Initial impetus for the collaboration was to further explore the 'long wire' work that Lamb has developed over a number of decades (based on the sounds of telegraph wires), however the collective’s overall intention is rooted in broader investigations into connections between art, science and environment.
Several ‘wires’ have been erected on the property and over the last five years there have been a variety of residencies and workshops utilising them, as well as other field recording activities. This double LP set documents four live performances that took place at dusk on October 31, 2009 during an open day for the site, and features the key artists Lamb, Burraston and Fox along with associated artists Garry Bradbury and Oren Ambarchi who have also undertaken extensive residencies there.
The first album features two duos. Burraston and Lamb offer an introduction to the unique sound of the wires. The recurrent sonic element in this piece is a kind of ping or “p-schwing.” It’s curiously electronic, like the sound of guns in science fiction movies, yet it’s also very analogue. Lamb and Burraston have devised their own contact microphones to best pick up the vibrations and these allow us to hear the metallicness of the wire, the forces of tension acting upon it, the flick and release—oscillations carrying long distances. (In the sonic revelation of physical properties I’m reminded of Akio Suzuki’s intriguing long spring reverb instrument, the Analapos.
The piece has a dark, gothic feel, the wire flicks and taps underpinned by a quietly insistent moaning of wind. This is an altered Australian landscape, the vastness still there, but the sun low and the shadows ominous, a mood similarly evoked by the brooding black and white landscape panoramas that adorn the gate-fold cover. The piece shifts in density from quiet and spare—where we hear the full qualities of a single ping—to a veritable storm of sound, where we are aurally flayed by the wires. In the depth of the storm the work begins to sound like rain lashing a corrugated iron roof—both unnerving and beautiful. (See soundcapsule #4 for an example of Burraston's work.)
The duo of Lamb and Bradbury lets more of the figurative landscape into the mix with the buzz of flies and various bird tweets. These gradually morph, gaining organised harmonics to become a warm drone underpinning the increasingly insistent birdsong. Then the wire is introduced, played by, it seems, an electric razor, the speed-modulated vibrations creating swells and troughs of harsh yet still warm metallic tones. There is complex melodic play as the whistling wind is intertwined, drawing out eerie harmonics similar to those made by Sarah Hopkins’ whirlies. The piece develops a darker turn for the conclusion, the increasingly insistent drone like an oversized hurdy-gurdy.
Oren Ambarchi picks up on this and takes it to the next level. Known for his extended guitar works involving epic crescendos, Ambarchi employs a similar methodology with the wire, however here it is pared back with less reliance on layering effects, but without any loss of intensity. Ambarchi concentrates on the bass potentials of the wires and there’s a tangible sense of liveness, as well as gesture as he uses something like an ebow and direct bowing to draw out long, deep tones that swell in and out of smooth and burry vibration. The sound is big and cataclysmic, coming in waves with dramatic ruptures—at some point sounding like a piano being dropped from a window. And just when you think that descending bass line can go no lower, it does—and truly magnificent it is.
Perhaps it is strange to include Robin Fox’s piece in the LP set, as it was in fact an integrated audiovisual work in which the sound is symbiotically linked with a laser show, projected onto a hillside. However such is Fox’s skill, that while the piece makes you wish you had been there watching the full show, the sound does stand on its own. We get Fox’s harsh, rhythmic static assaults, with morsecoding micro melodies and an almost sculptural approach to structure. Occasional recordings of the wires are introduced but they seem strangely figurative in Fox’s highly abstracted aesthetic. (In email correspondence, Fox tells me that the wire recordings were fed through his data visualisation system and projected onto the hill.) So while not so “wirey” in its sound-only documentation, it’s still a pleasure to hear Fox’s brand of exact and exacting noise on vinyl.
The WIRED Open Day 2009 double LP is both deeply engaging listening and a comprehensive document of the Wires project. Each artist/collaboration offers distinctly different approaches: Burraston and Lamb present an extracted essence of the sonic phenomenon of the wires while Bradbury and Lamb offer a sense of the environment in which the wires are situated. Fox is more difficult to pinpoint, but if you listen with site-specifity in mind, there’s an intriguing tension between the man-made and natural environment. Considering the album as document, it’s Ambarchi’s performance that captures the idea of the wires not just as a sound source to be sampled, but as an instrument that can be tamed and played live, with fascinating results.
Gail Priest
See soundcapsule #4 for an excerpt by David Burraston utilising the wires.
Dara Gill Untitled (Survey with stones) 2011
safARI
SafARI is dedicated to presenting the work of emerging and unrepresented artists and has been the unofficial fringe event of the Biennale of Sydney since 2004. This year’s manifestation, under the guiding hands of Danielle Robson and Nina Stromqvist, lives up to its name with a range of activities that ask the viewer to be venturesome in their pursuit of art. The annual walk (the safari) around the various spaces took place on June 23, and the weekend of June 30 saw Bus Projects’ mobile performance space roaming around the inner city. However tracking down the main exhibition venues (open until July 15) also requires a sense of adventure.
ALASKA projects is an ARI that is currently inhabiting an undercover car park in Kings Cross. The artists exhibiting are: Chris Bennie presenting an intimate study of the car park in his local Brisbane shopping mall; Dara Gill who is exploring anxiety through handmade instruments inspired by medieval tools intended to recreate the sounds of hell; and Drew Pettifer whose video work explores sexuality and human connection. Pettifer’s provocative paste-ups are also dotted around the city focusing on the history of gay activism.
Drew Pettifer Untitled (Billboard #1) 2012
safARI has also teamed up with the Rocks Pop Up Project to use several of their spaces. At 13 Cambridge Street you’ll find Kurt Sorensen’s photographic portraits of people now living who are thought to be related to characters from the The Rocks circa 1850; and Julia Henderson’s site specific assemblages drawing on “architectural elements, imperfections and found objects” (press release). At 75 1/2 George Street you might discover Tega Brain’s interactive odorific art; or chat with Jodie Whalen who has undertaken the daunting task of living in the gallery for the duration of the exhibition. Here you’ll also find sound artist Julian Day’s keyboard installation exploring the eternal music of the drone. (See coverage of Day & Luke Jaaniste’s Super Critical Mass as part of Aurora.)
But if you can’t make it to the physical locations you can always check out the ‘studio visit’ video interviews with all 16 artists on the safARI website. safARI, directors Danielle Robson and Nina Stromqvist, artists Clark Beaumont, Chris Bennie, Tega Brain, Julian Day, Dara Gill, Julie Henderson, Julia Holden, Huw Lewis, Daniel McKewen, Rachel Park, Drew Pettifer, Kurt Sorensen, Adele Varcoe, Jodie Whalen and Elizabeth Willing; various venues, June 22-July 15, http://safari.org.au/
the reginald 2012 program
Rachelle Hickson, Kiruna Stamell, Benjamin Hancock, James Berlyn & Nalina Wait, Sue Healey’s Variant
photo Heidrun Löhr
Rachelle Hickson, Kiruna Stamell, Benjamin Hancock, James Berlyn & Nalina Wait, Sue Healey’s Variant
In 2011 the downstairs theatre at the Seymour Centre in Sydney was rebranded The Reginald. (Luckily philanthropist Everest Reginald York Seymour, after whom the whole centre and the two main theatres are named, had one middle name remaining!) With the rebranding came a re-invigoration of the program and the 2011 season was well received. Recently Tim Jones, Seymour Centre Artistic Director, has announced the 2012 program which will feature five quite different works over the next five months.
The season starts with choreographer Sue Healey’s latest piece Variant continues her exploration of the diversity of the human form. (See RealTimeDance for a full profile of Healey’s works.) During the Sydney Fringe, The Reginald will host Damian Callinan’s comedy The Merger, telling the tale of a country football coach who recruits local asylum seekers to make up player numbers. October sees director Kate Gaul take on the music theatre work Myths and Hymns by Tony Award winner Adam Guettel, described as “jazz meets opera meets gospel meets R&B meets music comedy and beyond” (website). Deborah Thomson’s My Private Parts: An Inside View of Fertilisation—a hit at last year’s Sydney Fringe—is a satirical musical work about the IVF experience. The season ends on a slightly darker note with Peter Grahan and Adelaide group five.point.one’s presentation of Daniel Keene’s The Share, in which street kids Sugar and Tex plan a heist of the local drug dealer, which, as you might imagine, can only end badly. Reginald Season, The Seymour Centre, July-Dec, http://sydney.edu.au/seymour/
the reef, tura new music & aco
The Reef is a unique project that sees the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Tura New Music team up to present a national tour from Darwin to Perth through the Kimberley, Pilbara, Gascoyne and Mid West regions of Western Australia, ending at Sydney Opera House. The centrepiece of the program is a work for strings, didgeridoo and slide guitar composed by Iain Grandage in collaboration with Indigenous musician Mark Atkins and the ACO’s Richard Tognetti. It also features a film by Jon Frank and Mick Sowry with surfing legend Derek Hynd. The work was devised during a residency at Gnaraloo in the Gascoyne region and is said to take inspiration from the Ningaloo coast while “simultaneously exploring the interconnectedness of pure surfing and music” (website). Other works in the concert, performed by the compact ACO2 ensemble, will include George Crumb’s Black Angels as well as songs by Broome’s Steve Pigrum arranged by Graindage. The Reef, Darwin July 5, Kununurra July 7, Broome July 11, Port Hedland July 12, Carnavon July 14, Geraldton July 15, Perth July 18, Sydney July 23; for more info http://reeftour.tura.com.au/
opportunities
ian potter moving image commission with acmi
The Ian Potter Trust and ACMI have developed a significant partnership to commission major moving image-based artworks. The project will commission one work every year for 10 years from mid-career Australian artists and is valued at $100,000 per annum. The works will be presented at ACMI and become part of the Ian Potter Collection. Selected works may also become part of the ACMI collection to sit alongside those of major international artists such as Mona Hatoum, Bill Viola and Tony Oursler. The commissions will be selected from an open call to mid-career Australian artists living here or overseas. More details will be announced in late July. http://www.ianpotterculturaltrust.org.au/
qut digital asscociates program
The Block, QUT
QUT Creative Industries Precinct is offering media artists the opportunity to research and develop work for exhibition at The Block, an exhibition space tailored to the digital arts. There are two exhibition packages to choose from which include subsidised access to The Block along with curatorial and technical support involving R&D sessions with QUT staff. The first round of applications closes July 15, with a second round due Feb 1, 2013. www.ciprecinct.qut.edu.au/dap
congratulations
Adelaide artist Jason Sweeney has been named as one of the five winners of the TED City2.0 awards. Sweeney’s Stereopublic project seeks to use crowd sourcing technologies to create maps of quiet spaces in urban environments. Sweeney hopes this will increase the “sonic health” of our cities, particularly for the “recluses” and those with “disabilities, like autism and schizophrenia, who crave less sensory stimuli” (website). Sweeney will be using the $10,000 prize money along with a Creative Australia grant to complete the project, collaborating with Martin Potter, Nick Crowther, Amy Milhinch and the programming/design team at Freerange Future. The outcome will be an online space for web and mobile devices where participants can build up a database, via geo location, of favourite quiet spaces. http://www.thecity2.org/stories/41
Stuart Buchanan from New Weird Australia talks with Gail Priest about three years of operation and what's in store in the future.
New Weird Australia started in 2009 to nurture and promote ‘experimental and eclectic’ Australian music. NWA activities include a weekly radio program on Sydney’s FBi, free digital compilations, an edition series focussing on a single group or artist and the presentation of gigs.
Mini-doco about Psycho Subtropics at Serial Space, Sydney, including interviews with co-curator Joel Stern and artist Michael Candy
PSYCHO SUBTROPICS is a constantly evolving mini festival curated by OtherFilm (Joel Stern & Danni Zuvela) presenting Brisbane artists who work across music, noise and various visual forms. The Sydney manifestation was the third in the series and involved a residency at Serial Space for a week culminating in an exhibition, two nights of performances and a film session. The artists were Sarah Byrne, Michael Candy, Leighton Craig, Alex Cuffe, Bec Cunningham, Michael Donnelly, Gerald Keaney, Ross Manning, Andrew Mcllelan, Nicola Morton, Glen Schenau, Sandra Selig, Joel Stern and Danni Zuvela. Serial Space June 7-10, 2012
Malcolm Smith at his exhibition opening at Lir Space in Yogyakarta, 2012
photo Dito Yuwono
Malcolm Smith at his exhibition opening at Lir Space in Yogyakarta, 2012
reason for travelling
Smith is currently based in Indonesia.
contemporary art—ancient culture
Throw a stick in Yogyakarta (usually referred to as Yogya, and pronounced Jogja) and chances are you’ll hit an artist. Throw a couple more and you’ll hit a foreign artist here on a residency, exchange program, research grant or just escaping the winter back home. The relaxed pace of Yogya, the city’s reputation as the cultural heart of Java, the fact that it’s home to one of the country’s largest art schools and the cheap cost of living make it the perfect place to immerse yourself in art for a few weeks (months, or even years…).
Here Here, street art, 2012
photo Agung Geger
Here Here, street art, 2012
Located in the centre of Java, Yogya is surrounded by the ancient Borobodur and Prambanan temple complexes in the East and West, the active volcano Mount Merapi in the North and the fabulous beaches of Parangtritis and Wonosari in the South. In the centre of town, amongst centuries-old palaces, rambling marketplaces and narrow streets there is also an ever-expanding range of contemporary art spaces.
for culture…
The venerable Cemeti Arthouse should be the first stop on your Yogya Art Tour. Cemeti opened in 1988 and ever since has played a key role in the development of contemporary art practice in Indonesia. A short walk away are Kedai Kebun Forum and Langgeng Art Foundation, both of which host exhibitions by local and international artists, as well as regular seminars and performances. Ten minutes to the West is Sangkring Artspace, a complex of enormous spaces that host some excellent shows. Taman Budaya Yogyakarta and Jogja National Museum are public venues that regularly host contemporary art events, including the Yogya Biennale and Art Fair Jogjakarta. The next ArtJOG12 will run July 14-28.
Eddie Prabandono, A Sleeping Child, opening night, ArtJOG11, 2011
photo Malcolm Smith
Eddie Prabandono, A Sleeping Child, opening night, ArtJOG11, 2011
For those with more specific interests, there is a proliferation of small collectives and artist-run spaces. As in any city, they tend to come and go, but some that have lasted several years are House of Natural Fibre, aka HONF (for science/art projects), Mes 56 (photography), Survive Garage (street art), Kunci (cultural studies/theory), Paper Moon Puppet Theatre and Theater Garasi. The Indonesian Visual Art Archive houses a vast library documenting art practices over past decades and is an excellent resource for curators and researchers. You can pick up a great map of Yogya artspaces from IVAA or Kedai Kebun, or download it here.
Malcolm Smith, grant writing workshop at IVAA Yogyakarta
photo courtesy IVAA 2012
Malcolm Smith, grant writing workshop at IVAA Yogyakarta
If you are planning a trip to Yogya I recommend you do a little research and contact one or two of the above organisations. Artists are warmly welcomed in this city and well looked after (if you get a chance, you can return the favour one day). Giving an artist talk or a workshop is a great way to meet the locals, make friends and get access to a side of the city most tourists never see.
getting around…
There’s very little public transport in Yogya and the streets (like every Asian city) are swarming with small 150cc motorbikes. If you are prepared to brave it, they are a great way to get around and can be hired for about $4 per day. Otherwise you can hire a bicycle for about $2 per day or hail a becak (rickshaw). Remember to negotiate the fare before you climb aboard.
Anang Saptoto, Mobile Display (from the series Indonesian Zone) 2011
photo courtesy the artist
Anang Saptoto, Mobile Display (from the series Indonesian Zone) 2011
for accommodation…
The Prawirotaman area is close to all the galleries and cheap, good restaurants. Hotels here range from $10-$40 per night, but paying more doesn’t necessarily guarantee a better experience (or even a clean bathroom). Some of the smaller homestays offer much better value. ViaVia Homestay or Rumah Eyang have small but clean rooms in a good location with friendly staff at $15-$20 per night. If you are looking for a bit of luxury in the midst of the rice paddies, D’Omah Retreat in Tembi is unique and beautiful, if a bit out of town. Their rooms range from $60-$100 per night.
Pirated contemporary Indonesian artworks for sale on Yogya’s sidewalks, $1 each, (Prihatmoko Moki, 2012)
courtesy the artist
Pirated contemporary Indonesian artworks for sale on Yogya’s sidewalks, $1 each, (Prihatmoko Moki, 2012)
other recommendations…
Javanese culture goes back a couple of thousand years and contemporary society reflects the complexity of its history. The Javanese are famous for being excessively polite but at the same time are very laid-back. Service is slow, rules are more like recommendations and if you ask someone for directions they will always stop and help you, but there’s no guarantee they understand where you want to go, or how to get there. Most of the arts community here speak English, but the rest of the population probably don’t, so learning a few basic phrases of Bhasa Indonesia and taking an interest in the history and culture of the place will open doors to a world that is endlessly interesting and surprising.
Malcolm Smith is an artist, arts manager and curator currently based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Before moving to Indonesia he managed exhibition programs in contemporary art spaces around Australia, including the Australian Centre for Photography, Object: Australian Centre for Craft and Design and 24HR Art, the Northern Territory Centre for Contemporary Art. www.invisibleman.net.au
related articles
the riches of rusting
RealTime issue #64 Dec-Jan 2004 p34
malcolm smith: tracks dance company, RUST
I lived in Beijing from 2007 to 2011, returning in May to conduct more research for my PhD thesis on Chinese documentary filmmaking.
tough love…
China’s capital can be a tough place. Its massive main roads are intimidating, in many areas few people speak English and at the heart of the city is Tiananmen Square—surely the most heavily policed public space in the world. Add to this a population of 20 million and a climate that veers from the 30s to days below zero and you have a city that can test the endurance of the heartiest resident. But Beijing’s real pleasures lie behind the façade of its overbearing government buildings and public monuments, tucked away in the narrow alleys (hutong) of the old city and in hard to find corners. Here a rich culture plays out beneath the city’s surface, trying its best to avoid the watchful eye of the authorities.
things to do…officially
Beijing’s schizophrenic nature is split between airbrushed state-sanctioned culture and a vibrant unofficial sector. Consequently the city’s big museums tend to be dull, although the National Art Museum of China occasionally has interesting exhibitions of contemporary art (see RT87).
Beijing’s concert prices are surprisingly cheap, so it’s worth checking if any major talents are performing at theatres like the National Centre for the Performing Arts (known to locals as the Egg). Seeing someone like Ennio Morricone perform at the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square—as I did a few years back—not an experience you’re likely to forget.
Bauhaus-style former factory buildings at the 798 art zone
photo Dan Edwards
Bauhaus-style former factory buildings at the 798 art zone
the real stuff…
If you’re looking to delve into Beijing’s visual arts scene, the obvious place to start is 798, an art zone in the city’s northeast housed in a former East German-designed factory complex. It’s more like a cheap trinkets market these days than a hotbed of cutting-edge culture, but the Bauhaus-style buildings and a handful of quality galleries still make a visit worthwhile. Make a beeline for the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. Their exhibitions provide a good introduction to China’s contemporary art scene, and the building is one of the best preserved of the former factories.
Beijing’s real artistic hub is now slightly further out in Caochangdi, a five-minute cab ride from 798. This area is home to a range of galleries, but the pick of the bunch is the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, housed in a building designed by Ai Weiwei and run by the famous photographer couple Rong Rong and Inri (see RT92). They also have a small café serving passable coffee. Ai Weiwei lives nearby—check out the surveillance cameras outside his front door for a glimpse of state paranoia in action.
At the other end of town lies Red Gate, Beijing’s oldest contemporary art gallery, owned by Australian Brian Wallace. The exhibitions tend to favour more traditional forms like painting, but the gallery is housed in the impressively ancient Dongbianmen Watch Tower, sitting astride the only remaining section of Beijing’s once mighty city wall.
Industrial chic – the East German built and designed 798 factory complex is now home to a range of galleries, cafes and shops
photo Dan Edwards
Industrial chic – the East German built and designed 798 factory complex is now home to a range of galleries, cafes and shops
If music is more your style you’re in luck—Beijing is the centre of China’s thriving underground rock scene. Key venues Yugong Yishan and Mao Livehouse are both located in the old city centre, while Dos Kolegas (aka Liang ge hao pengyou) is a short cab ride to the northeast.
Finally, film lovers should check out Broadway Cinematheque MOMA, Beijing’s one and only official arthouse cinema. Although subject to government restrictions, BC MOMA regularly programs challenging Chinese features by a range of new and established talents, and the films are often introduced by their makers. Most are subtitled, but double check when you buy your ticket—the information on the website is not always accurate.
The futuristic surrounds of the MOMA residential complex, home to Beijing’s only arthouse cinema, Broadway Cinematheque
photo Dan Edwards
The futuristic surrounds of the MOMA residential complex, home to Beijing’s only arthouse cinema, Broadway Cinematheque
china’s food capital…
There are literally thousands of restaurants in Beijing—although it has to be said many are pretty ordinary. But if you know where to go, this is one of the best cities in which to sample food from all over China.
Yu Xin serves up consistently great Sichuan food at very reasonable prices. Dianke Dianlai provides a set banquet for around RMB 100—not cheap by Beijing standards, but it’s some of the best Yunnan food in the capital. Middle 8th also does excellent Yunnan food.
Another slightly pricey place that should not be missed is Da Dong—without doubt the best Peking Duck in the dish’s hometown.
other highlights…
Take the time to visit Gu Lou (the Drum Tower) and the nearby hutong Nanluoguxiang. Rife with cute cafes, bars and shops, the area is one of Beijing’s few really old neighbourhoods still standing.
While you’re focused on the ancient, take a cab to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall about 70 km northeast of Beijing. It will cost you around RMB 500 for a return trip (around $80, negotiate the price in advance and ask the cabbie to wait for you) but this part of the wall is much more impressive than the ultra-touristy Badaling section closer to the city.
If you need some China-related reading material, check out the Bookworm. This English-language bookstore and café is a Beijing institution, and has an excellent year-round program of talks by writers.
Cabs and electric buses work the streets of Beijing’s old city centre in the shadow of Gu Lou (the Drum Tower)
photo Dan Edwards
Cabs and electric buses work the streets of Beijing’s old city centre in the shadow of Gu Lou (the Drum Tower)
some essential tips…
Cabbies generally cannot read pinyin (the Romanised version of Chinese) so having a copy of your hotel address in Chinese characters is essential. Ask for an address card from your hotel’s reception. Taking a map with you that has street names in pinyin and Chinese characters is also useful for getting around—don’t count on getting one in Beijing.
The city’s extensive subway network is always crowded, but it is also cheap (you can ride anywhere for RMB 2, around 30c). All station names and subway maps are in pinyin, making the system easy to use.
Sino Hotel is a reliable site for hotel bookings around China.
Finally, to find out what’s going to be happening during your stay, check out theBeijinger.com before you leave.
Dan Edwards is a freelance writer and journalist, and former OnScreen editor for RealTime. He lived in Beijing from 2007 to 2011 and his now based in Melbourne, where he is completing a thesis and book on Chinese independent documentary films.
new media, new to china
dan edwards: synthetic times—media art china 2008
RealTime issue #87 Oct-Nov 2008 p32
Chris Watson recording an orca in the Ross Sea
photo courtesy Chris Watson
Chris Watson recording an orca in the Ross Sea
“In 1999 a group of RMIT students presented a collection of experimental sound and music events. Ten years on Liquid Architecture, has grown into one of Australia’s most significant festivals with a national touring program of concerts, installations and forums.” (Gail Priest, RT91)
In 2009 to celebrate the 10th edition of Liquid Architecture we published a brief archive highlight. To co-incide with LA’s 13th year, the archive has been updated to include all reviews of the festival since 2002, a comprehensive record of this leading music event.
Nat Bates, Liquid Architecture 9 Sydney
photo Alison Richardson
Nat Bates, Liquid Architecture 9 Sydney
The longevity of Liquid Architecture is testament to Artistic Director Nat Bates’ ability to adapt the festival to ever-changing circumstances. In an interview in 2009 he said collaboration was the secret to success: “One of the key things for me is the team of curators. When we were a Melbourne-only event there were a number of people I worked with [Bruce Mowson was co-director 2001-4, Camilla Hannan 2001-2] and now that it’s a national event I rely heavily upon the people in the other cities for input” (RT91). The 2012 festival has taken this collaboration to the next level as Bates takes a back seat while Philip Samartzis and Lawrence English curate the entire festival around the idea of an “Antarctic Convergence” (see preview in RT109).
Dave Brown and Lukas Simonis, Liquid Architecture
photo Sebastian Avila
Dave Brown and Lukas Simonis, Liquid Architecture
Most years RT has offered multiple reviews in order to cover the festival in its several locales and offer different perspectives on the artists and their performances over the touring schedule. To celebrate the 10th festival individual city-based reviews were augmented with an overview by Jared Davis who travelled with the crew, and in a pull-no-punches article asked difficult questions about the role of the festival a decade after its inception (see RT93 “listening for change”).
If the density of coverage is overwhelming here are a few suggestions.
Read about Bernard Parmegiani playing in Melbourne during LA4 in “liquid architecture: the parmegiani experience“, an event which Nat Bates remembers as his “number one highlight.” A duet by Clayton Thomas and Jim Denley, “sound bodies“, stands out as writer Tony Osborne’s “highlight of the week” when he sampled Sydney’s LA7. Recalling LA9, “sounds solid, sounds fluid“, Gail Priest nominates not one but “two outstanding performances”, those of festival director Nat Bates and Marcus Schmickler; the latter’s creation “powerful, verging on spiritual, with no drugs required.” And covering LA12 in Melbourne Matthew Lorenzon probes the role of performativity in his review, “reciprocity between sounds.”
RT
Stuart Buchanan from New Weird Australia talks with Gail Priest about three years of operation and what’s in store in the future.
New Weird Australia started in 2009 to nurture and promote ‘experimental and eclectic’ Australian music. NWA activities include a weekly radio program on Sydney’s FBi, free digital compilations, an edition series focussing on a single group or artist and the presentation of gigs.
Mini-doco about Psycho Subtropics at Serial Space, Sydney, including interviews with co-curator Joel Stern and artist Michael Candy
PSYCHO SUBTROPICS is a constantly evolving mini festival curated by OtherFilm (Joel Stern & Danni Zuvela) presenting Brisbane artists who work across music, noise and various visual forms. The Sydney manifestation was the third in the series and involved a residency at Serial Space for a week culminating in an exhibition, two nights of performances and a film session. The artists were Sarah Byrne, Michael Candy, Leighton Craig, Alex Cuffe, Bec Cunningham, Michael Donnelly, Gerald Keaney, Ross Manning, Andrew Mcllelan, Nicola Morton, Glen Schenau, Sandra Selig, Joel Stern and Danni Zuvela. Serial Space June 7-10, 2012
