in the loop – quick picks

Sunny Drake, X

photo Leesa Connelly

Sunny Drake, X

x, sunny drake

In RT94 the late Douglas Leonard praised Sunny Drake’s Otherwise, stating “this was not navel-gazing but a richly creative engagement with a world where power and sexual or cultural identity are linked.” Drake’s new one-person show, X, currently showing in Brisbane’s Metro Arts as part of their Independents season, looks likely to be a similarly challenging performance.

X enters the world of best friends Caitlin and Jamie and two hand puppets, Naked and Fancy, who together explore addiction from a “lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/intersexed/questioning” (LGBTIQ) perspective. Following the Brisbane season, Drake will be taking the show to the USA National Queer Arts Festival in San Francisco.
Sunny Drake, X, Independents 2012, Sue Benner Theatre, Metro Arts, Brisbane, co-presented w Sunny Drake & Contact Inc; until April 28; www.metroarts.com.au/

buru, us tour, marrugeku

Buru, Marrugeku, Broome 2010

photo Rod Hartvigsen

Buru, Marrugeku, Broome 2010

Also currently touring North America is Marrugeku’s latest dance theatre work, Buru, which premiered in Broome in 2010 and toured the Kimberley in 2011. Buru explores the six seasons as described by the traditional landowners of the area, the Yawuru people, using the stories of Janyju (Red Lizard story as told by Karajarri elder and Yawuru language specialist Doris Edgar) and Walmanyjun (Greedy Turtle Story as told by Yawuru/Jabirr Jabirr elder Cissy Djiagween). The piece is conceived and choreographed by Dalisa Pigram and co-directed with Rachael Swain and includes younger and more mature Indigenous performers utilising hip-hop, stilt dance and storytelling accompanied by the music of Marrugeku Mongrel Band with guest songwriter Stephen Pigram. Buru has already been performed at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Phoenix, Arizona (April 14) and will be playing as part of the Manitoba Theatre for Young People, Winnipeg, Canada (April 24-27). The nine young Indigenous performers will also take part in cultural exchange workshops and activities with local indigenous theatre makers.
Marrugeku, Buru tour; www.marrugeku.com.au/

tyger tyger: west space

West Space’s curatorial initiatives continue to impress. As well as the 2011/2012 project Today Your Love which sees artists inhabit the gallery with an emphasis on process and experimentation over product, there is also the Tyger Tyger project curated by Phip Murray. Tyger Tyger aims to broaden the focus of Westspace beyond emerging artists and thus Murray has invited a number of established guests to team up with an emerging artist of their choice. Coming up next is a collaboration between Lyndal Walker and Danielle Hakim titled Re-make/Re-model looking at the role of the model, both animate and inanimate, in life and art. Also part of the Tyger Tyger project is the collaboration between composer and sound artist David Chesworth and sculptor/installation artist Katie Lee. Together they will present All Who Occupy This Great Space, a sound installation and sculptural environment which will also be the site of two performances by experimental vocalists Alice Hui-Sheng Chang and Carolyn Connors.
Lyndal Walker and Danielle Hakim, Re-make/Re-model; David Chesworth and Katie Lee, All Who Occupy This Space, West Space, April 20-May12; performances April 28, 3pm, May 10, 6.30pm. http://westspace.org.au

making the green one red (virtual macbeth), andrew burrell, kerreen ely-harper

Making the Green One Red (Virtual Macbeth), Andrew Burrell, Kerreen Ely-Harper

Director Kerreen Ely-Harper started the Virtual Macbeth project in 2007 (with Dr Angela Thomas and multimedia artist and producer Kate Richards) as an online world in Second Life. The project has now been further developed, with Sydney-based hybrid media artist Andrew Burrell, to become Making the Green one Red (Virtual Macbeth), focusing on the live and virtual performance possibilities of the concept. The work will be exhibited as a performative installation at QUT’s The Block where visitors can interact with the world, becoming “audience, actor and narrator, allowing them to self-determine their own path within the physical and virtual world the witches have created.” Audiences can also experience part of the work in the virtual environment at http://miscellanea.com/virtual_macbeth.
Making the green one red (Virtual Macbeth), The Block, QUT Creative Industries Precinct, April 24-May 5; http://www.ciprecinct.qut.edu.au; http://miscellanea.com/virtual_macbeth/

moduluxxx—modular synthesis mini-festival serial space

And one for the knob twiddlers. Pia Van Gelder, überlord of Dorkbot and musician/curator Alex White are presenting a two-day mini festival celebrating the joy of the modular synthesiser. They tell us it’s a “style of synthesiser design where the architecture is left open. Each element, whether it be a sound generator, filter, controller, modulator or effect can be reconfigured in an infinite variety of arrangements…You might never finish a song or track again” (press release). There’ll be performances by geek favourites Robin Fox, David Burraston, Hair Hochman, Nadir (Ben Byrne and Alex White) and Pia van Gelder, a special Dorkbot share-meeting where you learn to “Synthesise a Synthesiser” and, perhaps most curious of all, a Synthesiser Petting Zoo where you can touch these little magic boxes yourself.
Moduluxxx, April 27-28, Serial Space, http://serialspace.org/; https://sites.google.com/site/moduluxxx/

opportunities

For Brisbane-based emerging artist Metro Arts and Chan Hampe Galleries (Singapore) have joined up to offer a Brisbane-Singapore exchange program. Four artists and two curators or writers will spend three weeks in both Singapore and Brisbane resulting in a major exhibition which will take place as part of the 2012 Asia Pacific Triennial. Applications close April 30; http://www.metroarts.com.au/

Artspace, Sydney is calling for proposals for its 2013 Studio Residency program. Both residential and workspace-only studios are available, generally for periods between two and six months at subsidised rates. Applications close June 15; http://www.artspace.org.au/residency_guidelines.php

Screen Space in Melbourne is a purpose-built gallery focusing on works which take an innovative approach to screen-based media. They are currently seeking proposals from artists and curators for both the Main Gallery and Small Screen exhibition spaces for 2013. Applications close May 25; http://www.screenspace.com/proposals.html

PACT Centre for Emerging Artists will be holding auditions for their PACT Ensemble 2012 Program which provides training and creative development for artists aged 18-30. The 2012 program will include training with movement tutor Sam Chester, voice tutor Drew Fairly and culminates in the development of a final work under the direction of Cat Jones and Julie Vulcan. Registrations close April 30 and auditions will be held May 14; http://www.pact.net.au/

Kathleen Mitchell Award for Young Writers is a biennial award for authors under the age of 29 years who have published their first novel. Kathleen Mitchell’s aim was “the advancement, improvement and betterment of Australian literature, to improve the educational style of the authors, and to provide them with additional amounts and thus enable them to improve their literary efforts” (website). The value of the award is $15,000. Applications close April 27; http://www.trust.com.au/philanthropy/awards/kathleen_mitchell.asp

RealTime issue #108 April-May 2012 pg. web

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