in the loop may 15: quick picks

Skye Gellman, Kieran Law, Blindscape, La Boite Theatre Company (2013)

photo Sarah Walker

Skye Gellman, Kieran Law, Blindscape, La Boite Theatre Company (2013)

la boite indie, part 1

Each year Brisbane’s La Boite showcases works from a selection of emerging/underground/indie performance companies (whatever nomenclature you prefer). There’s not a traditional sit-down-and-shut-up audience experience among the first three shows currently showing. Sandra Carluccio’s This is Capital City lets the audience loose in Kelvin Grove charged with the mission to unearth the town’s myths with the help of some “city officials” and a mobile phone. The Séance by Mark Pritchard and Bridget Balodis invites the audience to a secret location where they will be complicit in the summoning of spirits. Blindscape, by Skye Gellmann collaborating with Kieren Law, turns the theatre space into an inhabited installation—the audience is guided through the performance via the Blindscape App supplied on entry. After the second Indie season later in the year audiences will be invited to vote for the performance they’d like to see remounted at QPAC in 2014.
La Boite Indie, May 8-25; http://laboite.qtix.com.au/laboiteindie2013/

lineage, form dance projects

(left) Aruna Gandhimathinathan, Shruti Ghosh; (right) Tammi Gissell

photos (left) Annalouise Paul, (right) Lorna Sim

(left) Aruna Gandhimathinathan, Shruti Ghosh; (right) Tammi Gissell

Aruna Gandhimathinathan is trained in Bharatanatyam traditional Indian dance while Shruti Ghosh is predominantly trained in Kathak. They will be exploring the integration of these two forms in their collaborative dance work Nritya Roopa, accompanied by musician Prabhu Osoniq. Nritya Roopa is presented by Form Dance Projects as part of Lineage, a program investigating the intersections of traditional and contemporary practices. The evening also features emerging Indigenous choreographer Thomas ES Kelly working with Carl Tolentino on Dark Dreams, and a solo by Indigenous dancer/choreographer Tammi Gissell, A Dip for Narcissus.
Form Dance Projects, Lineage, May 23-25, Lennox Theatre, Riverside, Parramatta; http://form.org.au/2013/01/nritya-roopa/

anne landa award for video and new media arts 2013, agnsw

Lauren Brincat, Hight Horse (2012), documentation of an action, The space between us, Anne Landa Award for video and new media, AGNSW

courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery

Lauren Brincat, Hight Horse (2012), documentation of an action, The space between us, Anne Landa Award for video and new media, AGNSW

Curated by Charlotte Day, the fifth iteration of the Anne Landa Award is themed “the space between us.” While video has always been at the forefront in this award, with perhaps the exception of Christian Thompson’s immersive sound installation, the media art component is less evident than usual this year, replaced it appears by performance. The video works by Laresa Kosloff, Angelica Mesiti, Kate Mitchell, James Newitt, Lauren Brincat and Alicia Frankovich are all based on perfomative actions and situations with the latter two artists also presenting live events over the course of the exhibition. Brincat’s performances will involve horse riding and mass timbrel playing, while Frankovich will present a jogging extravaganza. Perhaps a re-titling—the Anne Landa Award for Video and Performance Art—is in order?
Anne Landa Award for Video and New Media Arts 2013, May 16-Jul 28, Art Gallery of New South Wales; http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/space-between-us/

everyday rebellions, gertrude contemporary

1) Dane Mitchell, The Smell of an Empty Space (Solid), 2011, Perfume, photographic paper, frame, courtesy Hopkinson Cundy and the artist, photo Sam Hartnett; 2 & 3) Kitty Kraus, Untitled, 2006, lamp, ice, ink, Courtesy of Galerie NEU, Berlin

In Gertrude Contemporary’s next exhibition it’s the objects that perform. Emily McCormack has curated a collection of works exploring the “innate activity of matter” and battlling the forces of entropy (website). For example Dane Mitchell’s photographs are “unfixed” and can only be viewed under the red lights of a darkroom, otherwise they fade to nothingness. German artist Kitty Kraus tracks the changing state from solid to liquid, her melting ink-ice puddling around a glowing light bulb for added tension. Also showing is Joan Jonas’ Vertical Roll, a video work from 1972 investigating the body in relation to the analogue glitches of the television screen.
Everyday Rebellions, Danica Chappell, Joan Jonas, Kitty Kraus, Dane Mitchell, Virginia Overell, Danae Valenza, Simon McGuinness, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, May 11- June 8; http://www.gertrude.org.au/exhibitions/gallery-11/current-13/

suncorp twenties, sydney theatre company

You can’t accuse Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton of losing touch with the average Australian—they know theatre tickets here are prohibitively expensive and they’ve actually found a solution. Brokering a deal with Suncorp, there will now be $20 tickets available for (nearly) all STC shows. You don’t have to be a student, pensioner, or under 30, you just have to try your luck on a Tuesday (via phone or in person at the box office) for the followings week’s shows. The partnership with Suncorp kicked off yesterday and will run for two years.
Sydney Theatre Company, Box Office 02 9250 1929; more info www.sydneytheatre.com.au

joachim koester, frances stark, ian potter museum of art

1 & 2) Joachim Koester, Tarantism, 2007, © & courtesy the artist and Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen; 3 & 4) Frances Stark, My best thing, 2011, © & courtesy the artist and Marc Foxx, Los Angeles

If bitten by a tarantula in Medieval Italy it was believed dancing would cure you and thus the Tarantella was born. Danish artist Joachim Koester has recreated this frantic ritual in his 16mm film Tarantism currently screening for the first time in Australia, at the Ian Potter Museum. (Academic and dance historian Rachel Fensham will be giving a floor talk about the work on Thursday May 16.) Also screening is Frances Stark’s My Best Thing, a primitively animated feature which draws its content from the artist’s own interactions in the online environment Chatroulette.
Joachim Koester, Tarantism, Frances Stark, My Best Thing, Ian Potter Museum of Art, until June 2; http://www.art-museum.unimelb.edu.au/exhibitions/exhib-date/2013-03-20/exhib/joachim-koester-tarantism

stories then & now, performance 4a, carriageworks

Stories Then & Now

courtesy Willa Zheng

Stories Then & Now

Photographer/raconteur William Yang and dynamic producer Annette Shun Wah have teamed up to co-direct this new theatre work focusing on the pasts and presents of six Asian Australians. The performance has developed out of Yang’s storytelling workshops and has been co-created with author Ien Ang, performer Jenevieve Chang, video journalist Michael C.S. Park, producer Sheila Pham, social worker/food writer Paul van Reyk and civil marriage celebrant Willa Zheng, with music by Nicholas Ng. Yang says “I think it is important for everyone to tell their story. It makes one conscious of self and it places one in the context of history, world and culture” (press release). Stories Then & Now is an umbrella event of the Sydney Writer’s Festival.
Stories Then & Now, presented by Performance4a & Carriageworks, May 22-25; http://www.performance4a.org.au/

goodbye jamie boyd, buzz dance & monkey baa

Goodbye Jamie Boyd is an interstate collaboration between two leading companies making performance for young people, Monkey Baa in NSW and Buzz Theatre in WA. Based on the verse novel by Elizabeth Fensham, the production uses movement, text and video design to evoke the story of a teenage girl fighting schizophrenia, haunted by the spectre of her deceased elder brother. After a successful NSW tour in 2012, Goodbye Jamie Boyd is now showing in Perth.
Goodbye Jamie Boyd, Buzz Dance & Monkey Baa, directed by Sandra Eldridge & Cadi McCarthy, Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre, Perth, May 15-25, http://www.buzzdance.com.au/productions.html#goodbye