In the loop August 28: quick picks

Private Dances, Nat Cursio Co.

photo Jorge de Araujo

Private Dances, Nat Cursio Co.

Private Dances, Northcote Town Hall

Nat Cursio is on a roll—Blizzard just premiered at Melbourne’s newest art centre, the Substation (see preview—review will appear next week) and now she is reprising Private Dances, a work created for Next Wave 2010 (see RT98 online). The Northcote Town Hall will become a tent city with dances performed to intimate audiences. Some tents will also screen dance-based films and there’s even rumour of action in the back seat of a car.
Darebin Speakeasy presents Nat Cursio Co. and Insite Arts’ Private Dances, 28-31 Aug, Northcote Town Hall; http://darebinarts.com.au/speakeasy/

1. Aleister Crowley, The Hierophant (study for Tarot), 1921; 2. James Gleeson, A Moment in the Process, (detail), 2006; 3. Rosaleen Norton, Lucifer and the Goat of Mendes; 4. Danie Mellor, A Trace of History (of Death and Resurrection), 2010

Windows to the Sacred, S.H. Ervin Gallery

Coming up at S.H. Ervin Gallery is a fascinating survey of the “esoteric” in art—a field of practice defined by curator Robert Buratti as “man’s search for hidden knowledge of himself and his place in the universe” (press release). Windows to the Sacred places the work of renowned occultist Aleister Crowley alongside significant Australian artists such as “the father of Surrealism in Australia” James Gleeson, “the Witch of Kings Cross” Rosalee Norton and award-winning Indigenous artist Danie Mellor. It also incorporates moving image and music, exhibiting works by Kenneth Anger, Harry Smith, Alex Proyas, Jeff Martin (lead singer of Canadian band The Tea Party) and audiovisual group Masonik. A Gnostic temple will also be constructed by Collective 777, an art guild of the Ordo Templi Orientis Australia, in which a mass will be conducted on Sept 17.
Windows to the Sacred, S.H. Ervin Gallery, presented in association with Buratti Fine Art; 30 Aug-29 Sept; http://www.shervingallery.com.au/

Taking inspiration from the slow food movement, musician and curator Adam Simmonds has started the Festival of Slow Music. He says, “It is not the music that will be slow, but the listening—the audience will be encouraged to slow down and enjoy the experience” (website). In a range of venues around Ballarat you can experience strictly acoustic music by artists such as new music duo Vanessa Tomlinson & Erik Griswold (Clocked Out); bassist/waterphonist Anita Hustas (best get along to see what that entails); renowned movement improviser Al Wunder exploring his own style of “hum-drumming;” and ukulele queen Rose Turtle Ertler. The event kicks off with a mass choral ‘OM,’ open to public participation, lead by Sweet Mona’s Choir.
Festival of Slow Music, Art Gallery of Ballarat & various venues, Ballarat, 30 Aug-1 Sept; http://www.festivalofslowmusic.com/

This Fella, My Memory, Moogahlin Performing Arts & Carriageworks

photo Gabriella Lo Presti

This Fella, My Memory, Moogahlin Performing Arts & Carriageworks

This Fella, My Memory, Carriageworks

Produced and devised by Moogahlin Performing Arts and Linden Wilkinson, This Fella, My Memory looks at the stories of three older women and their relationships with friends, family and country. Directed by Frederick Copperwaite and created in consultation with Aboriginal Elders Aunty Christine Blakeney and Uncle Max (Dulumunmun) Harrison, the work is “a road trip across Aboriginal NSW where the boundaries, kinships and songlines are invisible to the eye, but felt deep within” (website). After the vibrant history of the Black Theatre in the 1970s, this marks the first play to be devised and written from a company in Redfern in 40 years. The work has been created using a combination of western playmaking techniques and traditional cultural practices and Copperwaite feels that they’ve managed to “collectively imagine and share ownership of a story about the community in which we all live and work” (press release).
Moogahlin Performing Arts, This Fella, My Memory, Carriageworks, 4-7 Sept; http://www.carriageworks.com.au/

Salomé, Little Ones Theatre

photo Sarah Walker

Salomé, Little Ones Theatre

Salomé & City of Shadows, Helium, Malthouse

Malthouse’s Helium season of shows by independent artists and companies is drawing to a close with two quite contrasting pieces. Salomé, directed by Stephen Nicolas (see review of his sex.violence.blood.gore) takes the Oscar Wilde classic and gives it an 80s gender-bending makeover complete with New Wave soundtrack. Then Perth composer and chanteuse Rachael Dease goes noir with City of Shadows, a song cycle of murder, misfortune and forensics based on the highly evocative collection of crime scene photos housed at the Sydney Justice & Police Museum (material initially explored in a series of impressive multimedia works by Ross Gibson and Kate Richards).
Malthouse’s Helium: Little Ones Theatre, Salomé, 30 Aug-14 Sept; Smack! Bang, City of Shadows, Rachael Dease, 21 Sept-5 Oct; http://www.malthousetheatre.com.au/helium-2013/

1. Christian Thompson, Andy; 2. Max Pam, Reporting Madagascar (excerpt); 3. Tom Nicholson, Indefinite distribution (After Dili action); 4. PUNKASILA, La Misión a Cuba del Rock Combativo. (See entry for full caption info)

In Confidence: Reorientations in Recent Art, PICA

Curated by John Mateer, In Confidence: Reorientations in Recent Art is an exhibition of artists described as “transnational,” exploring a “genuine, grass-roots style globalism” (website). Mateer sees this balancing act of the international and local as particularly “meaningful to the West Coast of Australia.” Artists from Australia and Southeast Asia include Simryn Gill, Tom Nicholson, Max Pam, Christian Thompson, Hossein Valamanesh and Indonesian punk band Punkasila.
(Caption: 1. Christian Thompson, Andy, from the series The Gates of Tambo, 2004. Courtesy the artist and Gabrielle Pizzi Gallery, Melbourne; 2. Max Pam, Reporting Madagascar (excerpt), 2003. Image courtesy the artist; 3. Tom Nicholson, Indefinite distribution (After Dili action), 1999-2010 (detail). Image courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane; 4. PUNKASILA, La Misión a Cuba del Rock Combativo, 2009. 10th Havana Biennial, Cuba. Courtesy of the artists and Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney.)
In Confidence: Reorientations in Recent Art, PICA, 31 Aug-13 Oct, http://www.pica.org.au

Alvin Curran, Shofar III concert with William Winant, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, 2009

photo Susan Levenstein

Alvin Curran, Shofar III concert with William Winant, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, 2009

Alvin Curran, Melbourne, Sydney

It may have already started by the time this reaches your inbox but it goes for six hours so you might catch some of it—Soundstream’s Gabriella Smart will be performing Alvin Curran’s Inner Cities at the Religious Centre, Monash University. Curran has been touring Australia, a guest of Tura’s Totally Huge New Music Festival (see feature) and Soundstream, Adelaide (just announced as winner of the Award for Excellence by an Organisation in the 2013 Art Music Awards). In Sydney Curran himself will perform at SIMA’s Sound Lounge with Jon Rose, Cor Fuhler and Robbie Avenaim, plus there will be a semi-secret rendering of Inner Cities at a private residence.
Alvin Curran, Inner Cities, Monash University, Melbourne, 18 Aug, http://www.monash.edu/news/events/show/inner-cities; SIMA, Curran, Rose, Fuhler, Avenaim, Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, Sydney, 31 Aug, http://sima.org.au/August31AlvinCurranjonRose/879/n/3/0/0/; Inner Cities, private residence, Sydney, 1 Sept, email for details

RealTime issue #116 Aug-Sept 2013 pg. web

© RealTime ; for permission to reproduce apply to realtime@realtimearts.net