in the loop july 17 – festivals
realtime's advance word
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
RealTime issue #109 June-July 2012 pg. web
