in the loop – july 26
realtime news and advance word
our other indigenous culture
It might be one box on the Census (coming soon, August 9) but Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures are very different from each other, to the point where the latter is sometimes called “Australia’s other Indigenous culture” (press release). Over the next four months, Queensland’s major arts organisations at the Cultural Centre, South Bank in Brisbane, are joining forces to present The Torres Strait Islands: A Celebration, showcasing the diversity and vibrancy of historical and contemporary arts and culture of Torres Strait Islander Australians. The program encompasses an exhibition, Awakening: Stories from the Torres Strait at the Queensland Museum, Strait Home at the State Library and Land, Sea and Sky: Contemporary Art of the Torres Strait Islands, at the Gallery of Modern Art. The last is the largest and possibly most significant exhibition to date of contemporary art by Torres Strait Islander artists anywhere in the world and it includes dance objects, prints, film, video, textiles, ceramics and installations drawn from the Queensland Art Gallery’s extensive collection of works by Torres Strait Islander artists as well as key loans and commissioned works. The artists include Dennis Nona (RT69) and Destiny Deacon (RT66). Land, Sea and Sky: Contemporary Art of the Torres Strait Islands, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; http://qag.qld.gov.au
Worldhood
photo Chris Herzfeld
Worldhood
premieres aplenty
Two weeks ago (July 12) we mentioned Lisa Griffiths and Craig Bary’s new work Side to One, which premieres at the Adelaide Festival Centre on July 27. Next month the venue will play host to another world premiere, Worldhood, a collaboration between choreographer Garry Stewart (see his profile in RealTime Dance) and Adelaide artist Thom Buchanan. While dancers from the Australian Dance Theatre and the Adelaide College of the Arts move, Buchanan will create dramatic charcoal drawings live on stage: “his frenetic mark-making, fuelled by hundreds of visual decisions per minute, recalls artists like Frank Auerbach, Alberto Giacometti and Cy Twombly” (RT67). Later in August, the Centre will also present the Australian premiere of Gabrielle Nankivell’s solo performance I Left My Shoes on Warm Concrete and Stood in the Rain. Nankivell has spent the past decade working with some of Europe’s groundbreaking choreographers; on this occasion she is collaborating with composer Luke Smiles and Bluebottle, whose striking designs have been featured in the work of Jenny Kemp (RT99), Balletlab (RT93) and Michelle Heaven (Dance Massive), among many others. The show is part of A Mini Festival of New Performances, copresented with Mobile States and features four shows in five days including Vivaria by Sam James (reviewed in RT97, artist interview in RT91), En Route by One Step At a Time Like This (RT94, back when they were still bettybooke) and The Harry Harlow Project by Insite Arts (RT95). Worldhood, Aug 10-13, I Left My Shoes on Warm Concrete and Stood in the Rain, Aug 24-27, part of A Mini Festival of New Performances, Aug 23-28, Adelaide Festival Centre, www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au
Fuse, STRUT Dance
photo Eva Fernandez
Fuse, STRUT Dance
motion and emotion
There’s more dance on offer over in the west, where PICA is presenting STRUT Dance (see all of our previous reviews of STRUT in the RealTime Dance Archive), as part of its performance program. (In May they presented My Darling Patricia’s Africa RT94 and this month they presented Team Mess’s This Is It.) Directed by Jonathan Buckels (RT86), Fuse is a full-length dance work based on the relationship between two people: “through the cycle from strangers, to friends, towards cohorts, through dependents and on to parasites. Love can give you the chance to change almost any facet of yourself in order to fit the needs of the object of your desire. But if your love is reciprocal, shouldn’t they also change for you? Will this create positive perpetual motion, or a destructive vicious circle? Can those within the relationship tell which of these paths they are on?” (website). Buckels and Rhiannon Newtown (RT94) will be dancing the answer. STRUT Dance, Fuse, Aug 26-Sept 3, PICA, www.pica.org.au
Sweet Bird andsoforth
photo Grant Sparkes-Carroll
Sweet Bird andsoforth
sweet bird of youth
The Australian Theatre for Young People will present the world premiere of German playwright Laura Naumann’s play Sweet Bird andsoforth. Translated by Benjamin Winspear (RT62), and directed by Laura Scrivano, the play starts with a farewell party on the edge of town; but while the group is trapped in an isolated suburban wasteland, their Gen Y dreams transcend any location. Billed as an “original, unexpected and blackly comic story of a group of friends caught between adolescence and adulthood,” the play won Naumann the Munich Prize for Young German-Language Drama (press release). Australian Theatre for Young People, Sweet Bird andsoforth, Aug 18-Sept 10; www.atyp.com.au
Thrashing Without Looking
photo Heidrun Löhr
Thrashing Without Looking
performance goggles
If you missed Aphids’ work Thrashing Without Looking at LiveWorks, Performance Space, then you might like to get to Melbourne soonish. Divided into two groups the audience watch, create, perform and control their environment in this experiential work. Video goggles are provided to the first group who watch and interact directly with a series of bold transformative images unfolding live in front of them as the second group help create the imagery. Fiona McGregor wrote: “It provoked all sorts of thoughts about the modes of disembodied communication we engage in now—televisual, internet—how trust and agency are still called upon and how intense and liberating is the sense of touch. There were moments of alienation, boredom, confusion, anticipation, humour and the ending was surprisingly tender. I didn’t want to leave” (RT101). Aphids, Thrashing Without Looking, Arts House, North Melbourne Town Hall, Aug 3-7; http://aphids.net
RealTime issue #103 June-July 2011 pg. web
