tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/arts-reviews-8552/articles
Arts reviews – The Conversation
2021-02-28T19:05:19Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/153720
2021-02-28T19:05:19Z
2021-02-28T19:05:19Z
Clarice Beckett exhibition is a sensory appreciation of her magical moments in time
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386594/original/file-20210226-15-v4jyga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C5%2C1988%2C1278&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Clarice Beckett, Australia, 1887 - 1935, The red sunshade, 1932, Melbourne, oil on board; Gift of Alastair Hunter OAM and the late Tom Hunter in memory of Elizabeth through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 2019, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AGSA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Clarice Beckett — The Present Moment, Art Gallery of South Australia</em></p>
<p>Featuring the artist’s luscious and distinctive soft focus, the Art Gallery of South Australia’s newly opened <a href="https://www.agsa.sa.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/clarice-beckett-present-moment/">Clarice Beckett exhibition</a>, curated by Tracey Lock, presents her paintings as a sensorium — with colour, music and video to enhance the experience. </p>
<p>Each room in the gallery’s exhibition space is dedicated to her paintings of specific times of the day, from sunrise, to early morning, then midday and sunset, concluding with the nocturnes. She was fascinated with temporal change. The exhibition is very much an experiential journey. Viewers enter through an elliptical portal to an immersive rounded space filled with magnified projections of her paintings, and music from <a href="https://www.simoneslattery.com/about.php">Simone Slattery</a>’s specially commissioned soundscape. </p>
<p>Beckett was musical too. The transcendence to another realm has begun. The mood changes with each room in the exhibition.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Almost like a magician at work.’ AGSA Australian art curator Tracey Lock pays tribute to Clarice Beckett.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>A sad loss but precious works remain</h2>
<p>The poignant Clarice Beckett story <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/hindsight/clarice-beckett/5648562">is known</a> by many. She <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/203992541">died from pneumonia</a> in 1935 at 48 years of age, and left behind a large cache of work. It was stored for a number of years in an open-side shed in rural Victoria, only to be discovered in the late 1960s, in a poor state of repair, by art historian <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4562370-clarice-beckett-the-artist-and-her-circle">Rosalind Hollinrake</a>. She salvaged a mere 369 paintings — 1,600 were beyond repair. </p>
<p>Hollinrake guided the artist’s rediscovery at a time when numerous women artists were reinserted into the canon. The impetus for this exhibition is the generous donation by <a href="https://www.agsa.sa.gov.au/collection-publications/about/australian-art/curators-insight-clarice-beckett/">Alastair Hunter</a> of a large collection of Beckett’s work previously held by Hollinrake.</p>
<p>Beckett lived in Beaumaris from 1919 with her ageing parents, and she was a familiar figure painting <em><a href="https://www.artistsnetwork.com/art-subjects/plein-air/plein-air-art/">en plein air</a></em>, meaning: in the open air. </p>
<p>The artist would walk miles to nearby beaches or districts to paint, fascinated with observing and portraying the changing mood and movement of the day. She was known to rise at 4am and walk to a nearby beach to watch the dawn rise as portrayed in Silent approach (circa 1924), in which shapes are just beginning to emerge with the coming morning light. Minimal figuration leaves painterly space for contemplation of a higher realm.</p>
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<span class="caption">Clarice Beckett, Australia, 1887 - 1935, Wet sand, Anglesea, 1929, Victoria, oil on board; Gift of Alastair Hunter OAM and the late Tom Hunter in memory of Elizabeth through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 2019, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AGSA</span></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-our-art-museums-finally-opened-their-eyes-to-australian-women-artists-102647">How our art museums finally opened their eyes to Australian women artists</a>
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</em>
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<h2>Mysticism meets science</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/theosophy">Theosophy</a> — a belief in divine wisdom via mysticism — was a major influence on her approach to painting. Like others around the world, Beckett came under the popular esoteric movement’s spell in the early years of the 20th century. She owned a well-thumbed copy of Madame Blavatsky’s seminal occult text <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2220566.The_Voice_of_the_Silence">The Voice of Silence</a>, attended spiritualist meetings and moved in artistic circles where post-dinner seances were often held. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386599/original/file-20210226-19-1xwocds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Old photo of woman outdoors" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386599/original/file-20210226-19-1xwocds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386599/original/file-20210226-19-1xwocds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386599/original/file-20210226-19-1xwocds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386599/original/file-20210226-19-1xwocds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386599/original/file-20210226-19-1xwocds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386599/original/file-20210226-19-1xwocds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386599/original/file-20210226-19-1xwocds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Clarice Beckett painting at Mt Macedon, Victoria circa late 1920s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Artists of the Valley</span></span>
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<p>But Beckett also took on board painter <a href="https://blogs.slv.vic.gov.au/arts/max-meldrum-the-meldrumites-and-montsalvat/">Max Meldrum</a>’s quasi-scientific ideas about rational analytic observation of subtle visual patterns of tones and accents. She studied with him for nine months, although it is widely accepted she surpassed him with her brilliant tonal landscapes. This is the hybrid intellectual and artistic milieu she moved in, supplemented by an interest in Eastern philosophy and Freud.</p>
<p>For Beckett, painting was as much about performing her spiritual beliefs as it was about portraying that which was observable. Her friends in the <a href="https://mswps.com.au/">Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors</a>, to which she belonged, recall she loved talking about theories behind her work.</p>
<p>What emerges in the exhibition is her finely honed and daring visual language. In some a compositional tension emerges between horizontal and vertical forms as in Wet night, Brighton (1930). That tension marks a point of transcendence. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386592/original/file-20210226-21-1jajeka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting on 1920s streetscape" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386592/original/file-20210226-21-1jajeka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386592/original/file-20210226-21-1jajeka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386592/original/file-20210226-21-1jajeka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386592/original/file-20210226-21-1jajeka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386592/original/file-20210226-21-1jajeka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386592/original/file-20210226-21-1jajeka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386592/original/file-20210226-21-1jajeka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Clarice Beckett, Australia, 1887 - /1935, Motor lights, 1929, Melbourne, oil on board; Gift of Alastair Hunter OAM and the late Tom Hunter in memory of Elizabeth through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 2019, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AGSA</span></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-melbourne-bookshop-that-ignited-australian-modernism-138300">Friday essay: the Melbourne bookshop that ignited Australian modernism</a>
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<p>In others her economy and discipline in imagery is awe-inspiring as in Passing trams (circa 1931), in which the mist enveloping the trams is relieved by the merest gesture of colour; while her sheer versatility as an artist emerges in her busy yet spacious beach scenes in full sun, Sandringham Beach (circa 1933) and Sunny morning (1933). </p>
<p>In magical paintings such as Across the Yarra (circa 1931), a study in transience, the moonlight bleeds through the hazy evening mist and merges with glimmering lights reflected from the city onto the river. Its filtered grey light, close tonal range and soft edges prompt contemplation of a higher plane. In yet another painting the day’s heat coming off the surface of the land is palpable in Summer fields (1926), seen at sunset.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386591/original/file-20210226-23-9xkl4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Sunrise painting" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386591/original/file-20210226-23-9xkl4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386591/original/file-20210226-23-9xkl4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386591/original/file-20210226-23-9xkl4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386591/original/file-20210226-23-9xkl4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386591/original/file-20210226-23-9xkl4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386591/original/file-20210226-23-9xkl4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386591/original/file-20210226-23-9xkl4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Clarice Beckett, Australia, 1887 - 1935, Summer fields, 1926, Naringal, Western District, Victoria, oil on board; Gift of Alastair Hunter OAM and the late Tom Hunter in memory of Elizabeth through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 2019, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AGSA</span></span>
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<h2>An artist without a studio</h2>
<p>A curatorial coup is achieved with the installation of a domestic kitchen in the exhibition space. Her father had declined her request for a studio to work in. He suggested she use the kitchen table instead. </p>
<p>While most of her paintings were completed outdoors, she did paint still life and portraits, and finish off larger <em>en plein air</em> works at home. This work was indeed done on the kitchen table, which is so tellingly included in the exhibition, surrounded by her still life paintings including Marigolds (1925).</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386596/original/file-20210226-21-1de9jja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="gallery with pictures" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386596/original/file-20210226-21-1de9jja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386596/original/file-20210226-21-1de9jja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386596/original/file-20210226-21-1de9jja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386596/original/file-20210226-21-1de9jja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386596/original/file-20210226-21-1de9jja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386596/original/file-20210226-21-1de9jja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386596/original/file-20210226-21-1de9jja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Clarice Beckett: The present moment featuring Zinnias (Flower piece) by Clarice Beckett, 1927, Private collection, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AGSA/Saul Steed</span></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-werent-there-any-great-women-artists-in-gratitude-to-linda-nochlin-153099">Why weren't there any great women artists? In gratitude to Linda Nochlin</a>
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</em>
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<p>The exhibition ends on a high note with “the shed”. <a href="https://www.adelaidereview.com.au/arts/visual-arts/2019/07/31/peter-drew-poster-boy-memoir/">Artist Peter Drew</a>’s filmic time-lapse sequence of a shed, any shed, is emblematic of the Clarice Beckett legend. It is symbolic of the fragility of one’s archive, and a memorial to Beckett whose legacy was almost lost.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.agsa.sa.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/clarice-beckett-present-moment/">Clarice Beckett: The Present Moment</a> is an immersive curatorial gesture which takes viewers through the cycles of the day she portrayed. More than that, it causes viewers to stop, contemplate each painting, to experience the void, and to enter another realm.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.agsa.sa.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/clarice-beckett-present-moment/">Clarice Beckett: The Present Moment</a> is on show at the Art Gallery of South Australia until May 16 2021.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153720/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Speck has received funding from the Australian Research Council. . </span></em></p>
Known for her soft capturing of tonal shifts and poignant moments, painter Clarice Beckett’s legacy was almost lost to time and decay. Now her work is being celebrated in a major exhibition.
Catherine Speck, Professorial Fellow (Honorary), The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/119528
2019-07-22T19:57:41Z
2019-07-22T19:57:41Z
‘Are you one of us or one of them?’ Margaret Olley, Ben Quilty and a portrait of a generous friendship
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285047/original/file-20190722-116562-rhb8ss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ben Quilty, Australia, born 1973. Margaret Olley 2011. Oil on linen / 170.0 x 150.0 cm. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection of the artist. Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Mim Stirling</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Margaret Olley: A Generous Life, and Quilty, QAGOMA</em></p>
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<p>Margaret Olley’s exhibition at QAGOMA is titled <a href="https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/margaret-olley">A Generous Life</a>, referring to her capacity to maintain enduring friendships, her support for her artist peers (it is said she would cover their fares to travel and publish books for them), her role as mentor to younger artists, and her enormous generosity as a philanthropist to galleries in Australia, as well as to other arts organisations like the Australian Chamber Orchestra. </p>
<p>Olley donated her own work (in the case of the Orchestra, to auction), that of her peers and younger artists, and works from her own collection. She also made major donations to public collections, such as a donation to the Art Gallery of New South Wales that included works by <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1686334.htm">Cezanne and Picasso</a>.</p>
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<span class="caption">Margaret Olley, Australia, 1923-201. Margaret Olley: A Generous Life exhibition views at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Brisbane.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Images courtesy the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA). Photograph: Natasha Harth, QAGOMA</span></span>
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<p>At the launch of <a href="https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/quilty">Ben Quilty’s exhibition</a> in the adjoining gallery two weeks after Olley’s, curator Lisa Slade said Quilty’s exhibition could also be called “A Generous Life”.</p>
<p>Slade was referring to Quilty’s passion for speaking out in support of human rights and against injustices. For example, his determination to address the ignorance around official versions of Australian history, which obscure the truth of violence to Indigenous people; his response as a War Artist in Afghanistan to the way the trauma of war seeps through all ranks; his amplifying the voices of refugee children in Greece, Syria and Lebanon, revealing the anguish of living with war. </p>
<p>And then there was his <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/artist-ben-quilty-on-his-bali-nine-friend-and-student-myuran-sukumaran/news-story/a27f9bef7742102aff621dc28df40d26">friendship and support</a> for Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan of the Bali Nine and the battle to turn public opinion and legal might against the death penalty, and his actions urging us not to ignore the tragedy of refugees and asylum seekers detained in our own waters. Quilty has made all these issues the subject for painting and activism.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284868/original/file-20190719-116579-u4u709.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284868/original/file-20190719-116579-u4u709.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284868/original/file-20190719-116579-u4u709.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284868/original/file-20190719-116579-u4u709.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284868/original/file-20190719-116579-u4u709.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284868/original/file-20190719-116579-u4u709.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284868/original/file-20190719-116579-u4u709.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284868/original/file-20190719-116579-u4u709.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Portrait of Margaret Olley and Ben Quilty, 2005.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy: Steven Bacon / Fairfax syndication.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-noisy-passionate-show-from-an-artist-in-a-hurry-quilty-has-just-one-emotional-pitch-112943">A noisy, passionate show from an artist in a hurry, Quilty has just one emotional pitch</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Quilty’s exhibition of works from the last seven years (travelling from the Art Gallery of South Australia) and Olley’s exhibition of 100 works from across her professional life (curated by QAGOMA’s Michael Hawker) are brought together by good planning. The artists are said to be an odd couple or as arts critic John McDonald says “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/review-olley-quilty-and-art-that-triumphs-over-celebrity-20190702-p523cq.html">a legendary Aussie duo</a>” (the others he cites are Burke and Wills, and Kath and Kim!). </p>
<p>However the two exhibitions don’t so much fit together (the subject matter, the artistic approach and intent, could not be further apart) as somehow <em>build</em> together.</p>
<p>Perhaps not unlike the way Olley and Quilty’s friendship built. <a href="http://archives.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/media/archives_2002/bwtas_winner_2002/index.html">In 2002</a>, Olley, a judge for the Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship, awarded the scholarship to Quilty. From then on, she was his mentor, buying his work and gifting it to state and regional gallery collections, and introducing him to her influential friends of the art world. </p>
<p>Their friendship grew such that towards the end of her life, Olley agreed to sit for Quilty for a 2011 Archibald Prize portrait, which Quilty won. Just as Olley’s artist career was affirmed through William Dobell’s winning portrait of her in the 1948 Archibald, so in an inverse sort of way, Quilty’s career has similarly been affirmed through his 2011 winning portrait of Olley.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284865/original/file-20190718-116539-vemqaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284865/original/file-20190718-116539-vemqaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284865/original/file-20190718-116539-vemqaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284865/original/file-20190718-116539-vemqaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284865/original/file-20190718-116539-vemqaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=682&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284865/original/file-20190718-116539-vemqaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284865/original/file-20190718-116539-vemqaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284865/original/file-20190718-116539-vemqaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ben Quilty, Australia, born 1973. Margaret Olley 2011. Oil on linen / 170.0 x 150.0 cm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection of the artist. Courtesy the artist.Photograph: Mim Stirling</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Olley is the only person to have been the subject of an Archibald Prize winning portrait twice (excluding self portraits) - at the beginning of her artist life and at the conclusion. Olley died three months after Quilty’s win. Happily, both intriguing portraits of her are in the Olley exhibition.</p>
<p>In preparing viewers to navigate between these shows, Quilty has created on the North Gallery wall interfacing Olley’s exhibition large line drawings of Olley taken from his preparatory sketches for the Archibald portrait. Just as the finished oil paint portrait exists through the slightest suggestion of paint, so these chalk drawings are equally ethereal, with a presence that just lingers. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285029/original/file-20190722-116573-1htvezv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285029/original/file-20190722-116573-1htvezv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285029/original/file-20190722-116573-1htvezv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285029/original/file-20190722-116573-1htvezv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285029/original/file-20190722-116573-1htvezv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285029/original/file-20190722-116573-1htvezv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285029/original/file-20190722-116573-1htvezv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/285029/original/file-20190722-116573-1htvezv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ben Quilty, Australia, b.1973. Sketches for Margaret 2019. Site-specific pastel wall drawing / cast pastel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Commissioned by QAGOMA for the AGSAtouring exhibition ‘Quilty’. Photograph: Natasha Harth</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Interestingly, the chalk is created from red, pink and blue chalk casts of jugs, teapots and lidded jars – gifts from Olley’s vast collection to Quilty over the years. In their cast forms, these objects appear in the gallery as clusters of fragmented empty vessels below the wall.</p>
<p>On the opposite North Gallery wall adjoining Quilty’s exhibition, Quilty has reconfigured his work <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u53IvEmqNOs">Inhabit</a> (2010). This consists of 16 cell-like images that move us from abstracted matter to discernable images of James Cook, and then to Cook as a cadaver, to a cranium, to Quilty, and onto a mere spatial presence. In this iteration, these figures appear to be present at a dinner party. They are within two large tables with baroque flourishes created by black spray paint onto the wall.</p>
<p>Throughout Quilty’s exhibition there is an urgency to look deeper, to step back, to weigh up, to know more, to reassess, to unravel, to grieve and occasionally smile at the absurdities served up. Justin Paton, head curator of International Art at the Art Gallery of NSW, refers to recent Quilty work as “painterly-political grotesque”. He describes Quilty as a “painter of conflict, turbulence, knots, double binds, dark laughter and awkward resistance”. There are certainly demons and the macabre that won’t go away, nevertheless somehow there is empathy and compassion. It is this that holds us.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284896/original/file-20190719-116579-z10ni2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284896/original/file-20190719-116579-z10ni2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284896/original/file-20190719-116579-z10ni2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284896/original/file-20190719-116579-z10ni2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284896/original/file-20190719-116579-z10ni2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284896/original/file-20190719-116579-z10ni2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284896/original/file-20190719-116579-z10ni2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284896/original/file-20190719-116579-z10ni2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ben Quilty, Australia, born 1973. Flowers for Heba (installation view) 2016Oil on linen / 265.0 x 202.0 cm. Private collection. The Last Supper no.9 (installation view) 2017Oil on linen / 265.0 x 202.0 cm. Private collection. Baino, after Afganistan (installation view) 2013Oil on linen / 180.0 x 170.0 cm Private Collection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA).Photograph: Natasha Harth, QAGOMA.\</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Olley’s inspiration</h2>
<p>In Olley’s exhibition her family home of Farndon becomes the central site of inspiration and reference. We enter the exhibition past a huge (possibly dusty) flower arrangement, and into a dimly lit hallway with a wood detailed archway, familiar in old Queenslanders. Farndon is where Olley lived and worked for stretches of time after her father died and then from time to time between her stays in Sydney and Newcastle (keeping paintings and materials in all three locations), until the house burnt down in 1980. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284884/original/file-20190719-116569-7ayus0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284884/original/file-20190719-116569-7ayus0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284884/original/file-20190719-116569-7ayus0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284884/original/file-20190719-116569-7ayus0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284884/original/file-20190719-116569-7ayus0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284884/original/file-20190719-116569-7ayus0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284884/original/file-20190719-116569-7ayus0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284884/original/file-20190719-116569-7ayus0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Margaret Olley, Australia, b. 1923. Interior IV 1970. Oil on composition board / 121.5 × 91.5cm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gift of the Margaret Olley Art Trust through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2002 Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hawker says Farndon had a calming presence on Olley, with its high ceilings, generously sized rooms, and plays of latticed-light across the floors. It was surrounded by lush vegetation that we see, all but bursting in the room in her paintings Interior 1V, and VII (1970). </p>
<p>Olley is said to have avoided having her own work on white walls and in this spirit, the gallery walls are a distinct mood setter of rich green, grey and salmon. Just as in Olley’s paintings of interiors where paintings, artefacts, furniture and, of course, flowers, create her universe, so this effect is created in the exhibition in several places. </p>
<p>The exhibition charts Olley’s early work in Brisbane (1946-48) where she paints iconic buildings (Old Masonic Lodge, Treasury Building, Queensland Club), her delicate Boonah (Qld) landscapes, and then <a href="https://learning.qagoma.qld.gov.au/artworks/the-banana-cutters/">portraits</a> of young Indigenous men (with guitars and bananas), and most interestingly Aboriginal women (with dazzling, jostling flowers) and as nude subjects.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284889/original/file-20190719-116596-18jou5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284889/original/file-20190719-116596-18jou5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284889/original/file-20190719-116596-18jou5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284889/original/file-20190719-116596-18jou5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284889/original/file-20190719-116596-18jou5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284889/original/file-20190719-116596-18jou5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284889/original/file-20190719-116596-18jou5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284889/original/file-20190719-116596-18jou5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Margaret Olley, Australia, b.1923. The Treasury Building (Brisbane) 1947. Oil on panel / 61 × 76cm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gift of the artist, 1997 Collection: Museum of Brisbane</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To me, her figures always look a little uncomfortable – slightly halted, detached, even frozen. From the mid 60s, Olley left figure painting and focused more and more on still life. </p>
<p>Ironically, it is when Olley focuses on still life that I feel her subjects (in fact objects), create a highly animated world. Space became a keenly articulated interest for Olley. It is where the subtle dramas can be created or insinuated. “Space is the secret of life”, she has said. “[I]t is everything, and I have used it to suit me not only in my surroundings but over time.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284878/original/file-20190719-116590-v0ddaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284878/original/file-20190719-116590-v0ddaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284878/original/file-20190719-116590-v0ddaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284878/original/file-20190719-116590-v0ddaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284878/original/file-20190719-116590-v0ddaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284878/original/file-20190719-116590-v0ddaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284878/original/file-20190719-116590-v0ddaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284878/original/file-20190719-116590-v0ddaj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Margaret Olley, Australia, b.1923. Cornflowers with lemons (Cornflowers with Turkish coffee pot) 1984. Oil on board / 76 x 102cm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Private collection</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What ultimately brings both these exhibitions together in a satisfying way is that each artist has developed their own sense of direction and a studied sense of purpose.</p>
<p>At the exhibition opening, Quilty said that after Olley awarded him the Brett Whiteley travel scholarship, she asked him “Are you one of us or one of them?” He says he has never worked out what she meant. </p>
<p>Given what we know about Olley, we could say she was asking Quilty – is art central to your life and the reason to be? It was for Olley, and it would appear to be for Quilty.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/margaret-olley">Margaret Olley: A Generous Life</a> and <a href="https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/quilty">Quilty</a> are on at QAGOMA until October 13.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119528/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Ostling does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Margaret Olley was known not only for her paintings, but her generosity. An exhibition of her work is currently on in Brisbane, alongside a survey of the work of Ben Quilty, her mentee and friend.
Susan Ostling, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/120575
2019-07-18T05:43:02Z
2019-07-18T05:43:02Z
Opera Australia’s Whiteley brings together 3 icons to tell the artist’s complicated story
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284632/original/file-20190718-147307-1b29p50.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Leigh Melrose as Brett Whiteley in Opera Australia's 2019 production of Whiteley at the Sydney Opera House. The opera focuses on the artist's addictions and his relationship with his wife.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prudence Upton</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Whiteley, Opera Australia, Sydney.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Opera Australia’s newest production, <a href="https://opera.org.au/whatson/events/whiteley-sydney">Whiteley</a>, brings together three Australian icons. Elena Kats-Chernin, the doyenne of Australian composers, has written an opera on the life of a famous Australian painter and had it staged at that most recognisable of Australian buildings, the Sydney Opera House.</p>
<p>With Sydney Harbour described as “the jewel of Australasia”, there were moments when it felt like a tourism commercial. However, the artist in question, Brett Whiteley, had an equivocal attitude to his homeland, as the opera as a whole makes clear.</p>
<p>Like so many of his generation, Whiteley aspired to success abroad, and thanks to a travelling art scholarship, he first made a splash in the British art scene. The opera’s libretto by Justin Fleming traces his travels to Italy, his London stint, and his periods in America and Fiji, before his return to Australia. His expulsion from the Pacific island left Whiteley yelling “bugger” as Act I concluded, a heartfelt comment on his forced repatriation.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, after settling back in Sydney, his fame at home skyrocketed as his wider reputation faded. His biographer <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30225164-brett-whiteley">Ashleigh Wilson</a> represents him as deliberately rejecting internationalism in favour of local celebrity, and certainly his canvases increasingly depicted Sydney scenes. Some of these featured as backdrops during the opera; for instance, the Harbour ferry at the start of Act II was clearly reproduced from a canvas.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284636/original/file-20190718-147275-8ty7w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284636/original/file-20190718-147275-8ty7w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284636/original/file-20190718-147275-8ty7w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284636/original/file-20190718-147275-8ty7w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284636/original/file-20190718-147275-8ty7w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284636/original/file-20190718-147275-8ty7w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284636/original/file-20190718-147275-8ty7w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284636/original/file-20190718-147275-8ty7w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leigh Melrose as Brett Whiteley in Opera Australia’s 2019 production of Whiteley at the Sydney Opera House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prudence Upton</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our fascination with creative artists runs deep, but when it comes to representing their lives in film or on stage, the focus is often on their personalities and biographies rather than on the acts of creation themselves. While several of Whiteley’s paintings did feature (good use was made here of projections by director David Freeman and production designer Dan Potra), the opera’s two main themes were the artist’s turbulent relationship with his wife, Wendy, and his addictions. </p>
<p>The centrality of Wendy was clear from the opening tableau, where the drink-sozzled artist sees her (or imagines her?) in a moment of crisis - but she rejects him. This wordless flash-forward was separate from the main course of the opera, which traced episodes of his life in chronological order.</p>
<p>With Whiteley’s widow present at the premiere, it was perhaps no surprise she was portrayed sympathetically; her <a href="https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/brett-whiteley-art-life-and-the-other-thing/">affair with Michael Driscoll</a> was preceded by her husband’s infidelities, and she urged him to follow her example and <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/dickins-and-the-rocket-man-20021208-gduwc2.html">get clean of drugs</a>. “All my heroes are addicts”, sang Whiteley, and his use of alcohol, heroin and other substances is represented as both creatively stimulating and personally destructive. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284634/original/file-20190718-147318-8e7slr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284634/original/file-20190718-147318-8e7slr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284634/original/file-20190718-147318-8e7slr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284634/original/file-20190718-147318-8e7slr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284634/original/file-20190718-147318-8e7slr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284634/original/file-20190718-147318-8e7slr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284634/original/file-20190718-147318-8e7slr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284634/original/file-20190718-147318-8e7slr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Julie Lea Goodwin as Wendy Whiteley and Leigh Melrose as Brett Whiteley in Opera Australia’s 2019 production of Whiteley at the Sydney Opera House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prudence Upton</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-never-look-away-we-finally-have-a-painter-biopic-offering-insight-into-the-creative-process-118599">In Never Look Away we finally have a painter biopic offering insight into the creative process</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Sensitive scoring</h2>
<p>Kats-Chernin was recently voted 16th in an <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/classic/classic100/archive/search/?year=2019-composers">ABC survey</a> of Australia’s favourite composers, which made her the second most-beloved living composer (after John Williams), the highest woman in the list and the top Australian.</p>
<p>Her score for Whiteley displayed in the abundance catchy rhythms, attractive melodies and sensitive scoring that have endeared her to so many. Some of the strongest numbers were the lighter ones: the satirical “Brett Whiteley has arrived”, where a stage full of critics pontificated pretentiously about the young artist, had a winsome verve to it.</p>
<p>Other plot elements were given recurring musical motifs. Drug use was signalled by thin, dissonant notes high on the strings, while creative acts were often accompanied by solo winds, including the rare alto flute. The melancholy saxophone music that began the overture later returned as Brett questioned whether Wendy still loved him.</p>
<p>With its shifts in location and time, the libretto sometimes became disjointed, and Kats-Chernin wasn’t always able to solve this. On a few occasions, conductor Tahu Matheson brought a number to an end, and left a few seconds before starting the next. These seams were not always jarring, but they were noticeable and could have been avoided by a few bars of transitional music.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284635/original/file-20190718-147318-2n70rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284635/original/file-20190718-147318-2n70rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284635/original/file-20190718-147318-2n70rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284635/original/file-20190718-147318-2n70rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284635/original/file-20190718-147318-2n70rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284635/original/file-20190718-147318-2n70rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284635/original/file-20190718-147318-2n70rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284635/original/file-20190718-147318-2n70rm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cast of Opera Australia’s 2019 production of Whiteley at the Sydney Opera House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prudence Upton</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other parts less to my taste included the schmaltzy D major music in which Fiji was extolled as a paradise, and the ending, where Whiteley’s wife, daughter and mother provided reflections after his overdose. </p>
<p>This trio felt somewhat bloodless: euphonious without being truly melodious, not grief-stricken nor suggestive of the transcendent. Maybe this was the point: a life like Whiteley’s does not offer a clear moral message.</p>
<p>In the title role, Opera Australia newcomer Leigh Melrose was a titanic presence. He sang with power throughout the evening, capturing both the charisma and the darker side of the artist. Julie Lea Goodwin was good match for the role of Wendy, tracing the course from young lover to disillusioned wife in a ringing soprano.</p>
<p>Their daughter, Arkie, was played by two different singers: Natasha Green was the younger version, and sang with very pure tones and accurate pitching, while Kate Amos demonstrated a highly flexible soprano as the older Arkie. Dominica Matthews was as reliable as ever as Whiteley’s mother, and managed to coax some humour out of the part.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284633/original/file-20190718-147295-1mo3h8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284633/original/file-20190718-147295-1mo3h8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284633/original/file-20190718-147295-1mo3h8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284633/original/file-20190718-147295-1mo3h8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284633/original/file-20190718-147295-1mo3h8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284633/original/file-20190718-147295-1mo3h8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284633/original/file-20190718-147295-1mo3h8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284633/original/file-20190718-147295-1mo3h8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leigh Melrose as Brett Whiteley and Kate Amos as Older Arkie Whiteley in Opera Australia’s 2019 production of Whiteley at the Sydney Opera House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prudence Upton</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Richard Anderson was a strong dramatic presence as Joel Elenberg, one of Whiteley’s two closest Australian colleagues, while Nicholas Jones’s attractive tenor voice made his scenes as Michael Driscoll particularly enjoyable. Fitting a life lived on three continents, a large contingent of small roles was needed, among whom Celeste Lazarenko as a backpacker and Sitiveni Talei as a Fijian Police Officer stood out.</p>
<p>The female members of the Opera Australia chorus were unseen presences in some scenes, but shone when they appeared as the murder victims in a case that fascinated and stimulated Whiteley. The orchestra under Matheson negotiated the tricky corners of the score with aplomb, allowing the driving rhythmic pulse to emerge clearly.</p>
<p>The Whiteley opera appears at a time when debates around opera have ramped up a notch: is it too much in thrall to a <a href="https://theconversation.com/opera-is-stuck-in-a-racist-sexist-past-while-many-in-the-audience-have-moved-on-120073">canon of past works</a>, and are these works consonant with <a href="https://performing.artshub.com.au/news-article/opinions-and-analysis/performing-arts/blackwood-lim-polias-and-van-reyk/opera-and-the-doing-of-women-257968">social values today</a>?</p>
<p>Meanwhile, can Australian opera <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-where-is-the-great-australian-opera-96908">establish itself</a> on the world stage? Where Kats-Chernin’s work fits into such debates remains to be seen, but that it can be seen right now at Australia’s premier opera venue is an important first step. </p>
<p><em><a href="https://opera.org.au/whatson/events/whiteley-sydney">Whiteley</a> is on at the Sydney Opera House until July 30.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120575/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Larkin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A new opera focuses more on the personal life of artist Brett Whiteley than his artistic creations. As the opera reveals, a life like Whiteley’s does not offer a clear moral message.
David Larkin, Senior Lecturer in Musicology, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/119747
2019-07-08T23:52:10Z
2019-07-08T23:52:10Z
Indonesian art is fresh, energetic and lively. Why do we not see more of it?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282991/original/file-20190708-51292-pilfu1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mella Jaarsma, The landscaper 2013, costume: wood, paint, iron and leather, single-channel video: 3:40 minutes, colour, sound.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Purchased 2018. Photo by Mie Cornoedus</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia, National Gallery of Australia</em></p>
<p>They talk of a family of nations, or families of nations. In Australia, the UK can still be referred to as the mother country, while the English talk of their American cousins. Geographic neighbours usually have these relationships down pat, though with a frisson of sibling rivalry or pecking orders of favouritism. </p>
<p>However, one of the truths about Australia and Indonesia, so physically close, is that there is pretty well no familial relationship at all. It’s like we are different species.</p>
<p>I think this is central to the on-again, off-again, try-hard, well-meant, scratchy relationship that struggles to get to first base, always slipping back into the no-man’s-land of “it-is-all-too-hard” and “who-cares-anyway-ville”.</p>
<p>I recently listened to an <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/the-art-show/jennifer-higgie/11244064">ABC RN arts program</a> on the Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia exhibition, now at the National Gallery of Australia, where the announcer spoke of Australian artists travelling to “New York or Berlin or London” with no instinctive, familial thought that, just maybe, travelling to “Jakarta, Singapore or Tokyo” might also be part of the mix. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282768/original/file-20190705-51284-109rfgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282768/original/file-20190705-51284-109rfgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282768/original/file-20190705-51284-109rfgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282768/original/file-20190705-51284-109rfgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282768/original/file-20190705-51284-109rfgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282768/original/file-20190705-51284-109rfgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282768/original/file-20190705-51284-109rfgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282768/original/file-20190705-51284-109rfgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zico Albaiquni, For evidently, the fine arts do not thrive in the Indies, 2018, oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of the artist and Yavuz Gallery, Singapore</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia could be from outer space. Despite 30 years of close contact with Indonesia by Australian curators and artists; despite goodwill and a lot of government rhetoric about the “importance of the relationship”; despite so many exchanges and residences and lectures, the nuance is still irredeemably “other”.</p>
<p>I’ve been involved in arts management training programs in Indonesia, curated exhibitions (from 1990, when I organised <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/14467486?selectedversion=NBD28203209">Eight Views</a> at the National Gallery in Jakarta), been behind the <a href="https://asialink.unimelb.edu.au/arts/exchanges/current-and-alumni/past-residencies/indonesia">Asialink Artist-in Residency program</a> in Indonesia, served on the <a href="https://dfat.gov.au/people-to-people/foundations-councils-institutes/australia-indonesia-institute/Pages/australia-indonesia-institute.aspx">Australia-Indonesia Institute </a>(pushing always for strong, intelligent, meaningful arts programs to be supported) and I still see Australians not able to catch Indonesian names, or artists, and hold them as important. Teaching of Indonesian language is struggling; academic inclusion of Indonesian cultural material remains minimal.</p>
<p>Yet Indonesian art was and is great. This exhibition shows many of the reasons why: it is fresh, energetic, human, performative, warm, serious, funny, clever, sensitive, political and not political.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282771/original/file-20190705-51268-1l5qhgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282771/original/file-20190705-51268-1l5qhgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282771/original/file-20190705-51268-1l5qhgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282771/original/file-20190705-51268-1l5qhgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282771/original/file-20190705-51268-1l5qhgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282771/original/file-20190705-51268-1l5qhgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282771/original/file-20190705-51268-1l5qhgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282771/original/file-20190705-51268-1l5qhgm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tita Salina, 1001st Island - the most sustainable island in Archipelago 2015, plastic waste, fishing net, rope, floats, bamboo, LED lights and oil barrels, single-channel video: 14:11 minutes, colour, sound.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of the artist</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are many wonderful works: Tita Salina has built a raft of rubbish that she rides into Jakarta Bay (shown here as a video), a totally pertinent comment on pollution, but also beautiful and elegaic. </p>
<p>Yudha “Fehung” Kusuma Putera dresses and photographs motley groups of people and animals in cloths that distort their forms – out of it comes humorous but pointed comment on what we are. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282765/original/file-20190705-51305-mpocrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282765/original/file-20190705-51305-mpocrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282765/original/file-20190705-51305-mpocrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282765/original/file-20190705-51305-mpocrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282765/original/file-20190705-51305-mpocrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282765/original/file-20190705-51305-mpocrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282765/original/file-20190705-51305-mpocrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282765/original/file-20190705-51305-mpocrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eko Nugroho, We keep it as hope, no more no less 2018, manual embroidery on fabric with rayon thread.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Purchased 2018</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Eko Nugroho’s graphic work based on popular culture is relatively well known in Australia, but here he blows three-dimensional air into his usually flat cartoon forms, which then seem about to waddle off down the street.</p>
<p>Mella Jaasma’s work is classy as usual: a video of a Sufi dancer outlined against the sky, twirling his skirt made of mock Mooi-Indie (“beautiful Indies”) sentimental colonial landscapes. His trance-dance is a comment on humanity’s capacity to seek and find inner strength despite fake news – current and past.</p>
<p>And then there’s Entang Wiharso’s just wonderful magic house made of cut metal (but it could be of lace cobwebs), lit by a chandelier. It throws shadows to the walls like any self respecting environment for the flat, back-lit forms of wayang puppetry, though on closer inspection the cut forms are illustrations of the artist’s life and world, totally of this day. </p>
<p>This is some of the art of the archipelago. It is an art scene as lively as anywhere and both this and the art is increasingly recognised around the world as being a hot spot of creative energy and interest. Why do Australians not know this? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282759/original/file-20190705-51305-1uc7hre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282759/original/file-20190705-51305-1uc7hre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282759/original/file-20190705-51305-1uc7hre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282759/original/file-20190705-51305-1uc7hre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282759/original/file-20190705-51305-1uc7hre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282759/original/file-20190705-51305-1uc7hre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282759/original/file-20190705-51305-1uc7hre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282759/original/file-20190705-51305-1uc7hre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Entang Wiharso, Temple of hope: Door to Nirvana 2018, stainless steel, aluminium, car paint, light bulbs, electric cable and lava stone.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Commissioned 2018 and Purchased 2019 © Entang Wiharso, Black Goat Studios</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Missed opportunities?</h2>
<p>We have had heaps of opportunities, yet this exhibition in Canberra is the first ever of “contemporary” Indonesian art for our premier national visual arts gallery. The NGA has previously held exhibitions of Islamic Indonesian imagery, with calligraphy to the fore, and textiles – both of great quality – but they are not what would be called contemporary art.</p>
<p>Jaklyn Babington, one of the two in-house curators of this new exhibition, was candid about the paucity of Indonesian art in the NGA collection during her talk at the associated conference. This is despite leading curators being nearby at ANU, Caroline Turner in the main, the leader with David Williams and Jim Supangkat in the selection of Indonesian work for the First Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane, nearly 30 years ago (with a selection trip in November 1991 in which I also took part). That selection and subsequent ones have seen a significant collection of Indonesian work held in Brisbane … But not Canberra.</p>
<p>The exhibition now in Canberra was obviously put together quickly – too quickly, as Babington noted them not having “long enough” (no criticism here of the curators, caught between changing administrations of the gallery). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282769/original/file-20190705-51268-12jpus7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282769/original/file-20190705-51268-12jpus7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282769/original/file-20190705-51268-12jpus7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282769/original/file-20190705-51268-12jpus7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282769/original/file-20190705-51268-12jpus7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282769/original/file-20190705-51268-12jpus7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282769/original/file-20190705-51268-12jpus7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Yudha ‘Fehung’ Kusuma Putera , Past, present and future come together 2017, series of 9 inkjet prints with accompanying instructions for participatory elements of the work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Purchased 2018</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Compare the time now put into collecting at the National Gallery Singapore, which recently acquired one of the icons of Indonesian 20th century art, Semsar Siahaan’s Olympia. This is the gallery that had the chutzpah to research and bring together the <a href="http://www.alisoncarroll.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/89-Between-Worlds-Raden-Saleh-and-Juan-Luna.pdf">seminal show of Raden Saleh’s 19th century Indonesian paintings a year ago</a>, and put on their current <a href="https://www.nationalgallery.sg/see-do/programme-detail/28983113/awakenings-art-in-society-in-asia-1960s%E2%80%931990s">Awakenings</a>, a serious investigation of 1960-90s art of the region including Indonesia – a show that really offers new research work into this area.</p>
<p>The great themes of Indonesian art need space to emerge: to find the sense of theatre, of the magic lurking in shadows, of the mischief and moral purity of the gods, of the elegance of line and style of a culture trained to see the angle of an arm or the bend of the knee as highly pondered action. The art is also permeated by an easy communal sense of coming together to make cultural objects and performance, including friends and members of villages, both urban and rural, in their creation.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nact.jp/english/exhibitions/2017/sunshower/">Sunshower</a>, the 2017 exhibition of Southeast Asian Art by major institutions in Tokyo, was given due space and time to work itself into its proper shape. The miraculous program the Japan Foundation instigated in Indonesia ten years ago, <a href="https://www.jpf.go.jp/e/project/culture/exhibit/oversea/contemporary/indonesia.html">Kita! Japanese Artists Meet Indonesia</a>, sent curators and artists to work with Indonesians, in a project that sang with energy and creative interest.</p>
<p>In 2014, there was an inspiring show of Indonesian art at the <a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/the-instrument-builders-project/">National Gallery of Victoria </a> in a much smaller space than the NGA has provided, but the two curators Joel Stern and Kristi Monfries, uniting sound with visual art, used their expertise to create something new.</p>
<h2>A way forward</h2>
<p>Australia used to be considered a player in Indonesian art scenes. We were proactive; we created collaborative projects; we worked throughout the archipelago – from Timor Barat to Sumatra. In the early 2000s we fell back, just as Indonesians were starting to hit their international stride. Jim Supangkat, doyen curator, said to me around 2005: “where have you Australians gone?” </p>
<p>We went. Partly deterred by events, that is sure, like the Bali bombing, but also by an Australian arts fraternity probably relieved not to have to face Indonesia any more. The Australia Council’s funding of Indonesian projects <a href="http://www.currency.com.au/books/platform-papers/platform-papers-31-finding-a-place-on-the-asian-stage">sank like a stone in these years</a>; only the Australia-Indonesia Institute keeping a frail flame alight. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282764/original/file-20190705-51253-3t0m58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282764/original/file-20190705-51253-3t0m58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282764/original/file-20190705-51253-3t0m58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282764/original/file-20190705-51253-3t0m58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282764/original/file-20190705-51253-3t0m58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282764/original/file-20190705-51253-3t0m58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282764/original/file-20190705-51253-3t0m58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282764/original/file-20190705-51253-3t0m58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eko Nugroho , Carnival trap 2 2018, resin, wire, upcycled plastic, iron and syntehtic polymer paint.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Purchased 2018</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This review started by talking about families, an implication of blood families. If that doesn’t work with Indonesia, what about marriages? Or even engagements? Even dating needs a commitment and, it would be hoped, some sense of a future, some idea that actions now can lead to positive outcomes later. </p>
<p>What about a commitment to trying something for a length of time, say a five-year plan mentality? The big institutions, and the Australia Council, could build programs of yearly collaborations; significant regular talk series; regular curatorial and “interested-others” tours of Java in particular, seeing the arts sights, visiting studios, attending the many performances that abound. </p>
<p>Or what about a commitment to a new Australian Cultural Centre in Yogyakarta? That was mooted some 15 years ago, and a budget put forward, but it languished with the bombing threats. Almost every other country that deals with Indonesia culturally has one of these, except us. It was to be a site for engagement, a site for linkages, for some discussions and exhibitions; not expensive; not staffed by public servants; a bit free and loose like so much in Java that makes the art scene there so beguiling. </p>
<p>This is about a commitment over tokenism; about the long-term; about building knowledge and about keeping delivering. If we aspire in this way, then maybe those personal links will lead to outcomes we all acknowledge as part of our inheritance.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://nga.gov.au/contemporaryworlds/">Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia</a> is on at the National Gallery of Australia until October 27.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119747/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Carroll does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The exhibition Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia has many wonderful works. But it is an exception - despite our close proximity, there are few opportunities for Australians to engage with Indonesian art.
Alison Carroll, Senior Research Fellow, Victorian College of the Arts, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/118267
2019-07-02T19:46:41Z
2019-07-02T19:46:41Z
A new exhibition captures the magic and power of tattoos across cultures
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278572/original/file-20190609-52762-88qrac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Photographs of tattooed Japanese women in the exhibition Perseverance: Japanese Tattoo Tradition in a Modern World.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ben Healley</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://museumsvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum/whats-on/our-bodies-our-voices-our-marks/">Our Bodies, Our Voices, Our Marks</a>, a suite of exhibitions at Melbourne’s Immigration Museum, offers visitors a chance to engage with tattoo on a level deeper than skin. Here, stories of culture, tradition and migration speak through embedded ink.</p>
<p>Without personally experiencing a tattoo, it may be hard to understand why somebody would undergo the painful procedure. For instance, Joseph Banks, the 18th century naturalist on board Cook’s first voyages, was quite <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/5956217?q&versionId=26752084">taken aback</a> at the tattooing process of a Samoan girl:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What can be sufficient inducement to suffer so much pain is difficult to say; not one Indian (tho I have asked hundreds) would ever give me the least reason for it; possibly superstition may have something to do with it, nothing else in my opinion could be a sufficient cause for so apparently absurd a custom.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Banks, like so many of his time, disregarded the ritual as quaint – a primitive custom in need of Enlightenment. Missionaries and colonists sought to discontinue the “savage” practice, all but effacing it from the Islands.</p>
<p>Today, the museum explores the contemporary form of Polynesia’s ancient <em>tatau</em> alongside the potent tattoo tradition of Japanese <em>irezumi</em> in two photography exhibitions. In addition, four installations – curated by Stanislava Pinchuk (aka MISO) – provide a local perspective on tattoo and identity outside of tradition. </p>
<p>These four mixed media installations feature work by Pinchuck, Brook Andrew, Angela Tiatia, Zaiba Khan and that of Melbourne-based tattoo artist, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/paulstillen">Paul Stillen</a>. Stillen’s work, Connected Bodies, explores the relationship he develops with clients as they collaborate to create tattoos that pay homage to the wearer’s individual cultural heritage. The exchange between tattooist and client can be one of mutual vulnerability, where the artist strives to materialise what can often be hidden deep within a client’s psyche.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278607/original/file-20190609-52780-1u4wlkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278607/original/file-20190609-52780-1u4wlkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=782&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278607/original/file-20190609-52780-1u4wlkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=782&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278607/original/file-20190609-52780-1u4wlkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=782&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278607/original/file-20190609-52780-1u4wlkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=982&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278607/original/file-20190609-52780-1u4wlkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=982&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278607/original/file-20190609-52780-1u4wlkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=982&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Paul Stillen, Chrystal, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photograph courtesy of Lekhena Porter</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The exhibition <a href="https://museumsvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum/whats-on/tatau-marks-of-polynesia/">Tatau: Marks of Polynesia</a> examines the ancient custom of Samoan <em>pe’a</em> (traditional male tattoo) and <em>malu</em> (traditional female tattoo). It provides insight into how <em>tatau</em> forms a complex body of rituals and motifs embedded into transitions to adulthood, culture, and sacredness.</p>
<p>A contemporary Polynesian style draws on these customs, utilising similar fine lines, geometrical and black work. The creations of Samoa’s oldest and most revered custodians of the sacred practice – the Sulu’ape family – are also displayed. They have carried the tradition of <em>tatau</em> for generations. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278608/original/file-20190609-52780-1wfuag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278608/original/file-20190609-52780-1wfuag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278608/original/file-20190609-52780-1wfuag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278608/original/file-20190609-52780-1wfuag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278608/original/file-20190609-52780-1wfuag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278608/original/file-20190609-52780-1wfuag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278608/original/file-20190609-52780-1wfuag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tatau: Marks of Polynesia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photographer: John Agcaoili</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The process of attaining a <em>pe’a</em> in a traditional manner – using handmade tools of bone and wood – lasts up to five consecutive days. The physical and psychological punishment cannot be expressed in words, yet an incomplete pe'a is considered a mark of shame.</p>
<p>Notably, Polynesian <em>tatau</em> – heavy black work and the absence of pictorial iconography – was instrumental to the expansion of global tattoo art, with pioneering American publication Tattootime featuring it in their 1983 issue, New Tribalism. This gave birth to the “tribal” style contemporary tattoo, which swiftly became popular.</p>
<p>An exhibition on the museum’s third floor highlights what is arguably tattoo culture’s most distinct and recognisable style. <a href="https://museumsvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum/whats-on/perseverance-japanese-tattoo-tradition-in-a-modern-world/">Perseverance: Japanese Tattoo Tradition in a Modern World</a>, curated by Takahiro Kitamura, features the work of seven pioneers of contemporary Japanese decorative tattooing: Junii, Shige, Yokohama Horiken, Miyazo, Horitomo, Horitaka, and Horishiki. Here, the intricacies of regional and tutelage differences can be scrutinised in the pores of their work. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278609/original/file-20190609-52776-19bp49p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278609/original/file-20190609-52776-19bp49p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278609/original/file-20190609-52776-19bp49p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278609/original/file-20190609-52776-19bp49p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278609/original/file-20190609-52776-19bp49p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278609/original/file-20190609-52776-19bp49p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278609/original/file-20190609-52776-19bp49p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tattoo by Shige.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Kip Fulbeck</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Traditional Japanese decorative tattoo, known as <em>Irezumi</em>, flourished during the Edo period (1603-1868). Its iconography and symbolism were developed from the popular arts of <em>ukiyo-e</em> (woodblock prints). <em>Ukiyo-e</em> began around the 1660s. These single-sheet prints were used in advertising and valued as art. <em>Ukiyo-e</em> artists portrayed outlaw heroes from the classic Chinese novel Shui hu zhuan with full body tattoos.</p>
<p><em>Irezumi</em> peaked in popularity around 1872. After the Meiji Restoration, Japan’s new government banned the practice as out of step with other modern, industrialised nations. But the law only served to increase its mystique by driving it underground. </p>
<p>Thanks to the combination of prominent American tattooist Sailor Jerry’s early correspondence with Japanese tattoo masters during the 1950s and pioneering American tattooist Ed Hardy’s journeys to Japan in the early 1970s, Japanese style and structure (full-body, custom tattoo) was adopted outside of Japan, revolutionising tattoo in the west. </p>
<p>While Polynesian and Japanese tattoo are steeped in tradition, Pinchuk’s own tattoo work, displayed in a series of photographs, represents its antithesis. </p>
<p>Small, delicate, and rudimentary, its broken lines symbolising migration journeys. Yet it is without objective meaning and administered by someone for whom tattoo is not a primary medium. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278606/original/file-20190609-52739-da6dxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278606/original/file-20190609-52739-da6dxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278606/original/file-20190609-52739-da6dxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278606/original/file-20190609-52739-da6dxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278606/original/file-20190609-52739-da6dxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278606/original/file-20190609-52739-da6dxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278606/original/file-20190609-52739-da6dxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">C.L. ( Mustard )</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photograph courtesy of Gavin Green.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The contrast between this tattoo art and those shrouded in tradition encapsulates what makes tattoo, in my opinion, so magical, timeless, and powerful. No matter the context, time or place, tattoo is a potent tool for meaning making.</p>
<p><em>Our Bodies, Our Voices, Our Marks is at <a href="https://museumsvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum/whats-on/our-bodies-our-voices-our-marks/">Melbourne’s Immigration Museum </a> until October 6.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118267/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fareed Kaviani received free tickets to this events opening night. </span></em></p>
An exhibition at Melbourne’s Immigration Museum explores tattoo traditions from Samoa, Japan and Melbourne, telling stories of culture, tradition and migration.
Fareed Kaviani, Doctoral Researcher, Monash University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/119645
2019-07-01T06:43:01Z
2019-07-01T06:43:01Z
A radical new adaptation eviscerates the dominance of male voices in Wake in Fright
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281959/original/file-20190701-105168-1rrtmsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Zahra Newman in Wake in Fright. A new adaptation of Kenneth Cook's novel retells the story of a man's descent into violent masculinity with a female voice, accompanied by visual and aural spectacle.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pia Johnson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Wake in Fright, Malthouse Theatre</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Australian literary classics are currently enjoying a comeback at our major theatre companies. Over the past three years <a href="https://australianplays.org/script/CP-143">Cloudstreet</a>, <a href="https://australianplays.org/script/CP-an52">Picnic at Hanging Rock</a> and <a href="https://australianplays.org/script/CP-3283">The Drover’s Wife</a>, among others, have been adapted for the stage. At their best, stage adaptations recognise the cultural value of the original texts, while offering fresh insights for new audiences through the medium of theatre.</p>
<p>In keeping with this trend, Declan Greene has reinterpreted Kenneth Cook’s 1961 novel <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1533656.Wake_in_Fright">Wake in Fright</a> at the <a href="https://malthousetheatre.com.au/whats-on/wake-in-fright?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5-y_scqS4wIVwQorCh3FBgslEAAYASAAEgL1EvD_BwE">Malthouse Melbourne</a>. Greene’s is a radical adaption that tells the story of teacher John Grant’s outback nightmare through a multivocal and physical performance by actor Zahra Newman (who is also a co-creator of the piece).</p>
<p>Newman is alone on stage for the duration of the 70-minute performance, flanked by two members of the technical crew who, like musicians, annotate her performance with visual and aural spectacle.</p>
<p>In the novel and play, Grant finds himself in the fictional mining town of Bundanyabba or “the Yabba” on his way back to Sydney.</p>
<p>Grant is fresh meat for the alcoholic men of the town, who pour beer down his throat, lure him into a two-up joint, revive him with stringy meat, offer him a sweet girl, and send him on a kangaroo hunt and an endless night of debauchery. “New to the Yabba? Best place in Australia,” says everyone he encounters. </p>
<p>He is inducted into a menacing, bullying, violent masculinity that takes him to the abyss of despair. Our protagonist finally returns to Tiboonda with more questions than answers about the meaning of human life.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281962/original/file-20190701-105191-m9mucm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281962/original/file-20190701-105191-m9mucm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281962/original/file-20190701-105191-m9mucm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281962/original/file-20190701-105191-m9mucm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281962/original/file-20190701-105191-m9mucm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281962/original/file-20190701-105191-m9mucm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281962/original/file-20190701-105191-m9mucm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281962/original/file-20190701-105191-m9mucm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In Greene’s adaptation, Cook’s story is told with one actor accompanied by visual and aural spectacle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pia Johnson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-cloudstreet-nostalgia-all-too-easily-redeems-australias-colonial-past-117001">In Cloudstreet, nostalgia all too easily redeems Australia's colonial past</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Those familiar with the novel, or with Ted Kotcheff’s 1971 <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067541/">film adaptation</a>, enter the Beckett theatre with some trepidation. How will the young teacher’s nauseating beer-binge, and the infamous moments of kangaroo slaughter, be staged? </p>
<p>Instead, we’re unexpectedly greeted by the mascot <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-04/broken-hill-lead-program-shows-signs-of-progress/9205916">Lead Ted</a> – the friendly, cuddly bear designed in the 1990s to teach the children of Broken Hill how to avoid lead poisoning (Bundanyabba is said to be based on <a href="https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-2752538001/a-heart-that-could-be-strong-and-true-kenneth-cook-s">Cooke’s impressions of Broken Hill</a>). Once everyone is seated, Newman appears from within the bear to banter with the audience about contemporary immigration politics, the exploitation of Uber drivers, and lead poisoning in Broken Hill. This introduction welcomes the audience and establishes a contemporary context for the adaption.</p>
<p>As Newman kindly warns the audience about noise levels, one suspects she’s also setting up for an imminent loss of audience rapport. Indeed, once the house lights dim, an invisible curtain descends between performer and spectator. As the story of John Grant’s hellish bender progresses, Newman digs deeper into the character and the separation is almost complete. </p>
<p>She brilliantly narrates the story, alternately voicing the town’s people and embodying Grant with a physicality that manifests his deteriorating mental state. Newman’s enactment of Grant’s unlucky night at the crowded two-up joint is a highlight. She shows how, like a boxer, he is up for a round, and then, dancing around the stage high on power and luck, he bets it all and loses.</p>
<p>Newman next voices the trio of manipulative alcoholics – Crawford the cop, Tydon the doctor (interpreted in the play as an expat white South African), and the Irishman Tim Hynes – who present the now-penniless Grant with a solution: have another beer. In this world, women are either housekeepers or sexualised daughters used as bait for male bonding rituals. Hynes’ daughter Janette is offered to Grant, who manages only to vomit noisily; Newman enacts his writhing and wretching on the stage floor covered in dust.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281961/original/file-20190701-105176-3tu4dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281961/original/file-20190701-105176-3tu4dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281961/original/file-20190701-105176-3tu4dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281961/original/file-20190701-105176-3tu4dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281961/original/file-20190701-105176-3tu4dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281961/original/file-20190701-105176-3tu4dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281961/original/file-20190701-105176-3tu4dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281961/original/file-20190701-105176-3tu4dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zahra Newman acts as both narrator and a cast of characters in Wake in Fright.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pia Johnson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The horror depicted in the novel’s kangaroo hunt is translated into a techno nightmare of melting coloured images, glimpses of kangaroos, and loud amplified sound effects. While drawing on aspects of the hunt that are described in the novel as a “rush of visual effects”, a problem for the spectator with this virtuoso performance is that the specific cruelty of the kangaroo hunt is obscured. The audience is spared the detail of what lies behind the spectacle and with it the explanation of Grant’s breakdown. </p>
<p>The reader of the novel, on the other hand, experiences an innocent young “hero” undergoing a cruel initiation into outback life. Within that social environment, he finds himself capable of disembowelling dying kangaroos. In the book, only this act of human cruelty to an animal explains why Grant attempts suicide. </p>
<p>In the performance, the sight of Newman’s body harnessed to and suspended from a pulley ends the story, as a voiceover simultaneously explains that Grant returns to Tiboonda Station to begin another year of teaching – creating ambiguity about his fate.</p>
<p>Newman and the creative team wisely reject a naturalistic adaptation of the novel, full of fake beer and blood. The use of a sole narrator to voice and embody the multiple characters, the presentational style of direct audience address and the cross-gender representation of masculinity is engaging. </p>
<p>The spectator certainly experiences a theatrical take on the original – Newman’s female voice eviscerates the dominance of the male voices that endure in the novel. The question that remains in this adaptation is whether the audience has enough access to the background of the spectacle to leave the theatre with new knowledge of this Australian classic. </p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://malthousetheatre.com.au/whats-on/wake-in-fright?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5-y_scqS4wIVwQorCh3FBgslEAAYASAAEgL1EvD_BwE">Wake in Fright</a> is on at Malthouse Theatre until July 14.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119645/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denise Varney does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In a new adaptation of the classic Australian novel, the story of masculinity and despair in the outback is told through a female voice.
Denise Varney, Professor of Theatre Studies and co-director of the Australian Centre in the School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/118580
2019-06-13T01:32:00Z
2019-06-13T01:32:00Z
Dark Mofo 2019: a journey through the inferno to robots and extinction
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279261/original/file-20190613-32317-150j2xv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mona Confessional 2016 – 19. The art unveiled for this year's Dark Mofo is a disturbing journey into our future.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julie Shiels</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>While <a href="https://darkmofo.net.au/">Dark Mofo’s</a> winter solstice events populate many above-ground sites across Hobart, its heart of darkness will always be the subterranean galleries of the Museum of Old and New Art. </p>
<p>The museum just got a lot bigger with the opening of a $27 million extension housing four major new artworks from renowned contemporary artists. The works – by Alfredo Jaar, Ai Weiwei, Oliver Beer and Christopher Townend – have been unveiled in time for this year’s festival, in conjunction with a new temporary installation by Berlin-based Simon Denny. </p>
<p>These new commissions contribute to an already impressive collection of art. The physicality of the newly excavated spaces adds a compelling dimension, and the new works offer immersive and interactive ways of engaging with some of the darker questions of our times. </p>
<p>The extension is called <a href="https://mona.net.au/museum/siloam">Siloam</a>, after an ancient water channel built in Jerusalem. As visitors traverse its tunnels, hidden movement sensors activate Townend’s sound installation, Requiem for Vermin. Comprising 230 speakers, the composition has been configured to flood the senses with harmony and texture and trick the brain into hearing what is not there, like full orchestras, choirs, and piano and sounds from nature. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279020/original/file-20190611-32335-16zur4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279020/original/file-20190611-32335-16zur4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279020/original/file-20190611-32335-16zur4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279020/original/file-20190611-32335-16zur4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279020/original/file-20190611-32335-16zur4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279020/original/file-20190611-32335-16zur4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279020/original/file-20190611-32335-16zur4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279020/original/file-20190611-32335-16zur4d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Siloam, Mona’s new underground extension.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mona/Jesse Hunniford. Image courtesy Mona, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Accessed via a tunnel and operating at a scale reminiscent of large caves in Vietnam and Cambodia, where temples were secreted to avoid the bombing raids of the American war, Ai Weiwei’s White House offers sanctuary from the visual and sensory bombardment.</p>
<p>The artist uses industrial paint to recuperate a Qing Dynasty home that was scheduled for demolition. This massive ready-made is supported on clear, crystal orbs that absorb and mirror the surroundings, offering a fluid, milky abstraction when viewed from above. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279031/original/file-20190612-32342-1q69cqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279031/original/file-20190612-32342-1q69cqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279031/original/file-20190612-32342-1q69cqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279031/original/file-20190612-32342-1q69cqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279031/original/file-20190612-32342-1q69cqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279031/original/file-20190612-32342-1q69cqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279031/original/file-20190612-32342-1q69cqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279031/original/file-20190612-32342-1q69cqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">White House, 2015 by Ai Weiwei.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mona/Jesse Hunniford. Image courtesy Mona, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From the tranquillity of this cavern, a staircase leads up to Alfredo Jaar’s immersive, experiential journey through hell, purgatory and heaven inspired by Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century poem The Divine Comedy.</p>
<p>The entrance is a portal of devil’s-cloak red – only ten people can enter at a time. There are strict protocols and instructions – an amalgam of performative ritual and briefing about the required behaviours – including a ban on speaking whilst inside the work.</p>
<p>Silently bonding, we are led into the first chamber, where the senses are activated via the ears, skin and eyes.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-dantes-divine-comedy-84603">Guide to the Classics: Dante’s Divine Comedy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Heat, sound, light and silence are employed in a highly staged and meticulously directed experience, which according to Jaar, references a hell of our own making – that is climate change. </p>
<p>As we move through purgatory and on to paradise, the artist draws on his skills as filmmaker and architect to manage the combination of space and image for poignancy and impact. His careful modulation of media ensures this is much more than art as spectacle.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279021/original/file-20190611-32347-1i2gfyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279021/original/file-20190611-32347-1i2gfyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279021/original/file-20190611-32347-1i2gfyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279021/original/file-20190611-32347-1i2gfyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279021/original/file-20190611-32347-1i2gfyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279021/original/file-20190611-32347-1i2gfyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279021/original/file-20190611-32347-1i2gfyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279021/original/file-20190611-32347-1i2gfyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Entrance to The Divine Comedy, 2019, by Alfredo Jaar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mona/Jesse Hunniford. Image courtesy of Mona, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Divine Comedy offers us an opportunity to traverse the polarities of life and death, heaven and hell, sin and redemption. The latter is also a concern of Oliver Beer’s interactive sculpture, Mona Confessional, which creates a bridge between the interior and exterior of the building.</p>
<p>The internal sculpture is a soft, dark felt spiral like a giant ear canal; the external component a giant ear-trumpet in weathering steel. </p>
<p>On fumbling their way into the dimly-lit centre of the inner ear, the visitor encounters sounds spilling from the outside world and is invited to confess and reveal their innermost thoughts. </p>
<p>On the outside, another anonymous person listens to these thoughts. Neither party even knows where the other is located.</p>
<h2>A disturbing game</h2>
<p>Denny’s installation also uses interactivity and play. His concerns though, are less metaphysical, and more of a hard-edged critique of capitalism. Like Jaar, Denny warns of a climate change catastrophe of our own making.</p>
<p>Exhibited across three galleries, Denny’s works present an unsettling examination of the mining industry. It shows how technology is changing the nature of human labour, hastening species extinction and spawning a new industry of data collection. </p>
<p>Making use of the O (Mona’s mobile device that serves as a digital art guide), some parts of the exhibition are embedded with data that can be scanned by the device to reveal more content and information, in the form of videos and vignettes.</p>
<p>The spare and cavernous first room holds just one object, a cage that could be a bird aviary. On closer inspection, this unnervingly industrial object/sculpture reveals itself as the life-sized realisation of an actual patent drawing (owned by Amazon) of a cage. </p>
<p>Its purpose, if ever made, is to protect the body of a lone human sitting among robots in a fully-automated workspace. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279029/original/file-20190611-32342-1io0ipv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279029/original/file-20190611-32342-1io0ipv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279029/original/file-20190611-32342-1io0ipv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279029/original/file-20190611-32342-1io0ipv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279029/original/file-20190611-32342-1io0ipv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279029/original/file-20190611-32342-1io0ipv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279029/original/file-20190611-32342-1io0ipv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279029/original/file-20190611-32342-1io0ipv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Simon Denny, Amazon Worker Cage Patent (US 9,280,157 B2:</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julie Shiels</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On the wall of the same room we are introduced to videos of the endangered King Island Brown Thornbill. The reference to the canary in the coal mine is deliberate: the extinction of the Thornbill heralds the potential disappearance not just of the human worker, but of the human species. </p>
<p>The second room, by contrast, is a riot of movement and colour. At first glance the life-sized sculptures of industrial machinery look real under harsh artificial lights – it could be a trade show replete with exhibits and interactive screens. </p>
<p>We must focus our O devices on images of the endangered Thornbill to gather information about the rare metals being mined.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279022/original/file-20190611-32361-ywam8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279022/original/file-20190611-32361-ywam8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279022/original/file-20190611-32361-ywam8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279022/original/file-20190611-32361-ywam8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279022/original/file-20190611-32361-ywam8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279022/original/file-20190611-32361-ywam8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279022/original/file-20190611-32361-ywam8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279022/original/file-20190611-32361-ywam8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Simon Denny, Mine, 2019, installation view at Mona.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mona/Jesse Hunniford.
Image Courtesy Mona, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Denny has extended the game metaphor by turning the floor into an enlarged version of the classic Australian board game Squatter. Australia no longer rides on the sheep’s back but instead hitches a lift with the fully-automated, long-wall tunnel miner. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279028/original/file-20190611-32356-1598bsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279028/original/file-20190611-32356-1598bsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279028/original/file-20190611-32356-1598bsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279028/original/file-20190611-32356-1598bsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279028/original/file-20190611-32356-1598bsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279028/original/file-20190611-32356-1598bsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279028/original/file-20190611-32356-1598bsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279028/original/file-20190611-32356-1598bsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Simon Denny, Mine, 2019, installation view at Mona.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mona/Jesse Hunniford. Image Courtesy Mona, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Either way, the accumulated wealth is based on the same colonial legacy of dispossession: prospectors stake their claims just as the squatters settled “empty” land and called it “mine”. </p>
<p>Denny has even created a new board game for our current era. It’s called Extractor, and also serves as a catalogue for the show.</p>
<p>The final room offers a survey of work by other artists that also addresses the merging of the human and the technological to meet the contemporary demand for labour. But it is also a ruse to drive home the point that everyone is in on the game, including Mona. </p>
<p>At the end of the exhibition, it is revealed how the museum is tracking our behaviour and gathering our data through our use of their mobile device. In this context we are all players in the game.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://darkmofo.net.au/">Dark Mofo</a> is on until June 23. Simon Denny’s <a href="https://mona.net.au/museum/exhibitions/mine">Mine</a> is at Mona until April 2020.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118580/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Shiels does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Mona’s new subterranean extension adds a compelling dimension to the art of Dark Mofo 2019. Upstairs, a series of interactive sculptures contemplates our automated future.
Julie Shiels, Lecturer - School of Art, RMIT University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/118582
2019-06-11T06:59:32Z
2019-06-11T06:59:32Z
‘Faboriginal’ Steven Oliver jump-starts a conversation about race in a thrilling new show
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278811/original/file-20190611-52767-yqn19b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Steven Oliver's Bigger and Blacker, which premiered at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, calls for more engagement between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Claudio Raschella</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Bigger and Blacker, Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Sun 9 Jun</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Nothing beats the Adelaide winter blues quite like a superb, well-crafted cabaret show in a warm, cosy, intimate space. And few theatre spaces are more suited to cabaret than the <a href="https://www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au/your-visit/venues/the-famous-spiegeltent/">Famous Spiegelent</a>, which returns for the 2019 Adelaide Cabaret Festival, now under the leadership of Artistic Director Julia Zemiro.</p>
<p>Among the opening weekend highlights was the world premiere of self-described “faboriginal” Steven Oliver’s autobiographical <a href="https://www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au/events/steven-oliver-bigger-and-blacker/">Bigger and Blacker</a>, a series of poignant, and hard-hitting stories told through song, prose, and spoken word poetry. Many will know Oliver from his brilliant character sketches on the ABC series, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3697996/">Black Comedy</a>. </p>
<p>Working with musical director and cabaret stalwart Michael Griffiths, Oliver, a gay Aboriginal man, presents stories of “being lost and found again”. The journey touches on his recent success, one that suddenly made him if not famous, at least “gaymous”.</p>
<p>It takes us through his setbacks in finding love, the pain of confronting racism in the online world and his struggle with depression to his offer to open up cultural space for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians to meaningfully engage with one another.</p>
<p>Oliver brilliantly and relentlessly plays with words from a position of his double-marginalisation as “a minority within a minority”. As we travel with him, we are guided through unlikely spaces, including the back room of a gay bar where, as he observes, Aboriginal men “won’t be hard to find because we’re the only blacks”. </p>
<p>In a smart, black suit and bow tie, Oliver commands the stage with his presence and his stories. His spoken word poetry alternates with his original songs: both possess a confessional, soulful quality. </p>
<p>Words pour out of his body and heart, sometimes erupting like a geyser, then a raging river, winding down into a narrow stream, a patter, punctuated by a pause. He is at times a conjurer, using language like a preacher, taking it into the realm of incantation. It is as if by saying it, he makes it so.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278818/original/file-20190611-32361-1gzybe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278818/original/file-20190611-32361-1gzybe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278818/original/file-20190611-32361-1gzybe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278818/original/file-20190611-32361-1gzybe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278818/original/file-20190611-32361-1gzybe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278818/original/file-20190611-32361-1gzybe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278818/original/file-20190611-32361-1gzybe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278818/original/file-20190611-32361-1gzybe7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Oliver alternates between spoken word and poetry throughout the show.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Claudio Raschella</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/black-comedy-the-abc-makes-a-bold-foray-into-race-relations-33744">Black Comedy: the ABC makes a bold foray into race relations</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Throughout, his hands and body only briefly come to a full stop, and then only for dramatic effect. </p>
<p>Oliver is a beautiful mover, swaying and rocking, at one point launching into a jaunty tap routine while engaged with a bit of playful banter with the ever-dapper Griffiths, seated at the piano. But his hands are his most expressive physical tool. They accentuate and underline words, flittering, exploding and twirling at speeds that sometimes appear to be faster than light.</p>
<p>Oliver’s rhyming is clever, at times brilliant, as he lets the movement of the words guide him into storytelling, rapping, and then transitioning into song. Griffiths adeptly supports him, leading from spoken word to song with musical phrases that appear as if out of the air. </p>
<p>Griffiths also provides back-up vocals and harmonies for Oliver, while never overpowering him. It is a musical collaboration marked by generosity, restraint, and mutual respect. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278809/original/file-20190611-52753-fp16e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278809/original/file-20190611-52753-fp16e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278809/original/file-20190611-52753-fp16e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278809/original/file-20190611-52753-fp16e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278809/original/file-20190611-52753-fp16e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278809/original/file-20190611-52753-fp16e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278809/original/file-20190611-52753-fp16e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278809/original/file-20190611-52753-fp16e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Oliver’s hands are his most expressive tool.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Claudio Raschella</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At times, Oliver gives us more naughty than nice, causing jaws to drop a bit, as when, early in show, while speaking of the therapeutic value of dance, he says, “When you shake your ass, you shake off a lot of shit”. Taking a beat, he adds, “ohhhh, that came out wrong”, requiring another beat, ending with an audible audience groan. </p>
<p>Oliver shows himself to be a master at drawing the audience into the material, an essential feature of cabaret. Many of his musical numbers caused spectators to involuntarily tap their feet on the wooden floor of the Spiegeltent, physically connecting us to one another.</p>
<p>Though intensely personal, Oliver’s words and songs are consistently interwoven into the larger social fabric of being Indigenous in Australia. Speaking of trolling on Facebook on social media, he observes trenchantly, “The thing about racism is that it teaches you how to behave”. When he later recounts his struggle with depression, he connects it to a story about a boy bullied for being effeminate, calling for a world where such a boy would “not just dance to sadness, but just dance”.</p>
<p>Bringing the personal and the political together, Oliver ended the evening with another urgent spoken word piece. “I’m a blackfella”, he asserts, observing that learning to engage starts “by talking to me”. </p>
<p>With Bigger and Blacker, Oliver jump-starts such a conversation by bringing us along for a ride that is thrilling, exhilarating, and at times, equal parts naughty and challenging. </p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au/">Adelaide Cabaret Festival</a> is on until June 22.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118582/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Peterson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Steven Oliver’s new cabaret show is an exhilarating journey through hard-hitting stories about success, love, depression and racism.
William Peterson, Associate Professor, Flinders University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/118176
2019-06-09T23:21:58Z
2019-06-09T23:21:58Z
An intimate, arresting exhibition highlights the hard work of living queer
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278073/original/file-20190605-40738-1cicvrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dallas Dellaforce, Queer Central, Imperial Hotel, Erskineville, 2018. 'Queerdom' presents an archive of queer and trans life in Sydney. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Queerdom/James Eades</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://imperialerskineville.com.au/queerdom/">Queerdom</a>, an exhibition showing at the Imperial Hotel in Erksineville, is an arresting and unsettling archive of queer and trans performances in Sydney. </p>
<p>A collaboration between photographer Jamie James and poet Quinn Eades, working here as James Eades, Queerdom presents a history of sexual and gender transgression that refuses containment and comfort. Instead, these works ask much more probing questions about the hard work of living and performing on the sexual and gender margins.</p>
<p>The exhibition aims to present what the artists term a “queertrans” history, from the 1990s until today – this term is a deliberate attempt by the artists to put these identities, practices and experiences into productive dialogue with each other.</p>
<p>Each work pairs a photograph of a queer or trans (or both) performance with poetry. In one sense this is an exhibition about live performances; stages and performers at the Imperial in Erskineville, Performance Space in Redfern, the Albury Hotel in Paddington, and Tap Gallery in Darlinghurst loom large. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278263/original/file-20190606-2768-1y0ggv1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278263/original/file-20190606-2768-1y0ggv1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278263/original/file-20190606-2768-1y0ggv1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278263/original/file-20190606-2768-1y0ggv1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278263/original/file-20190606-2768-1y0ggv1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278263/original/file-20190606-2768-1y0ggv1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278263/original/file-20190606-2768-1y0ggv1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278263/original/file-20190606-2768-1y0ggv1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘falling in’, image: Stelladelight and Tank, Grumbalism, Red Rattler, Marrickville 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Queerdom/James Eades</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Implicitly, the exhibition delineates a historical geography of queer performance – of dissidence moving westward, as queer alternatives have been pushed from Darlinghurst and Surry Hills to Redfern, Erskineville and Marrickville by rising rents and the cultural homogenisation that so often accompanies them. That this exhibition is taking place at the Imperial is a reminder of how important and vulnerable those spaces can be. </p>
<p>We see “Glitta Supernova” leaning back on stage at Fetish Ball in 1996, screaming in delight as she sprays orange liquid, Berocca we are assured, over her audience – and not from her mouth. “What’s so terrifying about piss”, we are asked. And what might happen if we just “let ourselves taste it … could we just acquiesce?”</p>
<h2>Life on the margins</h2>
<p>While this might be an exhibition about performance, words work in tandem and tension with these photographs to produce intimate accounts of life on the margins of the sexual and gender order more broadly. This exhibition has much to say about the emotional life of its subjects.</p>
<p>As any historian will tell you, archives are not simply repositories of data from the past – they are mediated representations of historical knowledge. This archive provokes and unsettles what we might expect to see in an exhibition about gender and sexuality, as we might well expect a queer project to do. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278273/original/file-20190606-2780-j7njl4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278273/original/file-20190606-2780-j7njl4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278273/original/file-20190606-2780-j7njl4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278273/original/file-20190606-2780-j7njl4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278273/original/file-20190606-2780-j7njl4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278273/original/file-20190606-2780-j7njl4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=613&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278273/original/file-20190606-2780-j7njl4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=613&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278273/original/file-20190606-2780-j7njl4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=613&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘lost gays of Sydney’, image: Victoria Barracks, Albury Hotel, Oxford St, Darlinghurst, 2001.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Queerdom/James Eades</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In one sense, Queerdom is a powerful riposte to the comforting narratives that abounded in the campaign for same-sex marriage and its aftermath. Leaders in this campaign, as well as the exhibitions shaped by its politics during the 2018 Mardi Gras, tended to mobilise a story in which sexual minorities were making the final steps towards love, happiness and acceptance. </p>
<p>The story works something like this: sexual minorities in the past were caught in the trap of socially imposed shame and loneliness, unable to express and manifest their sexual and gender identities in public. The hard work of activism since the 1970s, not least in projects that spoke the language of liberation and pride, has offered a route to happiness and love. Gay and lesbian life, we are so often told, is all about love and a happy, shining couple finally able to get married. </p>
<p>This intimate exhibition of exuberant and modest moments has more challenging and discomforting things to say. </p>
<p>We see Kimo and Teik-Kim Pok, backstage at Carriageworks during the performance series Quick and Dirty in 2009, looking tired and confused, one performer wrapped in a towel with furrowed brow, the other looking pensively into a mirror. </p>
<p>This is not the golden couple of marriage equality. These friends (or lovers, or maybe just performers):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>turn to face each other / to catch a mirror’s silvered kiss / take steel into delicate throat / swallow a quiet sword or seven / say this is acceptance and not regret</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278264/original/file-20190606-2764-596fwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278264/original/file-20190606-2764-596fwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278264/original/file-20190606-2764-596fwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278264/original/file-20190606-2764-596fwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278264/original/file-20190606-2764-596fwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278264/original/file-20190606-2764-596fwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278264/original/file-20190606-2764-596fwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278264/original/file-20190606-2764-596fwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘appraisal’, image: Kimo and Teik-Kim Pok, Quick and Dirty, Performance Space, Carriageworks, 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Queerdom/James Eades</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of course, some of the pieces here can be yoked to a story of pride and celebration. There is a heathy dose of queer fabulosity on display. Photographs abound of performances exploding with pleasure and the thrill of gender and sexual transgression, however the poetry works hard to force the viewer to think carefully about what they are seeing and the easy thrill they might get from the labour of others.</p>
<p>While some critics might suggest the inclusion of poetry alongside these photographs makes their meaning rigid, leaving less space for ambiguity, these words do precisely the opposite – they force you to stop, they ask you questions. </p>
<p>A photograph of the performance “Axis of Evil” at Carriageworks in 2009 captures the performers back stage, in the familiar setting of a mirror-filled and clothes-strewn dressing room. Sinewy arms protrude and make up runs down faces.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>after crimson ribbons / five bodies bringing the house down / the thunk of twenty limbs on a juddering stage // now doubled in the dressing room / now grinning in the aftermath / now coming down in the detrius</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278265/original/file-20190606-2750-16la5tq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278265/original/file-20190606-2750-16la5tq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278265/original/file-20190606-2750-16la5tq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278265/original/file-20190606-2750-16la5tq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278265/original/file-20190606-2750-16la5tq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278265/original/file-20190606-2750-16la5tq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278265/original/file-20190606-2750-16la5tq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278265/original/file-20190606-2750-16la5tq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘the other side’, image: Axis of Evil, Quick and Dirty, Performance Space, Carriageworks 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Queerdom/James Eades</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Through the inclusion of moments offstage, Queerdom asks us to consider the emotional cost of living and performing in ways where the narrative destination might not be a happy couple with easily recognisable gender identities. These are moments on the edges of difference. </p>
<p>We see performers looking wrung out, collapsing into one and other while also looking uncertain about what these moments might mean. </p>
<p>Here, life looks exhilarating, but also exhausting. Living in ways that don’t conform to the stories we like to tell about gender, sexuality and intimacy isn’t just a struggle for recognition. It’s the struggle against the terms under which that recognition is proffered – the desperate work of trying to exist and thrive in ways that make others so very uncomfortable.</p>
<p>“You know they’re still saying we’re monsters”, James Eades points out in the poem “taking the coverings off”. Maybe a bit of unsettling monstrosity is what we should be working towards, even if it is sometimes terrifying and exhausting.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://imperialerskineville.com.au/queerdom/">Queerdom</a> is showing upstairs at the Imperial Hotel, Erskineville until June 30.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118176/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leigh Boucher receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>
Queerdom, an exhibition of photography and poetry, presents a history of queer and trans performance in Sydney that challenges recent narratives about queer life in Australia.
Leigh Boucher, Senior Lecturer – Modern History, Macquarie University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/117825
2019-05-29T19:45:53Z
2019-05-29T19:45:53Z
A scope as big as humanity can conjure: the Terracotta Warriors & Cai Guo-Qiang
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276905/original/file-20190529-42576-16q8ll9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Installation view of Cai Guo-Qiang’s Murmuration (Landscape) 2019 (detail) Realised in Dehua, Fujian
province and Melbourne, commissioned by the NGV.
Proposed acquisition supported by Ying Zhang in association with the Asian Australian Foundation, 2019
NGV Foundation Annual Dinner and 2019 NGV Annual Appeal, on display at NGV International.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Cai Guo- Qiang. Photo © Tobias Titz </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The oft-quoted saying “may you live in interesting times” has been (rightly or wrongly) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_times">interpreted as</a> a Chinese curse. The exhibition <a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/terracotta-warriors-cai-guo-qiang/">Terracotta Warriors & Cai Guo-Qiang</a> at the National Gallery of Victoria has a similar subtle duality: the implication of threat in what might seem benignly interesting. </p>
<p>This is reflected in the warriors themselves, 2200-year-old figures of supreme beauty made to accompany their Emperor into death, and mirrored by very contemporary works (some made in the last few weeks) of inspiring ethereality, formed using that most mercurial and potentially deadly Chinese invention – gunpowder.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276900/original/file-20190529-42565-qyf66a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276900/original/file-20190529-42565-qyf66a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276900/original/file-20190529-42565-qyf66a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276900/original/file-20190529-42565-qyf66a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276900/original/file-20190529-42565-qyf66a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276900/original/file-20190529-42565-qyf66a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276900/original/file-20190529-42565-qyf66a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276900/original/file-20190529-42565-qyf66a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Installation view of Standing archer on display as part of Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality and Cai Guo-Qiang: The Transient Landscape at NGV International.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Sean Fennessy</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The eight individual (and individualised) serene and commanding warriors who march down the main hall of the gallery’s temporary exhibition space come from the burial site of Chinese Emperor Qin Shihuang who died in 210 BCE. These figures are answered by contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang’s murmuration or sweep of birds (again individually made, similarly in clay,) flying miraculously in unison.</p>
<p>That each individual warrior (some 8000 apparently exist, most still buried) and each bird is given this respect and value within the group reflects an understanding espoused by Confucius some hundreds of years before the warriors were made.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276737/original/file-20190528-42600-ip0ta2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276737/original/file-20190528-42600-ip0ta2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276737/original/file-20190528-42600-ip0ta2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276737/original/file-20190528-42600-ip0ta2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276737/original/file-20190528-42600-ip0ta2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276737/original/file-20190528-42600-ip0ta2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276737/original/file-20190528-42600-ip0ta2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276737/original/file-20190528-42600-ip0ta2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Installation view of Kneeling archer on display as part of Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality and Cai Guo-Qiang: The Transient Landscape at NGV International.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Sean Fennessy</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s an element that challenges the Western notion of the supremacy of the individual above and beyond the group. It explains the potential power of Chinese culture – the capacity to move a huge civilisation in a direction that benefits every person. </p>
<p>This exhibition reveals this reality, albeit subtly. The Emperor was just one person, albeit at the apex, within this system and was expected to behave with moral honour and rectitude – or bring down the wrath of heaven on the whole empire. </p>
<p>Each warrior and starling retain this sense of themselves as a part of a wider whole. For a Westerner to see this, and reflect, is to better understand our own culture.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276741/original/file-20190528-42576-7otkbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276741/original/file-20190528-42576-7otkbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276741/original/file-20190528-42576-7otkbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276741/original/file-20190528-42576-7otkbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276741/original/file-20190528-42576-7otkbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276741/original/file-20190528-42576-7otkbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276741/original/file-20190528-42576-7otkbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276741/original/file-20190528-42576-7otkbp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Installation view of Kneeling archer (detail) on display as part of Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality and Cai Guo-Qiang: The Transient Landscape at NGV International.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Sean Fennessy 20190523_NGV_</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As leaders of society in Confucian China, scholars espoused the ideal of controlling one’s vital energy towards the good for all; in art, scholar-artists directed this inner energy, called <em>qi</em> (or chi), into a single perfect brushstroke. The warriors have this “less-is-more” inner strength, taut in their bodies yet appearing calm, faces determined yet full of life, hands ready for action but so soft you can almost feel the flesh.</p>
<p>Cai harnesses this inner force through gunpowder: the explosive energy resulting in the final flourish, like the brushstroke of old finally laid down with such controlled bravura.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276902/original/file-20190529-42551-1wvj6yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276902/original/file-20190529-42551-1wvj6yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276902/original/file-20190529-42551-1wvj6yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276902/original/file-20190529-42551-1wvj6yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276902/original/file-20190529-42551-1wvj6yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276902/original/file-20190529-42551-1wvj6yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276902/original/file-20190529-42551-1wvj6yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276902/original/file-20190529-42551-1wvj6yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cai Guo-Qiang, Qatar, 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Wen-You Cai, courtesy Cai Studio</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It takes time to see the restraint and admire its qualities. Western art has traditionally admired the opposite, of “more-being-more”, especially art made at the height of Western colonial power. </p>
<p>Cai talks of the essential tension in his work between harmony and chaos, words so central to Chinese concepts of “world balance”, as articulated by Confucius and still resonant today. I interviewed Cai in 2013 in Brisbane for the film series <a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/show/journey-through-asian-art">A Journey Through Asian Art</a>. He talked then as now of the seeming calmness of the gunpowder contrasted with its ignited energy, reflecting on the invisible forces that “inform the spirit of Chinese art and culture”. </p>
<p>The Cai work at NGV has a subtitle of “The Transient Landscape”, and indeed, besides the murmuration of birds, he has evoked the inexorable forces of the natural world in his room mural of dying peonies, with a funereal “grave” of singed terracotta flowers in its centre.</p>
<p>In another room, a landscape of Mt Li, the sacred peak where the Qin Emperor was buried, is further suggested as a rise on the horizon delineated in that spare, harsh gunpowder flash.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276903/original/file-20190529-42593-1p0eiwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276903/original/file-20190529-42593-1p0eiwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276903/original/file-20190529-42593-1p0eiwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276903/original/file-20190529-42593-1p0eiwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276903/original/file-20190529-42593-1p0eiwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276903/original/file-20190529-42593-1p0eiwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276903/original/file-20190529-42593-1p0eiwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276903/original/file-20190529-42593-1p0eiwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Installation view of Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality and Cai Guo-Qiang: The Transient Landscape at NGV International, 24 May – 13 October 2019. © Cai Guo-Qiang.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo © Sean Fennessy</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The exhibition is fleshed out, if that is the right term for a show exploring burial and death, by further ancient objects from various museums in Shaanxi, the exhibition partner. These include the small, slender, even elfin female figure, also made in terracotta during the (next) Han dynasty. In her own case, in the last room, she seems to be smiling to herself, perhaps at the display of pomp and circumstance of these men around her.</p>
<h2>Art and politics</h2>
<p>The contrasts here, or binaries if you wish, are revealing and many: life and death, harmony and chaos, energy and control, art and politics. But perhaps this last couplet is not so antithetical, especially in these interesting times.</p>
<p>The first major exhibition of ancient Chinese art in Australia, shown in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide in 1977, came in the wake of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s <a href="https://insidestory.org.au/whitlam-in-china/">official recognition of the People’s Republic</a> and two visits there. This was a political act of significance internationally.</p>
<p>The 1982-3 exhibition of Terracotta Warriors shown in all the mainland state capitals, which again had Prime Ministerial support, (from Malcolm Fraser), was timed to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Australia and China. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this – how many Euro-American grand exhibitions reinforce diplomatic relations, passing without comment? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276904/original/file-20190529-42593-x72yep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276904/original/file-20190529-42593-x72yep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276904/original/file-20190529-42593-x72yep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276904/original/file-20190529-42593-x72yep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276904/original/file-20190529-42593-x72yep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276904/original/file-20190529-42593-x72yep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276904/original/file-20190529-42593-x72yep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276904/original/file-20190529-42593-x72yep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Qin Shihuang’s terracotta warriors, Pit 1, Qin dynasty (221-206 BCE) (detail)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Shaanxi History Museum (Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center) and Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the end of 2018, the Victorian Government announced a <a href="https://www.vic.gov.au/victorias-china-strategy">Memorandum of Understanding with China</a>. Chinese Premier Xi Jinping acknowledged the discussion of culture (or civilisation) as a political force <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/world/clash-of-civilisation-talk-is-stupid-xi-jinping-20190516-5dqxz.html">a few weeks ago in Beijing</a> saying, “… it is foolish to believe that one’s race and civilisation are superior to others and it is disastrous to wilfully reshape and even replace other civilisations”. </p>
<p>Xi, like Whitlam and Fraser before him, sees the links between history, politics and culture. Confucius surely would have nodded in agreement.</p>
<p>As ever, if the art is without perceived value no amount of political encouragement will lift its success. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276907/original/file-20190529-42546-l22xvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276907/original/file-20190529-42546-l22xvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276907/original/file-20190529-42546-l22xvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276907/original/file-20190529-42546-l22xvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276907/original/file-20190529-42546-l22xvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276907/original/file-20190529-42546-l22xvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276907/original/file-20190529-42546-l22xvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276907/original/file-20190529-42546-l22xvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Installation view of Cai Guo-Qiang’s Murmuration.
(Landscape) 2019 (detail) Realised in Dehua, Fujian
province and Melbourne, commissioned by the NGV.
Proposed acquisition supported by Ying Zhang in
association with the Asian Australian Foundation, 2019
NGV Foundation Annual Dinner and 2019 NGV Annual
Appeal, on display at NGV International © Cai Guo-
Qiang.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Tobias Titz Photography</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The late Edmund Capon, long-term recent director of the Art Gallery of NSW, wrote the catalogue for the 1982-3 Warriors exhibition, a text remarkable for its expertise in ancient Chinese culture. He championed a return Warriors show in Sydney in 2010, and untiringly advocated for understanding of Chinese culture in person, on film, and through his museum work. </p>
<p>This exhibition is about life and death. Its aim and scope are as big as humanity can conjure. I like to think Edmund is sitting in true ancestor mode (with his arms resting on his knees), grinning at this – the first NGV Winter Masterpiece exhibition from Asia – and the fact that a new generation of people, especially in Melbourne, get to see it. These are interesting times indeed, but, one hopes, in the best way.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/terracotta-warriors-cai-guo-qiang/">Terracotta Warriors & Cai Guo-Qiang</a> is on at the National Gallery of Victoria until October 13.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117825/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Carroll does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A new exhibition pairs China’s famed Terracotta Warriors with contemporary works of inspiring ethereality. The contrasts here are many: life and death, harmony and chaos, energy and control, art and politics.
Alison Carroll, Senior Research Fellow, Victorian College of the Arts, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/117588
2019-05-28T05:52:15Z
2019-05-28T05:52:15Z
In Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie, theatre finds a voice of reckoning on sexual assault and the law
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276553/original/file-20190527-40042-50ulud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sheridan Harbridge as Tessa in Prima Facie, a new play about a lawyer who becomes a victim of the legal system after she is sexually assaulted.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brett Boardman</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Prima Facie, Griffin Theatre Company</em></p>
<p>Suzie Miller’s one-woman play <a href="https://griffintheatre.com.au/whats-on/prima-facie/">Prima Facie</a> is an unsparing study of the Australian legal system’s treatment of sexual assault cases. The play, which opened to standing ovation, concludes with a simple but compelling statement – spoken by the character Tessa, played by Sheridan Harbridge – “something has to change”.</p>
<p>This is not a plea, and it is more forceful than a call-to-arms. It is a voice of steely reckoning that contains within its very timbre the rage of being a woman. The voice not only carries the rage – its strength comes from having been conditioned by it. </p>
<p>Tessa is a criminal defence barrister who is proudly at the top of her game, having conquered class and gender barriers to get there. She enjoys the pace of the kill and plays expertly on witness vulnerabilities, with sleek mastery of the unemotional palette needed to win. </p>
<p>In the words of 1980s feminist playwright Caryl Churchill, Tessa is a “<a href="https://www.bl.uk/works/top-girls">top girl</a>”, a career woman who believes she has accessed patriarchal power by reaching the higher echelons of her field. </p>
<p>Then Tessa is raped by a colleague. Her journey is one from enabler of the legal system to its victim. It shows how rape ruptures not only body and psyche, but the narrative that binds them together. Yet the legal system expects coherence. Where rape ruptures sense of self, the legal system demands that a witness speak from a place of reasoned agency. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276552/original/file-20190527-40034-aat884.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276552/original/file-20190527-40034-aat884.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276552/original/file-20190527-40034-aat884.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276552/original/file-20190527-40034-aat884.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276552/original/file-20190527-40034-aat884.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276552/original/file-20190527-40034-aat884.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276552/original/file-20190527-40034-aat884.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276552/original/file-20190527-40034-aat884.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In Prima Facie, Sheridan Harbridge plays Tessa, a criminal lawyer at the top of her game.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brett Boardman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the age of #MeToo, Prima Facie puts on the record that women’s experiences of assault have been silenced for as long as women have been abused by men and systems of power. It offers similar insight into the legal system to Queensland author Bri Lee’s award-winning 2018 memoir, <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/other-books/Eggshell-Skull-Bri-Lee-9781760295776">Eggshell Skull</a>.</p>
<p>The play states the problem plainly: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>A woman’s experience of sexual assault / does not fit the male-defined system of truth. So it cannot be truth / and therefore there cannot be justice.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Miller’s text won last year’s prestigious <a href="https://griffintheatre.com.au/creative-programs/griffin-award/">Griffin Award</a> for an outstanding play or play or performance text that displays an authentic, inventive and contemporary Australian voice. It is easy to see why. It is punchy, leaving almost no time for pause – witty and despair-making in equal measure.</p>
<p>Harbridge is dynamic as she moves Tessa through varying social vernaculars (such as when she imitates her Mum) and into a range of emotional tempos, activating every angle of an increasingly suffocating stage. Barring one exit, Tessa spends 100 minutes on a raised platform that feels much more confining than the usually intimate space of Sydney’s Stables Theatre. Most often starkly lit, and before an audience who plays quasi-theatrical jury, Harbridge does not miss a beat.</p>
<p>Sound is used only occasionally, with the depth of an inner eardrum/heart beat. Sparing projections mark the shifts in time as well as the legalese that Tessa traverses. The understated elegance of these elements allow the physical detail to mould the weight of the story: the rhythmic nuances of Miller’s script, their expression through Harbridge’s Tessa, and their unflinching, empathic direction by Lee Lewis. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276671/original/file-20190528-193514-1ii08t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276671/original/file-20190528-193514-1ii08t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276671/original/file-20190528-193514-1ii08t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276671/original/file-20190528-193514-1ii08t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276671/original/file-20190528-193514-1ii08t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276671/original/file-20190528-193514-1ii08t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276671/original/file-20190528-193514-1ii08t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Miller’s play is punchy, witty and despair-making.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brett Boardman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This production seems to make clear that beyond the law, it is female labour - in myriad guises - which tries to change the present in view of its history.</p>
<p>Structurally, the play performs a process of finding voice. Narratively, this is conveyed as Tessa’s coming to terms with her own experience – a conflict that she describes as landing between “legal truth” and autobiographical truth. Beyond this particular story, the process of finding voice becomes a comment on the theatrical form itself. Where legal avenues fall short, theatre can testify, the play seems to declare – only it does so differently, and for different ends.</p>
<p>In her program notes, Miller draws her background as a lawyer into focus, explaining that the work “has been playing out in [her] mind since [her] law school days”. The implication here is that the inadequacies of the legal system in part led Miller to carve new ways of making justice happen. In the play, Tessa finds her voice, explaining, “it’s a different voice, but I keep talking”. Perhaps this is a subtle nod to Miller’s own trajectory into the realm of theatre-as-tribunal.</p>
<p>Prima Facie shows how rape becomes nullified by the legal system, which fails to recognise the ways in which this form of violence shatters. Prima Facie’s strength is that it fashions itself out of the shards of this shattering. And this is why it is so compelling and so resonant. </p>
<p><em><a href="https://griffintheatre.com.au/whats-on/prima-facie/">Prima Facie</a> is on at SBW Stables Theatre in Sydney until June 22.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117588/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bryoni Trezise does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Written by a former lawyer, a new play presents a forceful critique of the Australian legal system’s treatment of sexual assault.
Bryoni Trezise, Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance Studies, UNSW Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/117807
2019-05-27T06:58:20Z
2019-05-27T06:58:20Z
A night at the opera: art comes alive in a modern twist on Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276520/original/file-20190527-40042-welioz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Juan de Dios Mateos as Cavalier Belfiore and Ruth Iniesta as Corinna in Opera Australia's 2019 production of Il Viaggio a Reims at Arts Centre Melbourne. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Il Viaggio a Reims, Opera Australia</em></p>
<p>In 1864, four years before his death, Italian composer Gioachino Rossini <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=wPzJ3nEwiJUC&pg=PA33&lpg=PA33&dq=Alexis+Azevedo+biographer&source=bl&ots=Bq-jf9nJrr&sig=ACfU3U1SDovopUXUcYjqlxxH5_GZrq_lFw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjq1N61hLviAhWE73MBHZJiAxAQ6AEwCHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=Alexis%20Azevedo%20biographer&f=false">recalled to his biographer</a> Alexis Azevedo that he would probably have ended up a “chemist or an olive oil salesman” had it not been for the French invasion of Italy. That invasion had begun in 1792, the year of Rossini’s birth.</p>
<p>By 1797, Napoleon Bonaparte had established the short-lived <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisalpine_Republic">Cisalpine Republic</a> in Northern Italy, in turn raising hopes a unified Italian state might soon emerge. Only two years later, however, an Austro-Russian coalition mounted a successful counter-offensive. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_unification">Italian unification</a> would not come until 1871. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, in Italy as elsewhere in Western Europe, the Napoleonic age heralded great social and cultural change. Opera houses became places of mass entertainment – Rossini could now contemplate a career as a freelance composer on a scale that had been denied to his forbears such as Handel and Mozart.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276523/original/file-20190527-40034-wmpx7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276523/original/file-20190527-40034-wmpx7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276523/original/file-20190527-40034-wmpx7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276523/original/file-20190527-40034-wmpx7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276523/original/file-20190527-40034-wmpx7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276523/original/file-20190527-40034-wmpx7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276523/original/file-20190527-40034-wmpx7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276523/original/file-20190527-40034-wmpx7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sian Sharp as Marchesa Melibea and Shanul Sharma as Conte di Libenskof in Opera Australia’s 2019 production of Il Viaggio a Reims.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prudence Upton</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At first it seems ironic that Rossini would eventually compose one of his finest works to celebrate a restored French monarchy. <a href="https://opera.org.au/whatson/events/il-viaggio-a-reims-melbourne">Il Viaggio a Reims</a> (The Journey to Rheims) was conceived as a celebratory cantata (essentially a set of hymns of praise set to music) to mark the coronation of Charles X (1757–1836) and was first performed in Paris on June 19 1825. </p>
<p>Rossini never expected Il Viaggio a Reims to become a repertoire staple. Despite it being a popular triumph at its premiere, it received only four performances. Rossini instead repurposed about half of the music for his later opera <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_comte_Ory">Le comte Ory </a>(1828).</p>
<p>It was only through musicological detective work that the original score was returned to life, receiving its first modern performance in 1984. But as a result, we can now appreciate how much Il Viaggio a Reims is as much a work of political satire as political propaganda. </p>
<p>The work is now receiving its first complete staging in Australia in a collaboration between Opera Australia, Dutch National Opera, and the Royal Danish Theatre. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276518/original/file-20190527-40059-mk3jxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276518/original/file-20190527-40059-mk3jxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276518/original/file-20190527-40059-mk3jxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276518/original/file-20190527-40059-mk3jxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276518/original/file-20190527-40059-mk3jxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276518/original/file-20190527-40059-mk3jxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276518/original/file-20190527-40059-mk3jxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276518/original/file-20190527-40059-mk3jxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Conal Coad as Don Prudenzio, Christopher Hillier as Antonio and The Opera Australia Chorus in Opera Australia’s production of Il Viaggio a Reims.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prudence Upton</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The opera’s plot setup is one familiar to us due to murder mysteries such as Agatha Christie’s, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7981885-murder-on-the-orient-express-and-other-destinations?from_search=true">Murder on the Orient Express</a>, or Quentin Tarantino’s, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3460252/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Hateful Eight</a>. In these, an ensemble of eccentric characters are forced to spend time with each other due to unforeseen circumstances. </p>
<p>In the original work, a group of aristocrats from Germany, Poland, Russia, Spain, England, Italy and France arrive at a hotel in the spa town of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plombi%C3%A8res-les-Bains">Plombières-les-Bains</a>, on their way to Rheims Cathedral for Charles’ coronation. A lack of available horses to take them the remaining 300 odd kilometres, however, thwarts their plans. </p>
<p>But their sojourn provides the excuse for a kind of allegorical diplomatic convention in song; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concert_of_Europe">the Concert of Europe</a> in concert, no less.</p>
<p>The fact that the desired journey to Rheims never actually eventuates is one of a number of elements that suggests Rossini, and his librettist Luigi Balocchi, set out to subtly satirise some of the political pretensions of royalist France. </p>
<p>Charles’ decision to be crowned in Rheims was a deliberate act of provocation to his anti-royalist enemies. The last French king to have been crowned there had been the ill-fated Louis XVI. Constructing a commemorative work of theatre in which an imagined group of guests did <em>not</em> make it to Rheims for the occasion suggested an implied commentary concerning the credibility of Charles’ enthronement.</p>
<h2>A new interpretation</h2>
<p>Perhaps unsure how to engage a modern audience with such elements of historical political intrigue, director Damiano Michieletto’s production instead shifts the time and place to a present-day art museum on the cusp of a major exhibition opening. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276519/original/file-20190527-40012-5j46qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276519/original/file-20190527-40012-5j46qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276519/original/file-20190527-40012-5j46qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276519/original/file-20190527-40012-5j46qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276519/original/file-20190527-40012-5j46qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276519/original/file-20190527-40012-5j46qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1044&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276519/original/file-20190527-40012-5j46qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1044&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276519/original/file-20190527-40012-5j46qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1044&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Julie Lea Goodwin as Madama Cortese in Il Viaggio a Reims.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prudence Upton</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Madama Cortese, the “Tyrolean hostess” in the original setting, now becomes the museum’s curator (here sung by Julie Lea Goodwin channelling Meryl Streep in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458352/?ref_=nv_sr_2?ref_=nv_sr_2">The Devil Wears Prada</a>). The scholarly Don Profondo (superbly sung and acted by Giorgio Caoduro) becomes an art auctioneer; the Englishman Lord Sidney (charismatically portrayed by Teddy Tahu Rhodes) an art restorer, and so on. </p>
<p>The remaining assemblage of foreign nationals are transformed into the subjects of paintings that progressively emerge from their frames or their packing cases in a manner reminiscent of Shawn Levy’s film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477347/?ref_=nv_sr_4?ref_=nv_sr_4">Night at the Museum</a>, or Gilbert and Sullivan’s satirical opera <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruddigore">Ruddigore</a>.</p>
<p>While this directorial fancy does nothing to alleviate the work’s already episodic nature, there is no doubt it also makes for a very entertaining evening on the stage.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276522/original/file-20190527-40038-1udv9a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276522/original/file-20190527-40038-1udv9a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276522/original/file-20190527-40038-1udv9a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276522/original/file-20190527-40038-1udv9a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276522/original/file-20190527-40038-1udv9a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276522/original/file-20190527-40038-1udv9a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276522/original/file-20190527-40038-1udv9a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teddy Tahu Rhodes as Lord Sidney in Il Viaggio a Reims. The Opera Australia production includes a Night at the Museum-esque element.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prudence Upton</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The original context of the work is nevertheless eventually acknowledged, in spectacular fashion, when Paolo Fantin’s lavish set and the whole ensemble combined to recreate the painting “The coronation of Charles X” (1827) by François Gérard at the opera’s conclusion.</p>
<p>Standouts among the 14 principals include baritone Warwick Fyfe, who gave a marvellous comic turn as the Barone di Trombonok, and tenor Juan de Dios Mateos (Cavalier Belfiore) and sopranos Ruth Iniesta (Corinna) and Emma Pearson (Contessa di Folleville), who each sang with great beauty and virtuosity. </p>
<p>Orchestra Victoria delivered Rossini’s sophisticated score with great style, thanks to the superb direction of Daniel Smith (making a well overdue debut in his native Australia), fine <a href="https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basso_continuo">continuo</a> accompaniment work from Anthony Hunt on a fortepiano, and some terrific solo work from Lisa-Maree Amos (flute) and Megan Reeve (harp). </p>
<p>The latter’s two ravishing duets, with Ruth Iniesta and Emma Pearson respectively, were a particular musical highlight. </p>
<p>The second of these forms the inevitable song of praise to Charles which closes the opera. But it is the first (which itself slyly references the contemporaneous Greek struggle for liberation from Ottoman rule) that I suspect directs us to the more universal political message that Rossini wished to convey: the hope that “one day the dawn of the golden age will reappear, and fraternal love will reign in human hearts.”</p>
<p><em><a href="https://opera.org.au/whatson/events/il-viaggio-a-reims-melbourne">Il Viaggio a Reims</a> is on at Arts Centre Melbourne until June 1.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117807/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Tregear does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Gioachino Rossini’s opera was originally meant as a satire of royalist France. A new production updates the work for a modern audience, setting the drama in a museum where the paintings come to life.
Peter Tregear, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/117078
2019-05-17T01:15:57Z
2019-05-17T01:15:57Z
As we face pressing global issues, the pavilions of Venice Biennale are a 21st century anomaly
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274763/original/file-20190515-69189-9a0les.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One of the most powerful images at this year's Venice Biennale is Christoph Büchel's
Barca Nostra, 2018-2019,
Shipwreck 18th of April 2015.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">La Biennale di Venezia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2019/information">58th Venice Biennale of Art</a> opened last weekend, the world’s first and still largest biennale exhibition in a field that now numbers over 100 major events internationally. It is often referred to as the Olympic Games of art, a comparison grounded both in its establishment and repute.</p>
<p>While the selection of artists for Venice is a much more subjective process than the selection of athletes for the Olympics, both see each nation put forward its “best” practitioners for a once-in-a-lifetime event that is anticipated worldwide and watched by millions.</p>
<p>When it began in 1895, the Venice Biennale aimed to reestablish the city as a fixture on the Grand Tour by drawing visitors away from the foul-smelling canals around San Marco to the Gardens to the east of city. With the Salon exhibition in Paris becoming increasingly conservative and less fashionable by the 1890s, it was also an opportunistic moment for Venice to reclaim its artistic renown in Europe.</p>
<p>This year the international exhibition is curated by New York native, London-based curator and Hayward Gallery director Ralph Rugoff and contains the work of 79 artists. However it is the national pavilions, of which there are 92 this year, that make up the majority of the Biennale in terms of real estate, volume and public interest.</p>
<p>The pavilions require each of the participating countries to assume curatorial, production and funding responsibility for their exhibition, which typically feature just one or a small number artists’ work. In addition to its long history and colossal scale, it is this national pavilion format that distinguishes the Venice Biennale from the scores of biennales elsewhere.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274765/original/file-20190515-69182-ovxafp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274765/original/file-20190515-69182-ovxafp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274765/original/file-20190515-69182-ovxafp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274765/original/file-20190515-69182-ovxafp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274765/original/file-20190515-69182-ovxafp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274765/original/file-20190515-69182-ovxafp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274765/original/file-20190515-69182-ovxafp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274765/original/file-20190515-69182-ovxafp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Felicity Fenner</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In times of global conflict, the Venice Biennale, like the Olympics, offers an opportunity for nations to come together in a spirit of shared participation and dialogue. Unfortunately, however, the national pavilion model discourages cross-cultural dialogue, instead fostering a separatist mentality that inevitably results in competition between nations. (Indeed, the most sought after prize at the Venice Biennale is the Golden Lion Award for the Best National Pavilion, won this year by Lithuania.)</p>
<h2>A glamorous graveyard</h2>
<p>The international art world’s glamorous graveyard to national cultural identity, the Biennale Gardens are an anomaly in our globalised 21st century. The perpetuation of this Victorian era perspective of the world is in part due to architecture: within the Gardens, the historic centre of the exhibition, 30 nations each have a discrete gallery (“pavilion”) to house their biennial art exhibition. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274770/original/file-20190516-69174-1gu59gf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274770/original/file-20190516-69174-1gu59gf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274770/original/file-20190516-69174-1gu59gf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274770/original/file-20190516-69174-1gu59gf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274770/original/file-20190516-69174-1gu59gf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274770/original/file-20190516-69174-1gu59gf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274770/original/file-20190516-69174-1gu59gf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274770/original/file-20190516-69174-1gu59gf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Giardini at the Venice Biennale.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Felicity Fenner</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When the Gardens were deemed fully occupied a generation ago, countries seeking to exhibit at the Biennale commandeered spaces in the event’s second venue, the sprawling Arsenale complex of former shipyards, or rented spaces in deconsecrated churches and palazzi across the city. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274764/original/file-20190515-69174-1dgslkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274764/original/file-20190515-69174-1dgslkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274764/original/file-20190515-69174-1dgslkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274764/original/file-20190515-69174-1dgslkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274764/original/file-20190515-69174-1dgslkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274764/original/file-20190515-69174-1dgslkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274764/original/file-20190515-69174-1dgslkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274764/original/file-20190515-69174-1dgslkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Arsenale complex.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">La Biennale di Venezia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Australia was one of the last nations to be granted a plot in the Biennale Gardens, in 1988. Since then, a succession of mostly one-person Australian pavilion exhibitions have demonstrated the international calibre of Australian art, or have attempted to convey a sense of Australian culture, or both. </p>
<p>The cultural background of this year’s representative, Angelica Mesiti, typifies that of many international contemporary artists today. She is of Italian heritage, lives in Paris and makes work across the world, most recently in Aarhus, Denmark for her piece in last year’s Adelaide Biennial, and in Rome and Canberra for her current Venice Biennale work.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274766/original/file-20190515-69189-ic5iz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274766/original/file-20190515-69189-ic5iz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274766/original/file-20190515-69189-ic5iz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274766/original/file-20190515-69189-ic5iz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274766/original/file-20190515-69189-ic5iz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274766/original/file-20190515-69189-ic5iz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274766/original/file-20190515-69189-ic5iz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274766/original/file-20190515-69189-ic5iz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Angelica Mesiti, ASSEMBLY, 2019, (production still) three-channel video installation in architectural amphitheater. Commissioned by the Australia Council for the Arts on the occasion of the 58th International Art Exhibition–La Biennale di Venezia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Bonnie Elliott Courtesy the artist & Anna Schwartz Gallery.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mesiti is exhibiting an immersive video installation on the subject of democracy, a fitting subject given the state of global politics today and the promise of the Venice Biennale as a forum for open dialogue. Filmed inside the senate chambers of both countries, “Assembly” is viewed from inside an amphitheatre constructed within the pavilion. The audience looks across to each of the three screens in an architectural design that in its circularity and red palette evokes a legislative assembly.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274767/original/file-20190515-69204-1ecupqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274767/original/file-20190515-69204-1ecupqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274767/original/file-20190515-69204-1ecupqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274767/original/file-20190515-69204-1ecupqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274767/original/file-20190515-69204-1ecupqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274767/original/file-20190515-69204-1ecupqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274767/original/file-20190515-69204-1ecupqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274767/original/file-20190515-69204-1ecupqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Angelica Mesiti, ASSEMBLY, 2019, (production still) three-channel video installation in architectural amphitheater. Commissioned by the Australia Council for the Arts on the occasion of the 58th International Art Exhibition–La Biennale di Venezia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Bonnie Elliott Courtesy the artist & Anna Schwartz Gallery.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In deploying the pavilion as a conversation pit, Mesiti not only refers to the ties between Australia and Italy – both personal and in the setting of the Biennale – but also to the idea of a pavilion itself. Traditionally a pavilion is a place of shelter, a temporary structure offering respite on a journey or refuge from the elements. </p>
<p>It implies safety and sanctuary, a meaning complicated at the Venice Biennale by the word “national”, which in current times evokes “nationalism” and its associated extremism. Mesiti has created a forum for exchange within the confines of the Australian pavilion: the challenge for the Venice Biennale is to overcome the existing disconnection between national pavilions to make the event more conducive to genuine exchange.</p>
<h2>Greed and trauma</h2>
<p>It was noted at a symposium in Venice last week that if all the countries in the world had a pavilion in the Gardens, it would be more densely populated than Hong Kong. Given that the world’s population has more than quadrupled since the Biennale began, it makes sense to invite all the world’s countries into the Biennale Gardens. A densely populated community of shared pavilions would better reflect modern times, while also offering the potential for collaboration and exchange between nations.</p>
<p>Like Australia’s entry, very few of the national pavilions in this year’s Biennale claim to embody the national character of their country. Venezuela is one exception: the political unrest in that country has rendered its pavilion empty, the artworks having failed to arrive. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274773/original/file-20190516-69209-1ywujbl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274773/original/file-20190516-69209-1ywujbl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274773/original/file-20190516-69209-1ywujbl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274773/original/file-20190516-69209-1ywujbl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274773/original/file-20190516-69209-1ywujbl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274773/original/file-20190516-69209-1ywujbl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274773/original/file-20190516-69209-1ywujbl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274773/original/file-20190516-69209-1ywujbl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Venezuela’s pavilion: stands empty.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Felicity Fenner</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another exception is Ghana, one of a handful of first-time pavilions at this year’s Biennale. Designed by London-based, Ghanian architect David Adjaye in a style that references African vernacular architecture in its sand-coloured walls, this unusually expansive pavilion accommodates the work of six artists across three generations.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274768/original/file-20190515-69169-11fwnoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274768/original/file-20190515-69169-11fwnoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274768/original/file-20190515-69169-11fwnoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274768/original/file-20190515-69169-11fwnoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274768/original/file-20190515-69169-11fwnoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274768/original/file-20190515-69169-11fwnoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274768/original/file-20190515-69169-11fwnoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274768/original/file-20190515-69169-11fwnoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Just Amongst Ourselves (2019), series of paintings, oil on linen and canvas. Dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist; Corvi-Mora, London; and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by David Levene</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The outstanding work is filmmaker John Akomfrah’s sweeping visual narrative depicting violence in Africa over generations, including the mass slaughter of elephants, and breathtaking footage of threatened natural land and marine environments. It is a scathing indictment of human greed and malice that has global resonance.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274762/original/file-20190515-60537-r5jyta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274762/original/file-20190515-60537-r5jyta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274762/original/file-20190515-60537-r5jyta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=253&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274762/original/file-20190515-60537-r5jyta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=253&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274762/original/file-20190515-60537-r5jyta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=253&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274762/original/file-20190515-60537-r5jyta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274762/original/file-20190515-60537-r5jyta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274762/original/file-20190515-60537-r5jyta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Akomfrah, The Elephant in the Room – Four Nocturnes (2019), Three-channel HD color video installation, 7.1 sound. Four Nocturnes is a new commission for the inaugural Ghana.
pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia. Co-commissioned by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture of Ghana, Sharjah Art Foundation and Smoking Dogs Films with support from Lisson Gallery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: David Levene</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At a time when sovereignty of international waters is contested, it can be difficult to define where nations and their concomitant responsibilities begin and end. As part of the curated international exhibition, Swiss-Icelandic artist Christoph Büchel has towed to Venice an infamous Libyan fishing vessel that in 2015 sank between Libya and Lampedusa, killing up to 1,000 migrants trapped in its hull. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274473/original/file-20190514-60529-1chwedk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274473/original/file-20190514-60529-1chwedk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274473/original/file-20190514-60529-1chwedk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274473/original/file-20190514-60529-1chwedk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274473/original/file-20190514-60529-1chwedk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274473/original/file-20190514-60529-1chwedk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274473/original/file-20190514-60529-1chwedk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274473/original/file-20190514-60529-1chwedk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Christoph Büchel Barca Nostra, 2018-2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">La Biennale di Venezia.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The title, “Barca Nostra (Our Boat)” refers to the Italian government’s 2013 Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) policy, instigated in response to the number of doomed migrant ships. </p>
<p>The sight of the rusted vessel in the Arsenale, surrounded by military and recreational watercraft on one side and by cappuccino-sipping Biennale visitors on the other, has a powerful impact on those few viewers cognisant of its story.</p>
<p>More than any artwork in the exhibition, by rendering visible what is generally hidden from public view, its presence encapsulates the danger, tragedy and trauma of forced migration.</p>
<p>It is these global issues that find shared platforms in this year’s Biennale and that make for the strongest and most relevant works – themes around political, refugee and climate crises abound. These are the new thematic “pavilions” of the 21st century.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Felicity Fenner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Often called the ‘Olympic Games of art’, the Venice Biennale’s national pavilions are an outlier in a globalised world. This year’s strongest works explore global issues like refugees and climate change.
Felicity Fenner, Associate Professor at UNSW Art & Design, UNSW Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/117003
2019-05-15T04:43:32Z
2019-05-15T04:43:32Z
In Black Swan’s Water, three vignettes explore the politics of immigration, drought and family dynamics
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274215/original/file-20190513-99031-1hzls2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Igor Sas in Water. The play deals with the issues of 'illegal' immigration and environmental crisis in three narratives.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel J Grant</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Water, Black Swan, Perth.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://www.bsstc.com.au/plays/water">Water</a>, written by Jane Bodie and directed by Emily McLean, was commissioned by Clare Watson, artistic director of Black Swan, as “a family drama for now, that spoke to the moral questions and dilemmas of our time”. Both the playwright and artistic director share an admiration for the plays of Arthur Miller, and Water echoes Miller’s techniques, where family politics and political issues clash in an enclosed space. </p>
<p>It is a production tailor made for a Black Swan audience, dealing with topical issues – principally “illegal” immigration and an environmental crisis – and family dynamics. It is performed naturalistically with a cleverly designed adaptable set.</p>
<p>The play is set in three different narrative contexts: an Australia of the “not too distant future”, the US immigration station on Ellis Island in 1921, and Queensland in 1905. </p>
<p>The first narrative takes place on an island in a river, with its watery surroundings standing for an Australia similarly surrounded by sea. Peter (Igor Sas), a former immigration minister, is seemingly retired but in disgrace – a virtual prisoner on the island. </p>
<p>With his wife Beth (Glenda Linscott), he awaits the arrival of his daughters for his birthday. When they arrive, an “unwanted guest” is introduced by the errant older daughter. A family drama unfolds against the pressing issues of water shortages, the operation of a costly new desalination plant, and the disappearance of native bird life. However, there is little excitement when it finally rains towards the end of this narrative, and these now seemingly superfluous environmental issues are dispensed with in favour of the immigration theme.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274205/original/file-20190513-99023-1dts23y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274205/original/file-20190513-99023-1dts23y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274205/original/file-20190513-99023-1dts23y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274205/original/file-20190513-99023-1dts23y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274205/original/file-20190513-99023-1dts23y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274205/original/file-20190513-99023-1dts23y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274205/original/file-20190513-99023-1dts23y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274205/original/file-20190513-99023-1dts23y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Glenda Linscott, Emily Rose Brennan, and Richard Maganga in Water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel J Grant</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Following an interval, the latter two narratives consist of vignettes. The first takes place at the immigration station on Ellis Island in the United States in 1921 where a retired white Australian farming couple (played again by Sas and Linscott), financially ruined by drought, seek to enter the country.</p>
<p>While seeming incongruously placed, this reflects <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-the-us-locked-up-white-australian-immigrants-like-australia-does-to-asylum-seekers-87445">actual events</a> when immigration quotas were imposed, specifically to limit the numbers of Mediterranean immigrants into America. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-the-us-locked-up-white-australian-immigrants-like-australia-does-to-asylum-seekers-87445">When the US locked up white Australian immigrants like Australia does to asylum seekers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The sense of humiliation the couple feel is sensitively performed by Linscott and Sas, and the vignette effectively conveys how it might feel to be on the receiving end of this treatment, usually meted out to people of a different ethnicity.</p>
<p>The second vignette, concerning the doomed friendship between a South Sea Islander labourer and a cane grower’s daughter, takes place on the Queensland cane fields in 1905. It is set against the history of the employment of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-17/blackbirding-australias-history-of-kidnapping-pacific-islanders/8860754">low-paid Pacific Islander indentured workers</a>. From the 1860s onwards some 60,000 indentured labourers were brought to Australia. As part of an embryonic White Australia Policy, a 1901 Bill sought the expulsion of about 10,000 labourers, with deportations commencing in 1906.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274212/original/file-20190513-99056-1vc7j9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274212/original/file-20190513-99056-1vc7j9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274212/original/file-20190513-99056-1vc7j9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274212/original/file-20190513-99056-1vc7j9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274212/original/file-20190513-99056-1vc7j9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274212/original/file-20190513-99056-1vc7j9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274212/original/file-20190513-99056-1vc7j9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274212/original/file-20190513-99056-1vc7j9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Richard Maganga and Igor Sas in Water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel J Grant</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The play is ably directed by Emily McLean. Pace and rhythm are generally spot on and the space is intelligently utilised. Sound and lighting are effectively executed and the set, with its various doors and easily adapted furniture, suits the various times and settings of the three narratives.</p>
<p>The acting is uniformly sound. Linscott shines as Beth, the beleaguered wife of Peter, as she drinks her wine and manically rides the family politics and the arrival of that unwanted guest, played by Richard Maganga. Maganga delivers strong performances here as Yize, the “illegal” refugee, and later as a clerk on Ellis Island and Andrew, the Islander indentured labourer. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274208/original/file-20190513-99042-p2izlq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274208/original/file-20190513-99042-p2izlq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274208/original/file-20190513-99042-p2izlq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274208/original/file-20190513-99042-p2izlq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274208/original/file-20190513-99042-p2izlq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274208/original/file-20190513-99042-p2izlq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274208/original/file-20190513-99042-p2izlq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274208/original/file-20190513-99042-p2izlq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Amy Mathews and Emily Rose Brennan deliver strong performances as sisters in Water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel J Grant</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Peter and Beth’s daughters are played by Amy Mathews (Gemma) and Emily Rose Brennan (Joey), the latter having brought Yize to the island house. Both perform strongly as the very different sisters and display adept shifts in style in their respective later characters – Mathews as a Nurse at Ellis Island, and Brennan as Josephine, the daughter of Andrew’s employer/owner.</p>
<p>Sas exhibits nuanced performances as Peter, the disgraced former government minister for immigration, and as Robert, the elderly farmer on Ellis Island. Sas gives both characters some dignity, notwithstanding their differing circumstances, and the sometimes-clichéd dialogue in the characterisations of older Australian males.</p>
<p>Water provides the audience with a competently delivered night at the theatre but there are times, especially early on, when it displays some of the same problems periodically present in Miller’s plays, such as occasional banal dialogue exchanges and clumsy exposition. Nonetheless, some lame repetitive jokes early on concerning politically correct language were greeted with appreciative laughter from the audience. </p>
<p>The opening night audience expressed their appreciation with frequent laughter, sometimes rapt attention, and enthusiastic applause at the curtain. Like Andrew Bovell’s <a href="https://australianplays.org/script/CP-2413">When the Rain Stops Falling</a>, produced by Black Swan in 2011, it deals intelligently with some important topical issues – and all of the characters have become sadder and wiser persons by the conclusion. </p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://www.bsstc.com.au/plays/water">Water</a> is on at Black Swan State Theatre Company in Perth until May 26.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117003/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Chinna does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In the vein of Arthur Miller, a new play sees family drama and political issues clash in an enclosed space.
Stephen Chinna, Senior Honorary Research Fellow, The University of Western Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/117086
2019-05-14T06:23:52Z
2019-05-14T06:23:52Z
Helen Garner’s musical metaphors come alive in a new production of The Children’s Bach
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274251/original/file-20190514-60537-qy46g0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Natalie Christie Peluso in The Children's Bach. The opera is based on Helen Garner's novella of the same name.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Hislop</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: The Children’s Bach, Canberra: Fitters’ Workshop, Friday May 10</em></p>
<p>A new production of an Australian opera is an unusual event. The performance of Andrew Schultz and Glenn Perry’s 2008 opera, <a href="http://www.cimf.org.au/2019-calendar/concer-17">The Children’s Bach</a>, as part of the Canberra International Music Festival, was refreshing and welcome.</p>
<p>Perfectly suiting the central thematic strand of the Festival – the music of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach">Johann Sebastian Bach</a> – the opera is based on the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/634140.The_Children_s_Bach?from_search=true">1984 novella</a> by acclaimed Australian writer, Helen Garner. The title is derived from a book of relatively simple Bach keyboard pieces for children. </p>
<p><a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1342464">Garner herself</a> described the musical structure underlying the novella as “contrapuntal … I wanted all the characters to have a voice”. It is a work investigating “the possibility of alternative means of communication, means other than the ‘symbolic’ or patriarchal order of language. Obviously music is one of these”.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274242/original/file-20190514-60549-tett3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274242/original/file-20190514-60549-tett3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274242/original/file-20190514-60549-tett3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274242/original/file-20190514-60549-tett3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274242/original/file-20190514-60549-tett3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274242/original/file-20190514-60549-tett3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1185&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274242/original/file-20190514-60549-tett3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1185&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274242/original/file-20190514-60549-tett3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1185&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Goodreads</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The setting is Melbourne in the 1980s, during which the interaction between old friends and new acquaintances precipitates a series of life-changing events. </p>
<p>At the centre is a middle-aged couple, Athena and Dexter, and their autistic son, Billy. Their seemingly uneventful existence is interrupted by a chance airport encounter between Dexter and an old friend from uni days, Elizabeth, who is meeting her 17-year-old daughter Vicky. Dexter and Athena are introduced to Elizabeth’s rock-singer partner, Philip and his young daughter Poppy. A brief affair between him and Athena follows. </p>
<p>As the new relationships unfold, and the old ones unravel, Australian middle-class values are challenged and old myths debunked. Male patriarchy is threatened – the women in the novel have agency, while the men are seen as ineffectual. </p>
<p>The book is saturated with music and its translation into operatic form almost seems obvious. In 2008, Schultz said of the centrality of music at the heart of the novella, “within its pages lie the conversation of tango, the sex of rock’n’roll and the deep emotion of opera.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274253/original/file-20190514-60537-gztbo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274253/original/file-20190514-60537-gztbo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274253/original/file-20190514-60537-gztbo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274253/original/file-20190514-60537-gztbo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274253/original/file-20190514-60537-gztbo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274253/original/file-20190514-60537-gztbo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274253/original/file-20190514-60537-gztbo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274253/original/file-20190514-60537-gztbo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Michael Cherepinskiy, Anna Fraser, Amy Moore in The Children’s Bach. The title of the opera and book comes from a book of Bach keyboard pieces for children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Hislop</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The opera, first performed at Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre in 2008, is very much an ensemble piece with each character being introduced as in a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/fugue">fugue</a>, a musical structure which repeats a central theme. The central thematic subject is Athena who is deeply dissatisfied with her life; much of this channelled into her frustrated attempt to learn the piano.</p>
<p>In this performance she was sung by Natalie Christie Peluso with warm, luminous tone and an engaging stage presence, capturing the warmth and vulnerability of the character. David Greco, as her husband Dexter, sang with crisp, full, and resonant tone and utmost clarity of diction, bringing out the character’s confusion and existential despair at “modern life”.</p>
<p>Elizabeth was sung by Anna Fraser, whose clear and warm soprano lent humanity to the character, while Andrew Goodwin’s exquisitely modulated tenor conveyed the intensity of Philip’s love for his daughter Poppy, sharply contrasted with his cavalier attitude to the other women in his life. Amy Moore, who played Vicky and several other characters, has an attractive full-toned, expressive soprano and strong stage presence.</p>
<p>Poppy, whose series of spoken explanations of the structure of Bach’s fugues provides a connecting thread through the opera – each intervention establishing a new stage in the narrative – was sympathetically embodied by Anna Khan, while Billy was Michael Cherepinskiy, who communicates through music. His playing of Bach was a deeply moving moment, as was his duet with Vicki of the “Skye Boat Song”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274257/original/file-20190514-60545-e54qa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274257/original/file-20190514-60545-e54qa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274257/original/file-20190514-60545-e54qa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274257/original/file-20190514-60545-e54qa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274257/original/file-20190514-60545-e54qa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274257/original/file-20190514-60545-e54qa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274257/original/file-20190514-60545-e54qa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274257/original/file-20190514-60545-e54qa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">David Greco, Amy Moore and Jason Noble in The Children’s Bach.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Hislop</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is an opera essentially about music, and the role it plays in the lives of the characters. Roland Peelman – one of Australia’s most versatile musicians – conducted the small ensemble with flexibility and precision, neatly segueing through Schultz’s stylistic musical amalgam.</p>
<p>Peelman also staged this concert performance, always a challenging task given a lack of stage space. Schultz’s expressive and highly varied score was vividly brought to life in what is a challenging venue, not ideally suited to operatic performance. Peelman expertly brought out the myriad colours and rhythmic variation in this highly engaging music.</p>
<p>The incorporation of Bach’s music into a variety of musical idioms in Schultz’s opera echoes Garner’s use of music in the novel, as a meditation on the vicissitudes and challenges of contemporary urban existence. These characters are all are a complex mix of conflicting desires and emotions, reflecting the deep humanity of the novel.</p>
<p>The final poignant moments as Elizabeth and Vicki sing an extended duet describing how future events in the house will play out – a musical ending with strong undertones of Bach – will long linger in the memory: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>And Athena will play Bach on the piano. In the empty house her left hand will run the arpeggios and send them flying. Tossing handfuls of notes into the sparkling air.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117086/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Halliwell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
It is rare to have a new production of an Australian opera - a vivid new performance of The Children’s Bach was refreshing to see.
Michael Halliwell, Associate Professor of Vocal Studies and Opera, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/117001
2019-05-13T06:57:41Z
2019-05-13T06:57:41Z
In Cloudstreet, nostalgia all too easily redeems Australia’s colonial past
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274006/original/file-20190513-183089-ktkur4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Scott Sheridan and Natasha Herbert in Cloudstreet, a new production of the stage adaptation of Tim Winton's literary epic.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pia Johnson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Cloudstreet, Malthouse Theatre</em></p>
<p>Set in a rambling and ageing house haunted by a colonial past, <a href="https://malthousetheatre.com.au/whats-on/cloudstreet?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgbbZoMiX4gIVAiUrCh2gzQ2SEAAYASAAEgLlPfD_BwE">Cloudstreet</a> is a theatrical adaption of Tim Winton’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/343881.Cloudstreet?from_search=true">1991 novel</a> of the same title. </p>
<p>Written by Nick Enright and Justin Monjo – and first performed in 1998, now directed by Matthew Lutton – the play is a faithful rendering of Winton’s modern literary epic. It follows the lives of two working-class families, the Lambs and the Pickles, as they attempt to eke out a living in the wake of the depression, while contending with a series of personal tragedies and triumphs. </p>
<p>The play roughly covers the period between the late 1940s to the 1960s, as the Pickles and Lamb children move into adulthood. Themes of death and rebirth abound. The house on Cloudstreet is restless – it heaves, sighs, and curses while Perth’s Swan River whispers the story of a submerged past. </p>
<p>Cloudstreet begins with a narrator figure (played by Noongar actor Ian Michael) who tells the house’s backstory. As in the novel, number one Cloudstreet was once a mission for young Indigenous girls, who were used as indentured servants by a land-owning woman and self-proclaimed paragon of Christian virtue. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274005/original/file-20190513-183077-fwirh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274005/original/file-20190513-183077-fwirh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274005/original/file-20190513-183077-fwirh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274005/original/file-20190513-183077-fwirh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274005/original/file-20190513-183077-fwirh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274005/original/file-20190513-183077-fwirh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274005/original/file-20190513-183077-fwirh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274005/original/file-20190513-183077-fwirh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Guy Simon and Ian Michael in Cloudstreet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pia Johnson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The young Indigenous captives perished in the house along with its cruel mistress. One of the mission’s girls returns as an embodied presence on the stage, at times interrupting the dramatic time of the play to offer its main characters pieces of wisdom or provide exposition on plot. </p>
<p>The house and its surrounds are haunted by the past: the walls and foundation are soaked with the traumatised presences of its previous occupants. The outline of two figures whom we assume are the souls of the departed are literally etched in black charcoal onto the back wall. </p>
<h2>Cheery nostalgia</h2>
<p>Yet the play is unapologetically nostalgic and tips its hat to vaudeville, with larger than life delivery of dialogue, course humour, and a strong embrace of working-class Australian vernacular. Overtones of cheery nostalgia intersect with moments of magical-horror or surrealism – these arrive in the form of theatre’s equivalent to the horror genre’s jump scare. </p>
<p>Matthew Lutton’s directorial hand is palpable, delivering haunting atmospherics sustained and supported by a rich, often unsettling soundscape (J. David Franzke). The set-design (Zoë Atkinson), is reminiscent of a modernist style, with the set doubling as both the outdoors and the inside of the house. The walls of the house are not static – they grind as they protrude and retract, giving the impression the audience is moving in and out of a secret crypt.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274007/original/file-20190513-183080-exz81u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274007/original/file-20190513-183080-exz81u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274007/original/file-20190513-183080-exz81u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274007/original/file-20190513-183080-exz81u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274007/original/file-20190513-183080-exz81u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274007/original/file-20190513-183080-exz81u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274007/original/file-20190513-183080-exz81u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274007/original/file-20190513-183080-exz81u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The house on Cloudstreet is haunted by its past.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pia Johnson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Dramatic action unfolds over four acts, with the first depicting the near drowning of Fish Lamb (Benjamin Oakes), who is left permanently altered. Oakes inhabits the character of Fish Lamb with aplomb, drawing out the role’s subtleties and enthusiasm. </p>
<p>We also see the fraught relationship between teenager Rose Pickles (Brenna Harding) and her glamourous, listless and alcoholic mother Dolly (Natasha Herbert). Sam Pickles (Bert LaBonté), a kind but errant gambler, loses his livelihood after a trawling accident claims his hand. </p>
<p>In the second and third act, the Lambs and Pickles converge at the house on Cloudstreet, an eyesore bequeathed to Sam Pickles by a publican relative. They are polar opposites: Oriel Lamb’s (Alison Whyte) industriousness sees the Lambs opening up shop on their side of the house, a hive of entrepreneurial activity, while Dolly Pickles drinks, smokes and languishes on the other side. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274002/original/file-20190513-183109-ovbk9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274002/original/file-20190513-183109-ovbk9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274002/original/file-20190513-183109-ovbk9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274002/original/file-20190513-183109-ovbk9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274002/original/file-20190513-183109-ovbk9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274002/original/file-20190513-183109-ovbk9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274002/original/file-20190513-183109-ovbk9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274002/original/file-20190513-183109-ovbk9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bert LaBonté as Sam Pickles and Natasha Herbert as Dolly Pickles in Cloudstreet. The Pickles and the Lambs are polar opposites.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pia Johnson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The actors deliver nuanced performances despite the demands placed upon vocal style and delivery when playing to the Merlyn Theatre’s large auditorium. Their performances are energetic, with members of the ensemble cast shifting convincingly across multiple small roles for the duration of the play. </p>
<p>In the third and fourth act, a serial killer stalks the town and its unwitting inhabitants, leaving a swathe of dead in his wake. The terror of the unknown gunman merges with the supernatural horror embedded in the history-soaked mortar of the house; while the perilous water of the Swan River beckons Fish Lamb to return to it.</p>
<p>Fish’s near drowning left him open to fits of revelry and panic; he hears the calls of the dead from Cloudstreet’s walls; and longs to return to his watery grave in which a subterranean landscape of sky and stars unfold.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274010/original/file-20190513-183089-i76im5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274010/original/file-20190513-183089-i76im5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274010/original/file-20190513-183089-i76im5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274010/original/file-20190513-183089-i76im5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274010/original/file-20190513-183089-i76im5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274010/original/file-20190513-183089-i76im5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274010/original/file-20190513-183089-i76im5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274010/original/file-20190513-183089-i76im5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Benjamin Oakes, Guy Simon and Ian Michael in Cloudstreet. The Swan River plays a key role in the story.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pia Johnson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The play’s stunning final image is elemental and cathartic, promising to wash away the colonial hauntings of the past, which leaves us to contemplate our own position in an Australian landscape beset by a continuing history of settler colonial violence. </p>
<p>However, relegating Indigenous presence to the margins of plot or to the ghostly realm is a major sticking point in Cloudstreet and has been critiqued before. This narrative device is advanced in both the novel and its theatrical adaptation. The Indigenous characters in the play remain spectral and/or peripheral – artificially grafted to the lives of the Lambs and Pickles as counterpoint. </p>
<p>While diverse casting in the new production attempts to mitigate this literary settler trope, it would require a deeper intervention in the writing itself to fully succeed. Pathos blends with humour to produce a visually arresting production, by turns raucous and tragic, but its nostalgia dovetails all too easily with a redemptive vision of Australia’s past.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Cloudstreet is on at the Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne until June 16.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117001/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sandra D'urso does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A new production of Cloudstreet - the play adapted from Tim Winton’s literary epic - is visually arresting. But despite a diverse cast, Indigenous characters remain spectral and peripheral.
Sandra D'urso, Researcher, The Australian Centre, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/111597
2019-02-19T19:02:12Z
2019-02-19T19:02:12Z
Desert River Sea is a vibrant, compelling tour of the Kimberley
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259237/original/file-20190215-56220-ugop85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Garry Sibosado, Aalingoon (Rainbow Serpent), 2018, ochre pigment on engraved pearl shell, detail.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy the artist</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Desert River Sea: Portraits of the Kimberley, Art Gallery of Western Australia.</em></p>
<p>For the past century, the curator has been the deciding factor in what is shown by museums and galleries, reassuring audiences of the importance of what they are seeing. While acknowledging other commercial and audience drivers, the centrality of curatorial decision-making has been sacrosanct.</p>
<p>But when the curatorial team from the Art Gallery of Western Australia embarked on an epic quest to document the art of the Kimberley region in the state’s north west, they abandoned this idea of a single authorial voice in favour of a new model of partnership and exchange. Artists and art centres in the Kimberley were invited to help shape the Desert River Sea project. </p>
<p>This is, after all, an area with a 50,000-year history of continuous cultural engagement, made up of over 200 communities and 30 language groups. Since the 1980s, it has been an important hub for contemporary art. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259230/original/file-20190215-56236-y71jxg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259230/original/file-20190215-56236-y71jxg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259230/original/file-20190215-56236-y71jxg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259230/original/file-20190215-56236-y71jxg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259230/original/file-20190215-56236-y71jxg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259230/original/file-20190215-56236-y71jxg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259230/original/file-20190215-56236-y71jxg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259230/original/file-20190215-56236-y71jxg.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ngarralja Tommy May with his art work Untitled, synthetic polymer and paint pen on sheep hide, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Through centres such as Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency at Fitzroy Crossing, (which opened in 1981), the Goolarabooloo Aboriginal Arts & Crafts Centre, Broome (which opened in 1985) and the East Kimberley Waringarri Aboriginal Arts Centre, founded in Kununurra in 1988, a worldwide audience had been created for the region’s art. </p>
<p>These centres have nurtured and showcased artists such as Rover Thomas, Paddy Bedford, Janangoo Butcher Cherel, Queenie Garagarag Mckenzie, Jimmy Pike and Freddy Timms. Many have acquired art star status, acknowledged nationally and internationally.</p>
<p>So what has the Desert River Sea project achieved and how does it differ from other survey exhibitions of Aboriginal art that have populated galleries in Australia, North America, and Europe?</p>
<p>After six years of travel, conversations and exchange, curators Carly Lane and Emelia Galatis have overseen a massive project that culminated with eight major commissions.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259224/original/file-20190215-56246-1xdvpwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259224/original/file-20190215-56246-1xdvpwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259224/original/file-20190215-56246-1xdvpwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259224/original/file-20190215-56246-1xdvpwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259224/original/file-20190215-56246-1xdvpwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259224/original/file-20190215-56246-1xdvpwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259224/original/file-20190215-56246-1xdvpwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259224/original/file-20190215-56246-1xdvpwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shirley Purdie, Goorralg-Goorralg: Storm Bird and Willy Wagtail, natural ochre and pigment on canvas, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Warnum Art Centre</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some communities used the commissioning funds to revive ceremonies and teach younger members the correct protocols for “painting up” before rituals. Garry and Darrell Sibosado from Lombadina, created a stunning Rainbow Serpent (Aalingoon) from carved and incised pearl shell.</p>
<p>At the Kira Kiro Art Centre in Kalumburu, the focus was on showcasing the works of Betty Bundamurra and the late Mrs. Taylor. These two elders document their country with an expressive armoury of lively dots and brush marks in a rich, ochre palette. </p>
<p>The final celebration of what has been achieved by the 40 artists within the parameters of these commissions, is presented in a compelling and vibrant exhibition, on show as part of the Perth Festival. It is a highly condensed tour through the vast landscape of the northwest, literally from the sea, through the rivers and into the desert.</p>
<p>Each commission has its own area in the expansive gallery. But through multiple lines of sight, many enchanting connections are made and some surprising juxtapositions are encountered. </p>
<p>From Eva Nargoodah’s bush clothes fabricated from Dingo Flour bags, past Mrs. Taylor’s array of scintillating dots and shapes evoking fruitful abundance and onto Mervyn Street’s extraordinary carved and painted cow hides, it is an exhilarating journey that encapsulates the diversity of approaches to recording life in the Kimberley.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259235/original/file-20190215-56208-ft46q8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259235/original/file-20190215-56208-ft46q8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259235/original/file-20190215-56208-ft46q8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259235/original/file-20190215-56208-ft46q8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259235/original/file-20190215-56208-ft46q8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259235/original/file-20190215-56208-ft46q8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259235/original/file-20190215-56208-ft46q8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259235/original/file-20190215-56208-ft46q8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mrs Taylor, Aru, ochre pigments on paper, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy the artist's family and Kira Koro Art Centre</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The hides that Street carefully shaves and then paints to describe the heifers and bulls he knows so well from years of mustering and branding are a stand out example of the synthesis between people and place this show encapsulates. </p>
<p>“I have been around a lot of places, and these memories are all in my head,” he explains. “I use art to tell my history … I have to keep it in my mind and share it for young generations”.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259617/original/file-20190218-56204-hvq956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259617/original/file-20190218-56204-hvq956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259617/original/file-20190218-56204-hvq956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259617/original/file-20190218-56204-hvq956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259617/original/file-20190218-56204-hvq956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259617/original/file-20190218-56204-hvq956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259617/original/file-20190218-56204-hvq956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259617/original/file-20190218-56204-hvq956.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mervyn Street Droving cattle in the summertime 2018 (detail) shaved and etched cow hide 195.5 x 217.5 cm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Several of the communities have created film-based works that both describe the landscape and chronicle important cultural protocols. These videos are documents of empowerment that speak eloquently about a deep connection to country and the need to maintain cultural practices as communities seek to regain sovereignty over their land.</p>
<p>Daniel Walbidi from Bidyadanga has created an installation depicting Wirnpa, a creation being. Constructed within the gallery, it echoes a similar work he made on the shoreline of a salt lake that was slowly swallowed up by the advancing waters. The large scale video work chronicling that process is screened on the back wall, completing the loop that links his country with this city environment. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259231/original/file-20190215-56208-1q15oe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259231/original/file-20190215-56208-1q15oe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259231/original/file-20190215-56208-1q15oe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259231/original/file-20190215-56208-1q15oe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259231/original/file-20190215-56208-1q15oe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259231/original/file-20190215-56208-1q15oe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259231/original/file-20190215-56208-1q15oe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259231/original/file-20190215-56208-1q15oe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Joey Tjungurrayi Wangkartu, Wangkartu, Helicopter, kiln fired glass, 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Warlayirti Artists</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of the most arresting series of works are the sumptuous glass panels made by the Warlayirti Artists from Balgo. These nine artists have documented the abundance of bush tucker found on country using beads, rods and sheets of coloured glass. Fused together, they form luminous panels and glow magically in the gallery.</p>
<p>The vibrancy of the works on show and the integrity of the outcome has only been possible because of the courageous decision to rethink the curatorial parameters of this project, allowing multiple voices to shape the outcome. Both the Gallery and its partner Rio Tinto are to be congratulated on this initiative.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://desertriversea.com.au/">Desert River Sea: Portraits of the Kimberley</a>, is at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, until 27 May.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111597/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ted Snell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Indigenous artists and arts centres from the Kimberley region were invited to help curate this new exhibition, presented as part of the Perth Festival 2019.
Ted Snell, Professor, Chief Cultural Officer, Cultural Precinct, The University of Western Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/111985
2019-02-19T00:55:33Z
2019-02-19T00:55:33Z
In Kwongkan, Indian and Australian performers convey an urgent climate change message
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259467/original/file-20190218-56204-41nc2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ian Wilkes in Kwongkan, an artistic collaboration between Australia and India.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Grant</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Kwongkan, Perth Festival 2019</em></p>
<hr>
<p>“Kwongkan” means sand in the language of the Nyoongar people, the first inhabitants of south-west Western Australia. Both Nyoongar and Indian traditional ceremonies, which are recreated in <a href="https://www.perthfestival.com.au/event/kwongkan">this collaboration</a> between Australia and India, take place on the bare earth. Dancing feet connect with the sacred earth beneath.</p>
<p>But sand also has wider cultural significance. It appears in phrases like “putting your head in the sand”, to imply someone is ignoring the obvious or not thinking. There’s also the “sands of time” and images of sand running through an hourglass, both reminding us that time may be running out.</p>
<p>These themes are all too relevant when considering the urgent global challenge of climate change, explored in this world premiere performance as part of Wendy Martin’s final and stunning 2019 Perth Festival. </p>
<p>Through ancient dance practices, contemporary live music, aerial acrobatics, sound, video and epic theatre, Kwongkan invites us to hope for change, but more importantly, to be stirred to action. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259465/original/file-20190218-56229-5f8t2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259465/original/file-20190218-56229-5f8t2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259465/original/file-20190218-56229-5f8t2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259465/original/file-20190218-56229-5f8t2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259465/original/file-20190218-56229-5f8t2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259465/original/file-20190218-56229-5f8t2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259465/original/file-20190218-56229-5f8t2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259465/original/file-20190218-56229-5f8t2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Isha Sharvani (front) and Tao Issaro, Kate Harman, Ian Wilkes (back left to right).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Grant</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Created and directed by Mark Howett of <a href="http://ochredance.org/">Ochre Contemporary Dance Productions</a>, the production grew out of a three-year collaboration with Daksha Sheth Dance Company, who are based in the western Indian state of Kerala. Like Ochre, <a href="http://www.dakshasheth.com/background">Daksha Seth</a> brings together “performing artists from diverse backgrounds who seek to bridge contemporary dance and traditional dance movements”.</p>
<p>Howett travelled with an ensemble of artists to sacred desert lands in Australia and tropical India to create this journey from the past to the present, with a weather eye on the future. The result is not just dance theatre, but a hybrid form with strong narrative strands and a political punch. </p>
<p>Performed on a large, bare wooden platform overlooked by Norfolk Pines, and extending up onto the raised sloping grass behind, there is vast space available and Howett uses it well. A film screen at the back sets the tone of the work right from the start. A video (produced by Howett and associate director Tao Issaro) flashes images of bushfires, floods, polluted oceans, falling trees and rusty cars, one after the other, demonstrating the urgency of this story of climate change and humanity’s role in it. </p>
<p>After the dramatic bushfire opening sequence, the three performers enter, each dancing in their own cultural style. We are led on a journey through colonisation, loss, forced-forgetting and consumption. The performers move beyond pure dance into a blend of movement, acting and direct presentation, demanding a range of skills from each of them.</p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Isha Sharvani (front), Kate Harman (middle), and Ian Wilkes (back).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Grant</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These were amply supplied by the three main dancers. Ian Wilkes, a young and very talented Nyoongar performer, is terrific. He will be known to Perth audiences through his work with Yirra Yaakin Theatre and with Ochre Contemporary Dance Productions. </p>
<p>Wilkes switches easily from traditional Nyoongar to contemporary dance, and on to dramatic performance. A highlight was the sequence where he became a kangaroo entangled in the barbed wire from a fence, then transformed into a man, subjugated by missionaries and forced to wear Western clothes. </p>
<p>Another regular Ochre performer, Kate Harmann, brings an intense emotional commitment to both the dance and the drama. When she manipulates a flimsy sheet of clear plastic, she creates beautiful yet disturbing images, ripe with metaphor. </p>
<p>Finally, Isha Shavani, the lead dancer of Daksha Sheth and a renowned aerialist, brought grace, precision and strength to her performance. She is trained in various Indian dance forms such as Kathak, Chau and Kalaripayattu, and displayed her skills in rope Mallakhamb (where acrobatic feats and poses are performed using a hanging rope). She was exceptional in the dance forms of all three cultures and is a compelling presence. </p>
<p>The intensity of these performances was supported by Tao Issaro’s compositions. He is Shavani’s brother, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uXfNZndLCA">describes himself</a> as “a son of an artistic tribe”. He performs energetically on his drums and found objects, complementing a layered instrumental music track incorporating sounds of nature. One impressive drum is hand made from a large brass biryani pot covered with hide.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259459/original/file-20190218-56220-7uhbbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259459/original/file-20190218-56220-7uhbbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259459/original/file-20190218-56220-7uhbbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259459/original/file-20190218-56220-7uhbbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259459/original/file-20190218-56220-7uhbbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259459/original/file-20190218-56220-7uhbbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259459/original/file-20190218-56220-7uhbbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259459/original/file-20190218-56220-7uhbbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lead dancer of Daksha Sheth, Isha Sharvani.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Grant</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kwongkan builds to its climax when the performers desperately try to clear the stage of a mountain of plastic. Balancing on top of an oil drum – a fitting podium if ever there was one – Wilkes uses a megaphone to urge us to get our heads out of the sand. He recalls the quote from Native American leader <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Seattle">Chief Seattle</a>, who watched the destruction of his country following colonisation and famously said “we can’t eat money”. </p>
<p>In the context of pleas from young people around the world to adults to save their future, this final sequence has a powerful impact. </p>
<p>It is interesting to see the epic theatre techniques of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht">Bertolt Brecht</a> alive and well today. Brecht used theatre to confront an audience and arouse in them the capacity to action. He wanted them to make a decision about a political issue, to question orthodoxy and become active and curious. His work aimed to awaken the audience to the realisation that they can change society for the better. </p>
<p>We are used to being empathetic with characters on stage, but in doing so we remain detached from them and uncritical. Epic theatre aims to disrupt that state. Kwongkan takes this one step further and invites onto the stage a member of <a href="https://www.millenniumkids.com.au/">Millennium Kids</a>, an organisation that works with young people to encourage action on environmental issues. </p>
<p>13-year-old Bella spoke on the night I saw the performance, and pleaded with us to take action on climate change. In light of growing global movements such as <a href="https://www.schoolstrike4climate.com">School Strike 4 Climate</a> and <a href="https://rebellion.earth">Extinction Rebellion</a>, Kwongkan uses art to reflect the zeitgeist.
It begs the question: if the art we are given is not doing that, why not? </p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.perthfestival.com.au/event/kwongkan">Kwongkan</a> is playing as part of the Perth Festival until February 20.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111985/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Vivienne Glance is affiliated with Australian Writers Guild, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance and is a member of the Australian Greens.</span></em></p>
An artistic collaboration between India and Australia, playing as part of this year’s Perth Festival, stirs its audience to action on climate change.
Vivienne Glance, Hon Research Fellow in Poetry and Theatre studies, The University of Western Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/110096
2019-01-18T04:55:27Z
2019-01-18T04:55:27Z
Deer Woman is a work of immense power and artistry
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254460/original/file-20190118-100285-18i3kmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cherish Violet Blood as Lila in Deer Woman, playing at this year's Sydney Festival. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prudence Upton</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Deer Woman, Sydney Festival</em></p>
<hr>
<p>One of the most exhilarating things about Wesley Enoch’s tenure as Artistic Director of the Sydney Festival has been the huge increase in the number of First Nations artists programmed, not only from Australia but also Canada and Aotearoa New Zealand. Festival audiences have had the opportunity not only to witness a local festival being decolonised, but also to listen to an increasingly global dialogue through and about First Nations performance.</p>
<p>Like Gabriel Dharmoo’s Anthropologies Imaginaires and Cliff Cardinal’s Huff in the 2017 festival, Deer Woman is a work written, directed, designed, composed, stage managed and performed by First Nations artists from Canada. And like these works, it too is anchored by a solo performance of fierce skill, focus and precision. </p>
<p>On entering the theatre, we see a sparse set: two screens stand at roughly 45 degrees to the audience and 90 degrees to each other; in between the screens, there is a camera on a tripod and a blue cooler. The screens display infrared footage of deer nosing about in the forest, their eyes glowing green. In the background, the Everly Brothers croon “Devoted to You,” “Walk Right Back,” and “Love Hurts.” The harmonies are beautiful but the titles and lyrics do not bode well. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254461/original/file-20190118-100295-140hcx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254461/original/file-20190118-100295-140hcx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254461/original/file-20190118-100295-140hcx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254461/original/file-20190118-100295-140hcx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254461/original/file-20190118-100295-140hcx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254461/original/file-20190118-100295-140hcx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254461/original/file-20190118-100295-140hcx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Throughout Deer Woman, Cherish Violet Blood expertly balances the demands of cinematic and theatrical acting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prudence Upton</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Silence falls, except for the crickets, and Lila (played by Cherish Violet Blood) enters from between the screens. She puts on a hoody, opens the cooler, pulls out a can and cracks it open. It gives a satisfying hiss. “Hey, I’m back,” she says – apparently, we have already been conversing.</p>
<p>Having established that we are in the middle of something – though we are not sure what – Lila begins to set the scene. The first act introduces us to Lila’s girlfriend, Gloria. Lila tells how Gloria, who works at a halfway house, got free tickets to a performance and decided to take the women for an outing. Unbeknownst to her, it featured a woman hanging on a meat hook while a man fisted her. The audience gasps at the inappropriateness, but we are not off the metaphorical hook either. </p>
<p>Instead, Lila teases us about going to see the show, crying a little bit, exclaiming over its “power” and “importance,” and heading home feeling like a good person. “Enjoy your pain porno!” shouts Gloria as she and the women leave at interval. We, on the other hand, have already been warned that Deer Woman has no interval. How are we going to negotiate the next 90 minutes?</p>
<p>This mood of teasing, daring and warning the audience shifts into something happier in the second act. Lila stands – finally – and takes us back to her childhood. Her favourite people are Aunty Gary – her mother’s queer brother, who is described as “our only uncle and aunty; we’re really lucky he’s both” – and her sister Hammy.</p>
<p>We then learn about Lila’s sexual abuse, which she decides she can take as long as it keeps her little sister safe, and her young adulthood in the army. It is while she is away that Hammy goes missing. It seems that Lila was protecting a country that still does not protect its own. The third act deals with the aftermath of Hammy’s disappearance, including Lila’s detailed plans for revenge.</p>
<p>Deer Woman is a work of immense power – to invoke the theatregoer mocked in the first act – and, for the most part, restraint. Tara Beagan’s script is immaculately structured, and the language is striking for its specificity (welfare pops, Gretzy, the Chinook, the Sally Ann), poetry (Bob is as “quiet as a stump” and Gary is a “pessimistic cheerleader”), and bleak humour (Gloria claims to attend the “uni of life – you graduate by not getting killed”). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254462/original/file-20190118-100295-vhr7mu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254462/original/file-20190118-100295-vhr7mu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254462/original/file-20190118-100295-vhr7mu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254462/original/file-20190118-100295-vhr7mu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254462/original/file-20190118-100295-vhr7mu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254462/original/file-20190118-100295-vhr7mu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254462/original/file-20190118-100295-vhr7mu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deer Woman excels because of its solo performer, Cherish Violet Blood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prudence Upton</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The set, by director and designer Andy Moro, is similarly effective. Most of the time, the live performer and the two screens are in sync but occasionally they decouple. One screen might dissolve into footage of the fairground while the other screen might freeze Blood’s face wearing a particular expression. The sound design is similarly understated: we hear the distant cries of people enjoying rides, crowds at a rally, and one sister singing the other to sleep. </p>
<p>None of this would matter though if the wrong person were cast as Lila and Deer Woman excels because Blood does. Throughout the entire show, Blood expertly balances the demands of cinematic and theatrical acting, combining subtle facial gestures within the frame with expansive physical ones beyond it. It is a consummate performance that oscillates between entertaining, confessing to, disciplining, daring and playing with the audience. </p>
<p>Within the context of this year’s festival, Deer Woman serves as an important counterpoint to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/jan/16/from-a-gillette-ad-to-high-art-why-i-yelled-at-a-theatre-audience">Adam Lazarus’s Daughter</a>, one of the most conservative shows – in form, content and politics – I have seen in some time. Indeed, I could not help but think of Daughter in the opening scenes, when Lila is describing Gloria’s disastrous outing to the theatre, which features a “white guy saying real rank stuff”. While both shows are solo performances that deal with gender and sexual violence, that is where the similarities end. </p>
<p>Whereas Daughter employs theatre to amplify the loudest voice in the room, i.e. that of the privileged straight man, Deer Woman puts a queer woman of colour centre-stage, has her survey the room and speak her desire to destroy it. Indeed, rather than the violence against women, it seemed to be the idea of women taking revenge that shocked the audience. People who had been sitting forward started to lean back, several people walked out, and one woman muttered to her companion “this is horrible.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254459/original/file-20190118-100273-jm9x9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/254459/original/file-20190118-100273-jm9x9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254459/original/file-20190118-100273-jm9x9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254459/original/file-20190118-100273-jm9x9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254459/original/file-20190118-100273-jm9x9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254459/original/file-20190118-100273-jm9x9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/254459/original/file-20190118-100273-jm9x9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deer Woman features a sparse set.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prudence Upton</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Companies often grant reviewers only one ticket, meaning that I regularly see theatre by myself. When a show finishes I always walk briskly and purposefully to the car park or train station, informed by a lifetime of banal advice: walk as if someone is expecting you, keep your keys at the ready, call someone on your phone, don’t wear headphones, do wear shoes you can run in if need be. </p>
<p>But on the night of Deer Woman, I walk more slowly, open my chest and shoulders, feel the strength in my back. There is an army of big sisters out there, I think to myself, and we are coming for you. In the morning, news of Aiia Maasarwe’s murder would break and I would shrink back to my normal size. But for one glorious moment, I was – like Deer Woman – wild and free. </p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/events/deer-woman">Deer Woman</a> is being staged as part of the Sydney Festival until January 20.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110096/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caroline Wake receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>
Deer Woman, written, directed, designed, composed, stage managed and performed by First Nations artists from Canada, is anchored by a solo performance of fierce skill, focus and precision.
Caroline Wake, Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance, UNSW Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/97696
2018-06-07T01:48:39Z
2018-06-07T01:48:39Z
Tony Albert’s politically charged kitsch collection confronts our racist past
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221489/original/file-20180604-177095-1y1hg2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tony Albert Girramay/Yidinji/Kuku Yalanji peoples. Australia Qld/NSW b.1981
Mid Century Modern (series) 2016
Pigment prints | 24 works: 100 x 100cm (each)
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection: The artist. Courtesy: Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>The collector dreams his way not only into a distant or bygone world but also into a better one.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>-Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project.</p>
<p>Seeking exile from the growing anti-Semitism in his native Germany, author Walter Benjamin’s words are just as relevant today as they were when he wrote them in the early 1930s. Living in Paris, Benjamin loved rifling through what he saw as capitalism’s ruins in the fusty and out-dated 19th-century arcades, delighting in the mass-produced detritus that he found in secondhand shops. Freed from what he described as the “drudgery” of being useful, Benjamin’s objects were transformed by the act of collecting and acquired a quasi-magical status.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221493/original/file-20180604-177095-16zaegr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221493/original/file-20180604-177095-16zaegr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221493/original/file-20180604-177095-16zaegr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221493/original/file-20180604-177095-16zaegr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221493/original/file-20180604-177095-16zaegr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221493/original/file-20180604-177095-16zaegr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221493/original/file-20180604-177095-16zaegr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tony Albert.
Girramay/Yidinji/Kuku Yalanji peoples
Australia Qld/NSW b.1981
Child Riding Kangaroo (from ‘Mid Century Modern’ series) 2016 Pigment print on paper
100 x 100cm</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection: The artist. Courtesy: Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like Benjamin, Tony Albert is the quintessential collector. A descendent of the Girramay, Yidinji and Kuku Yalanji people, he has carefully scoured thrift shops for what he calls “Aboriginalia”: the kitsch caricatures of Indigenous people adorning trays, tea towels, playing cards, spoons and even pinball machines from the 1940s to the 1970s. </p>
<p>Albert reassembles these vintage objects, creating poignant displays of memorabilia. Each individual object contains its own memories and stories. In this way, Albert holds a mirror up to our own collective memory and reminds us that this is the stuff, the matter, that forms the substrata of contemporary Australia.</p>
<p>To place collective memory under scrutiny is not easy and hence the significance of Albert’s new survey exhibition, Visible, at Brisbane’s <a href="https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/tony-albert-visible">Queensland Art Gallery</a>. It was the conspicuous absence of Indigenous representation in visual culture that initially drew Albert as a child to secondhand shops in the 1980s. </p>
<p>By making the invisible visible, Albert stages a direct confrontation with Australia’s difficult and racist not-so-distant past. Akin to Benjamin’s quirky assortments of stamps and snow domes, new meanings are acquired through Albert’s reassembling of disparate objects into a collection. What comes to the fore in the show is how deftly he traverses mediums, moving from his iconic text-based assemblages of the 2000s to photography, installation and newly commissioned sculptural work.</p>
<p>Mid Century Modern is a 2016 series continuing Albert’s reactivation of kitsch memorabilia. He has carefully arranged a series of ashtrays in a grid-like formation. His trademark sense of humour and playfulness is on display here. His point, however, is deadly serious: what does it mean to stub a cigarette out on a black face? It is this tension between the absurd and serious, visible and invisible that prevents his work from slipping into a predictable monotony.</p>
<p>Collaboration is a core theme that runs through Albert’s practice. Consider, for example Moving Targets 2015, the result of a collaboration with Stephen Page, the Artistic Director of <a href="https://www.bangarra.com.au/">Bangarra</a> Dance Theatre. Taking its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/25/police-shooting-aboriginal-teenagers-sydney">departure point</a> from a 2012 police shooting of two Aboriginal teenagers in Sydney’s King’s Cross, the multimedia installation is comprised of a stripped out, dilapidated car. Inside the car are screens and the viewer is invited to contemplate the final moments of the boys’ joyride as Bangarra’s Beau Dean Riley Smith dances with increasing agitation and intensity.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221492/original/file-20180604-177131-11ug1lx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221492/original/file-20180604-177131-11ug1lx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221492/original/file-20180604-177131-11ug1lx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221492/original/file-20180604-177131-11ug1lx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221492/original/file-20180604-177131-11ug1lx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221492/original/file-20180604-177131-11ug1lx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221492/original/file-20180604-177131-11ug1lx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221492/original/file-20180604-177131-11ug1lx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tony Albert, David C Collins and Lucy Lewis Warakurna – The Force is with us #1 2017 Archival pigment print, ed. of 3 + 2 AP.
100 x 150cm</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Collection: The artist. Courtesy: Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The notion of giving back to community permeates Albert’s recent work. Newer projects, such as his collaboration with the children of the <a href="http://warakurnaartists.com.au/about-us/">Warakurna Arts Community</a> feature alongside some of his most recognisable collaborative projects such as Pay Attention 2009-2010. In the series Warakurna—The Force is with us (2017), Albert handed over artistic direction to Warakurna’s children who were charged with the responsibility of creating costumes and identifying set locations. Finally, all sales of the ensuing photographic series were shared equally amongst all parties.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221490/original/file-20180604-177126-ngitmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221490/original/file-20180604-177126-ngitmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221490/original/file-20180604-177126-ngitmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221490/original/file-20180604-177126-ngitmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221490/original/file-20180604-177126-ngitmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221490/original/file-20180604-177126-ngitmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221490/original/file-20180604-177126-ngitmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221490/original/file-20180604-177126-ngitmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tony Albert.
Girramay/Yidinji/Kuku Yalanji peoples
Australia Qld/NSW b.1981
Sorry 2008
Found kitsch objects applied to vinyl letters
99 objects: 200 x 510 x 10cm (installed)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The James C. Sourris Collection. Purchased 2008 with funds from James C. Sourris through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Collection: Queensland Art Gallery</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of Albert’s works have gained a potent political urgency since their original creation. Sorry 2008 was a key installation in the Queensland Art Gallery’s 2008 exhibition Contemporary Australia: Optimism. Referring to then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s <a href="https://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-country/our-people/apology-to-australias-indigenous-peoples">Apology</a> to the Stolen Generations, the exhibition cautiously welcomed a new era of hope, healing and reconciliation. </p>
<p>Albert has since requested that Sorry be reversed to instead spell YRROS, effectively parodying and evacuating the sincerity of the Apology. Words and meaning exist as a series of conventions. In this act of reversal, Albert underscores how arbitrary and fragile these conventions are. Ten years have now elapsed and with discussions pertaining to Indigenous constitutional recognition reaching a political <a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-recognition-in-our-constitution-matters-and-will-need-greater-political-will-to-achieve-90296">impasse</a>, we are left to uneasily consider: what, if anything, has changed?</p>
<p><em>Visible is at Brisbane’s <a href="https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/tony-albert-visible">Queensland Art Gallery</a> until 7 October.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97696/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chari Larsson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Tony Albert reassembles items of ‘Aboriginalia’, featuring kitsch caricatures of Indigenous people, with wit, playfulness and serious intent.
Chari Larsson, Lecturer of art history, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/97698
2018-06-05T02:17:05Z
2018-06-05T02:17:05Z
The House of Bernarda Alba is an extraordinary portrait of imposed silence and female misogyny
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221678/original/file-20180605-175451-dodtjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Melita Jurisic as the mother who confines her four daughters to their house for eight weeks of mourning. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: The House of Bernarda Alba, Arts Centre Melbourne.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Could a Spanish rural drama written in the 1930s still be relevant in 2018 Australia? In their production of Federico García Lorca’s <a href="http://www.mtc.com.au/plays-and-tickets/season-2018/the-house-of-bernarda-alba/">The House of Bernarda Alba</a>, director Leticia Cáceres and playwright Patricia Cornelius show us that it can.</p>
<p>Lorca’s play tackles the struggle between oppression and the desire for freedom, paying particular attention to the invisible ways in which women are harmed. Lorca set the play in a specific yet indefinite time and place, which allows it to be transferred anywhere.</p>
<p>Lorca (1989-1936) was murdered in the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) by a Nationalist firing-squad, only months after he’d finished writing the play, which he was never able to see on stage. In it, Lorca criticised the complicit silence around violence towards women - the same retrograde conservatism that would end his life. He even seemed to foresee the long dictatorship that would oppress Spanish women and men starting in 1939.</p>
<p>In the play, after the death of her second husband, Bernarda subjects her five daughters to eight years of rigorous mourning in which “no breath of air is going to get into this house.” In Cornelius’s contemporary adaptation, Bernarda is Bernadette; the five daughters are now four; and the time of confinement at home is eight weeks. Without internet.</p>
<p>In her opening monologue, the housekeeper Penelope (Julie Forsyth) informs the audience that after the patriarch’s death, Bernadette (Melita Jurisic) is left with no money and “stuck with four ugly girls”: Angela (Peta Brady), Marti (Candy Bowers), Magda (Bessie Holland) and Adele (Emily Milledge). Bernadette has also locked up her senile mother, Maria (Sue Jones), who dreams of escaping and getting married.</p>
<p>Attached to the walls, numerous air conditioners warn of the suffocating summer ahead in rural Western Australia. Hanging from the ceiling, several mosquito zappers betray the bugs that circumvent the window screens - and Bernadette’s ruthless control measures. The absence of a male figure does not prevent the women from being subjected to a repressive patriarchal system. Bernadette embodies the tyranny of a misogynist woman.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221674/original/file-20180605-175438-1kuihun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221674/original/file-20180605-175438-1kuihun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221674/original/file-20180605-175438-1kuihun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221674/original/file-20180605-175438-1kuihun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221674/original/file-20180605-175438-1kuihun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221674/original/file-20180605-175438-1kuihun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221674/original/file-20180605-175438-1kuihun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221674/original/file-20180605-175438-1kuihun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Candy Bowers as Marti.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Suffering from poor health, 39-year-old Angela is the only heiress to the family’s fortune, which leads to other deeply human themes: envy, social injustice, hypocrisy. A young man, Peter Romano, shows a sudden interest in Angela, raising both suspicion and repressed passion among her siblings.</p>
<p>Like the rest of the male characters, Peter is talked about but never appears on stage. Men belong on the outside. The external voices of Lorca’s wheat reapers singing on their way to work are now noisy miners who are free to drink beer and gamble at the pub. Stories of the women’s sexual defencelessness at the hands of generations of abusive men show that women aren’t allowed the same freedoms. After all, as Adele laments, “Men get away with everything”. </p>
<p>Despite this, men are inevitably present inside Bernadette’s house: in the sisters’ conversations, in Penelope’s retelling of external gossip, in the urn with the ashes of their father, symbolically witnessing their actions.</p>
<p>The matriarch’s obsession and mission is to protect the decency of her daughters (and the reputation of her family name), even if that means confining them to living in what Cornelius describes as a “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIr2zRGrBy4">bunker</a>”. This imposition of silence and repressive behaviour impedes Bernadette from seeing the approaching tragedy. “When it comes to your children you’re blind,” forewarns Penelope.</p>
<p>The characters’ experiences intertwine in the stifling setting of the household. As the weeks go by, the heat and tension escalate, due largely to the daughters’ sexual repression. Adele, the youngest, claims her right to go out and is especially sensitive to the invasion of her own, individual space. For different reasons, the four sisters are characters in pain condemned to a life between four walls, unable to establish healthy relationships with the outside - or even themselves.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221676/original/file-20180605-175407-ulrwiq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221676/original/file-20180605-175407-ulrwiq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221676/original/file-20180605-175407-ulrwiq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221676/original/file-20180605-175407-ulrwiq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221676/original/file-20180605-175407-ulrwiq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221676/original/file-20180605-175407-ulrwiq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221676/original/file-20180605-175407-ulrwiq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221676/original/file-20180605-175407-ulrwiq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Emily Milledge, Sue Jones, Julie Forsyth, Peta Brady, Bessie Holland, Candy Bowers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Marg Horwell and Rachel Burke’s austere set and lighting design evoke a prison. The main stage and the back hallway are separated by bars and sliding doors, contributing to this effect. When the lights emulate sunset or sunrise, elongated bar shadows are projected onto the stage floor. Irine Vela and Jethro Woodward’s sound design dramatically accompanies the different phases of confinement.</p>
<p>Cornelius and Cáceres succeed in bringing Lorca to a contemporary Australian context by taking his universal message and filling it with ordinary, relatable situations and conflicts. Cornelius maintains Lorca’s original structure, reworking it with references to popular culture: instead of sewing, the characters read gossip magazines filled with plastic surgery makeovers and superficiality. Moreover, intertwined with the inheritance conflict, the play subtly alludes to the Indigenous dispossession of their lands.</p>
<p>The cast is extraordinary. The performances are nuanced and complex, providing reasons to understand the characters even in their most questionable actions. Forsyth engages with the audience from beginning to end, and Milledge’s Adele is unforgettable.</p>
<p>The House of Bernarda Alba is a shocking play filled with symbolically loaded poetry. As a queer man, Lorca knew the torture of imposed silence too well. In his representation of domestic dictatorship, Bernarda’s first and last word in the play is “silence,” highlighting her intransigence and abuse of power. This is precisely the starting point of Cornelius’s evocative exploration of gender and power in the 21st century. And it is more timely than ever.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="http://www.mtc.com.au/plays-and-tickets/season-2018/the-house-of-bernarda-alba/">The House of Bernarda Alba</a> is now on at the Arts Centre, Melbourne until July 7.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97698/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ana Puchau de Lecea does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Federico Garcia Lorca’s shocking civil war play is successfully transferred to the Australian desert by the Melbourne Theatre Company.
Ana Puchau de Lecea, PhD Candidate and Teaching Associate, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/97079
2018-05-29T06:05:46Z
2018-05-29T06:05:46Z
Terrestrial, a tale of friendship, loneliness and aliens in the Australian desert
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220714/original/file-20180529-80653-ds3vll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Annabel Matheson as Liddy in Terrestrial. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kate Pardey.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Theatre review: Terrestrial, Adelaide Festival Centre</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Fleur Kilpatrick’s Terrestrial, directed by Nescha Jelk for the State Theatre Company of South Australia, is a story about memory, friendship and aliens set in an Australian desert mining town.</p>
<p>Through a narrative frame structured like nesting Russian dolls, witness testimony on the extraterrestrial disappearance of a teenager gradually gives rise to accounts of fear and loneliness, which, in turn, hold fragile experiences of hope and compassion. The effect is uncanny because, as if set on repeat, the story throbs like a beating heart.</p>
<p>Terrestrial plunges us in the psychological space of 15-year-old Liddy (Annabel Matheson), who longs to leave Earth and fly across the Milky Way to get as far away as possible from her abusive father. For nearly ten years now, she has been on the move with her mum. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/blackie-blackie-brown-is-a-ridiculously-fun-story-of-archaeology-race-and-revenge-96911">Blackie Blackie Brown is a ridiculously fun story of archaeology, race and revenge</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The surroundings of the small mining town where they seek safety resemble Mars. In her writer’s notes, Kilpatrick reflects on the ways “landscape informs how our trauma, confusion, illness or fear manifests itself. What happens when you’re scared and all you have is an endless sky to escape into? You look up.” The vast, star-studded sky is the only thing to keep Liddy company in her isolation. She cannot accept that it might be empty because if life has taught her anything at all it is “how possible the impossible actually is”. She is convinced that if her father can find her, so can aliens who can save her from him. </p>
<p>The only other teenager in this remote mining town is Badar (Patrick Jhanur), who also projects a growing anxiety onto the landscape. Son of Muslim immigrants, for whom the desert and the mine spell safety, and part of a caring family, Badar has no other home. For him this place is magical, despite the impending closure of the mine, the growing number of ghost houses (“empties”), and increasing loneliness.</p>
<p>Charming and compassionate, sensitive to what she cannot say, Badar welcomes Liddy into his world and patiently teaches her what it means to be a friend. It takes only a month and 99 lessons, to be specific. “Be kind,” he asks Liddy. Stay on Earth with me, she hears, we’ll keep each other safe. </p>
<p>Only the alien messes things up on the night the mine closes down. With a rifle Badar found in one of the empties, Libby fires straight up into the sky, “the last beacon on a sinking ship”. And the alien finally reveals itself, known to Libby all along. But, instead of taking her away, it takes Badar.</p>
<p>Now she must make sense of it all and tell things in a way that the investigator (the pre-recorded voice of Patrick Frost) would understand. How can she recall all she’s been trying to suppress? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220715/original/file-20180529-80645-g18eaz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220715/original/file-20180529-80645-g18eaz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220715/original/file-20180529-80645-g18eaz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220715/original/file-20180529-80645-g18eaz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220715/original/file-20180529-80645-g18eaz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220715/original/file-20180529-80645-g18eaz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220715/original/file-20180529-80645-g18eaz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220715/original/file-20180529-80645-g18eaz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pat Jhanur as Badar with Annabel Matheson as Liddy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kate Pardey</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most science fiction fans would agree that the best representatives of the genre are great not only because they compellingly imagine what might be out there - they imagine, too, the present world and our place in it differently.</p>
<p>Terrestrial accomplishes this spatially. Each location to which the stage transports us represents one of Liddy’s nesting memories. These are intersecting planes of experience, dominated by the harsh fluorescent overhead light and concrete besser-block interior of the interrogation room, the blindingly bright sunlight of a desert day, the spooky flashlight beam exploring empties, or the gentle twinkle of the Milky Way in the dark sky or reflected in the water of the nearby reservoir.</p>
<p>A two-tone wall brings to life the colours of the night desert, serving also as a contrasting projection surface for the investigator’s recording of Liddy’s interview. Like the wall, Liddy’s recollections are divided into truths she can tell others and memories no one – not even she! – must see. </p>
<p>Meg Wilson’s uncomplicated, yet elegant set and Chris Petridis’ evocative lighting immerse us in the realities Liddy and Badar share, juxtaposing them with the stifling spaces where the teenagers no longer feel safe. Andrew Howard’s sound design signals emotional transitions, drawing attention to Liddy’s delicate encounters with kindness or harshly punctuating her painful recollections of inimical spaces, adding to them a layer of mystery, perhaps an allusion to the alien’s presence in the girl’s life. </p>
<p>Under Nescha Jelk’s capable direction, Annabel Matheson and Patrick Jhanur create characters who pulsate with life. Matheson’s Liddy transforms from a snippy and withdrawn teenager into someone who can open up to allow a friend in her life. Jhanur’s teasing playfulness gradually exposes Badar’s growing wound, caused by the loss of his home. We feel with their characters. </p>
<p>Like Liddy’s memories, Matheson and Jhanur’s are nuanced and multilayered performances that will resonate with the young audiences for whom the show is intended.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Terrestrial is currently playing at the Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre, until June 2.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97079/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maggie Ivanova does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In Terrestrial, teenager Libby wants aliens to whisk her across the galaxy to escape her abusive father.
Maggie Ivanova, Lecturer and Director of Studies, Drama, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/96911
2018-05-22T04:55:43Z
2018-05-22T04:55:43Z
Blackie Blackie Brown is a ridiculously fun story of archaeology, race and revenge
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219876/original/file-20180522-51130-zu8q36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Archaeologist Dr Jacqueline Black (Megan Wilding) becomes the superhero Blackie Blakie Brown. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Daniel Boud </span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Theatre review: Blackie Blackie Brown: The Traditional Owner of Death.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Nakkiah Lui’s latest play, <a href="https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/whats-on/productions/2018/blackie-blackie-brown-the-traditional-owner-of-death">Blackie Blackie Brown: The Traditional Owner of Death</a>, opens with a clear statement of intent. “This is not a play of reconciliation,” we are told. “This is a play about revenge!” </p>
<p>The play’s avenging superhero is the mild-mannered archaeologist, Dr. Jacqueline Black. As part of a dig, she uncovers a mass grave. It is the site of a massacre, and includes the skull of her great-great-grandmother, an Aboriginal woman raped and murdered by white colonialists. A ghostly visitation (a highly enjoyable video cameo from Elaine Crombie) transforms the scientist (via an hilarious montage training sequence straight out of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=632hVDL_N6w">Rocky</a>) into the superhero Blackie Blackie Brown. Her mission? To kill all 400 living descendants of the white men who murdered her ancestors.</p>
<p>Megan Wilding’s lead performance moves brilliantly between softly spoken doctor and comicbook superhero. Ash Flanders plays all of the targets of revenge with real comic versatility, from white supremacists to hapless hippies. The whole performance is framed within some superbly realised and immaculately choreographed video animations, provided by the company Oh Yeah Wow. </p>
<p>The whole production offers an explosive collision of genres. We get Marvel comicbook movies, with a more irreverent take than Black Panther on how that genre might address questions of race. And there are echoes of 20th-century horror movies: all those ‘80s movies, like Poltergeist, where native American burial grounds erupt into the cosy lives of white suburbia.</p>
<p>This restless parody of different genres continues Nakkiah Lui’s recent work for the stage. She consistently experiments with genre not just to trouble, or prick, the consciences of Sydney’s primarily white theatre-going audiences, but to skewer them head-on. </p>
<p>For last year’s <a href="https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/whats-on/productions/2017/black-is-the-new-white">Black is the New White</a>, she took a blowtorch to the apparently safe genres of rom-com and the comedy of manners to expose the assumptions about family and belonging that underpin those family-oriented narratives. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219878/original/file-20180522-51130-1mebmii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219878/original/file-20180522-51130-1mebmii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219878/original/file-20180522-51130-1mebmii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219878/original/file-20180522-51130-1mebmii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219878/original/file-20180522-51130-1mebmii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219878/original/file-20180522-51130-1mebmii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219878/original/file-20180522-51130-1mebmii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219878/original/file-20180522-51130-1mebmii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Blackie Blackie Brown hunts down another victim.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Daniel Boud</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More affectingly for me, 2016’s <a href="https://belvoir.com.au/productions/kill-the-messenger/">Kill the Messenger</a> used the confessional mode of social realism to address its Belvoir audiences directly, asking what it is that they had to gain from watching stories of black suffering. It is no coincidence that Blackie’s first victim in the new play is a gay, inner-westie talking patronisingly over the phone about the “authenticity” of an Aboriginal performance that he has just seen. He (you/I) might be an ally but that doesn’t excuse any of us from complicity or from Lui’s searching eye. </p>
<p>Lui fastidiously refuses to rest easily on simple ideas of the “authentic” in her search to tell the truth. Rather, her work questions, with devastating irony, whether unmediated truths can ever be told. At the same time, her theatre still demands that those truths - such as historical massacres - continue to be sought out, and remembered. Her skill in moving between these very different kinds of play, whilst maintaining a clear vision and line of attack, easily marks her out as one of Sydney’s most important theatre-makers. </p>
<p>Here, it is revenge drama that is turned on its head. From Aeschylus’ Oresteia to Hamlet, and from the Kill Bill films to Old Boy, these stories allow us to confront questions around the relationship between justice and revenge, violence and punishment. The excesses of vengeance: when are they justified? In revenge stories, we become complicit in the violence of the protagonist. As an audience, we stand over Hamlet’s shoulder, urging the young prince to just get on with it and kill his uncle already. </p>
<p>At the height of the Shakespearean period’s vogue for these sort of stories, the politician and scientist Francis Bacon warned against revenge. He called it “<a href="http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/revenge/revenge.html">a kind of wild justice</a>” that kept old wounds open where they should be healed. His pious conservatism would definitely have seen him on Blackie’s list. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219897/original/file-20180522-51127-1hh04h4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219897/original/file-20180522-51127-1hh04h4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219897/original/file-20180522-51127-1hh04h4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219897/original/file-20180522-51127-1hh04h4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219897/original/file-20180522-51127-1hh04h4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219897/original/file-20180522-51127-1hh04h4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219897/original/file-20180522-51127-1hh04h4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/219897/original/file-20180522-51127-1hh04h4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The archaeologist becomes the superhero in a Rocky-inspired training montage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Daniel Boud</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With Blackie Blackie Brown, the STC audience (in as much as the audience might be imagined as predominately white) is propelled into encouraging the revenge hero to kill people just like them. The play is absolutely hilarious and ridiculous fun. But as Blackie Blackie Brown goads the audience into demanding that she kill just one more of her victims, that laughter is also purposefully discomforting.</p>
<p>The prop of the skull, with us from the start of the play, is interesting here. On the one hand, it is part of an archaeological dig, part of the recovery of lost histories that need to be renewed and remembered. As <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-when-did-australias-human-history-begin-87251">Billy Griffiths</a> has shown in his recent book, Deep Time Dreaming, archaeology in Australia has contributed to the renewal of Aboriginal cultural identities in the late-20th century, and like others his book contributes to a current debate around the ongoing need for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=HR3CVUIQybA">a more honest reckoning</a> with Australia’s colonial histories. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-when-did-australias-human-history-begin-87251">Friday essay: when did Australia’s human history begin?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But the skull isn’t just an archaeological artefact; it is also the signature prop of revenge drama. Its presence in this play questions, as much as confirms, the possibilities of any honest reckoning with the past. It calls for a justice that is “wild” in its revelations of hard truths.</p>
<p>For all its raucous humour, this is an important play. What it shows us is that art - theatre; film; tv - has something vital to contribute in our drive to confront painful truths about Australian history. </p>
<p>Archaeologists and historians, like Dr Jacqueline Black, can tell us what happened, where, and when. But Blackie Blackie Brown and Lui’s wilder, more ironic version of truth-telling, filtered through multiple different genres and forms, makes us acknowledge the difficulties of telling those stories even as it compels us to keep trying. </p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/whats-on/productions/2018/blackie-blackie-brown-the-traditional-owner-of-death">Blackie Blackie Brown: The Traditional Owner of Death</a> is on until June 30 at the Sydney Theatre Company.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96911/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Huw Griffiths does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Nakiah Lui’s Blackie Blackie Brown is an explosive collision of genres that executes Indigenous justice with extreme prejudice.
Huw Griffiths, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/89359
2017-12-27T20:46:47Z
2017-12-27T20:46:47Z
How our arts critics saw 2017
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200294/original/file-20171220-4985-1ym1eqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Taylor Mac sacrificed the audience in a 'Radical Faerie realness ritual'. Fortunately we survived.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Melbourne Festival</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Art in 2017, on stages, screens, pages and walls, moved and delighted us, made us think, and sometimes disturbed us (in good and bad ways). </p>
<p>In film, we sent our experts out to make their picks of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-critical-guide-to-the-oscar-best-pic-contenders-and-why-moonlight-should-win-73363">Oscar contenders</a>, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-2017-melbourne-international-film-festival-films-to-watch-out-for-81321">Melbourne International Film Festival</a>, and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-top-five-films-of-the-sydney-film-festival-and-the-rest-79667">Sydney Film Festival</a>, both of which included the ravishing <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5726616/">Call Me By Your Name</a>, undoubtedly the film of the year (although our film critic Ari Mattes would name <a href="https://theconversation.com/2017-in-film-a-return-to-form-for-the-hollywood-blockbuster-89079">Moonlight</a>). </p>
<p>We reviewed blockbusters, including the refreshing <a href="https://theconversation.com/review-wonder-woman-reinvigorates-tired-superhero-conventions-78517">Wonder Woman</a> and the gross <a href="https://theconversation.com/fifty-shades-darker-an-abusive-fairy-tale-that-robs-women-of-sexual-freedom-72724">50 Shades Darker</a>. And we looked at quieter films, such as the understated but searing Australian western <a href="https://theconversation.com/warwick-thorntons-sweet-country-a-tragic-investigation-of-race-on-australias-frontier-84512">Sweet Country</a>. Lucio Crispino praised this film’s ethical complexity and use of landscape to shape the story. </p>
<p>Dishonourable mention must go to the “insufferable” film <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-insufferable-film-mother-revives-tired-hysterical-stereotypes-84684">mother!</a> from a director who, as Julian Murphet wrote, “in 48 years, has yet to discover his ‘indoor voice’.”</p>
<p>On TV, we watched <a href="https://theconversation.com/stranger-things-2-is-darker-and-weirder-tempered-with-grief-86614">Stranger Things: Volume 2 </a>(“required viewing for socialists this Halloween”) and <a href="https://theconversation.com/top-of-the-lake-china-girl-is-defiant-adventurous-tv-81273">Top of the Lake: China Girl</a>, reviewed by Jane Campion expert Blythe Worthy. Chelsea Bond, viewing SBS’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/fair-game-the-audacity-of-heritier-lumumba-82898">Fair Game</a>, pointed out the everyday racism experienced by AFL-player Héritier Lumumba is something endured by all Black men. </p>
<p>On stage, we toured the major festivals in <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/sydney-festival-8547">Sydney</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/melbourne-festival-12445">Melbourne</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/brisbane-festival-12136">Brisbane</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/adelaide-festival-15027">Adelaide</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/perths-museum-of-water-documents-our-intimate-relationship-with-a-precious-resource-73591">Perth</a>, as well as <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/ozasia-31333">OzAsia</a>. Svenja J. Kratz bravely went to <a href="https://theconversation.com/trepidation-and-delight-experiencing-dark-mofo-with-a-three-year-old-79345">Dark Mofo</a> with a three-year-old, giving us a delightful perspective on Hobart’s winter festival. </p>
<p>Jana Perkovic wrote of the massive spectacle of <a href="https://theconversation.com/tree-of-codes-wields-dance-music-and-art-to-create-new-spectacle-86051">Tree of Codes</a>, while Vivienne Glance embraced vampire love in <a href="https://theconversation.com/blood-on-the-stage-let-the-right-one-in-is-a-vampire-love-story-for-our-times-87856">Let the Right One In</a>. We subjected Sarah Balkin to the “Radical Faerie realness ritual” of <a href="https://theconversation.com/taylor-mac-makes-history-at-melbourne-festival-opening-85321">Taylor Mac</a>, in which the audience was sacrificed in the name of healing. Kudos to Asher Warren who reviewed contemporary dance <a href="https://theconversation.com/7-pleasures-explores-naked-desire-but-fails-to-confront-cliches-85984">7 Pleasures</a> and gave us rhythm “created by the frenetic flapping of male genitalia”. This review proved to be a surprising hit with readers (though the images may have been a factor). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200299/original/file-20171220-4965-1os6r9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200299/original/file-20171220-4965-1os6r9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200299/original/file-20171220-4965-1os6r9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200299/original/file-20171220-4965-1os6r9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200299/original/file-20171220-4965-1os6r9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200299/original/file-20171220-4965-1os6r9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200299/original/file-20171220-4965-1os6r9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200299/original/file-20171220-4965-1os6r9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">7 Pleasures at the Melbourne Festival.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marc Coudrais</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There was no shortage of brilliant new Australian theatre. <a href="https://theconversation.com/muriels-wedding-the-musical-is-a-deeply-satisfying-tribute-to-australias-most-loved-dag-87855">Muriel’s Wedding: the Musical</a> was a roaring tribute to Australia’s most-loved dag. As Caroline Wake wrote, <a href="https://theconversation.com/barbara-and-the-camp-dogs-turns-pub-theatre-into-an-impassioned-call-to-listen-to-indigenous-australians-88777">Barbara and the Camp Dogs</a> was a pub-rock gig that became a comment on an exhausting year in politics for Indigenous Australians. We looked back on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-secret-river-exquisitely-illuminates-the-unspeakable-under-the-stars-73961">The Secret River</a> and Sydney’s queer history in <a href="https://theconversation.com/only-heaven-knows-brings-1940s-queer-sydney-roaring-back-to-life-78747">Only Heaven Knows</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/nakkiahlui/status/862962632747130881">Nakkiah Lui seemed</a> to enjoy our review of her play <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-is-the-new-white-gives-the-comedy-of-manners-an-irreverent-makeover-77472">Black is the New White</a>, a comedy of manners with bite. </p>
<p>On and off the walls we wondered at <a href="https://theconversation.com/van-gogh-and-the-seasons-is-a-sensitively-curated-crowd-pleaser-despite-a-paucity-of-masterpieces-76803">Van Gogh</a>, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/show-me-the-sole-the-exhilarating-sight-of-sneakers-on-show-77709">art of sneaker culture</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/rembrandt-capitalism-and-great-art-the-dutch-golden-age-comes-to-sydney-87429">Rembrandt</a>. Sasha Grishin looked back at the work of key Australian artists such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-schoolgirls-of-charles-blackman-haunting-works-from-a-politically-innocent-age-76692">Charles Blackman</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-maverick-on-fabric-the-strange-unconventional-art-of-jenny-watson-81394">Jenny Watson</a>. Anita Pitsch noted that despite <a href="https://theconversation.com/del-kathryn-barton-explores-powerful-female-sexuality-but-reproduces-the-male-gaze-87746">Del Kathryn Barton’s </a> overt feminism, her work most often reproduces the male gaze. </p>
<p>Ted Snell grappled with “outsider art” at MONA’s “exhilarating” <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-compulsion-to-create-outsider-art-at-monas-the-museum-of-everything-79329">Museum of Everything</a>, while Chari Larsson gazed on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/sex-and-spirit-the-many-faces-of-ecstasy-84585">many faces of ecstasy</a> at the University of Queensland’s Art Museum. Christine Nicholls spent six hours absorbing the “peerless” <a href="https://theconversation.com/songlines-tracking-the-seven-sisters-is-a-must-visit-exhibition-for-all-australians-89293">Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters</a> at the National Museum. “It will rearrange the furniture in your head,” she wrote. </p>
<p>Joanna Mendelssohn wrote that <a href="https://theconversation.com/defying-empire-the-legacy-of-1967-78328">Defying Empire</a>, the third national Indigenous art triennial, was a testament to Aboriginal endurance and resistance. Meanwhile Queensland Museum gave us <a href="https://theconversation.com/roman-gladiators-were-war-prisoners-and-criminals-not-sporting-heroes-80065">Gladiators: heroes of the Colliseum</a>, although classics scholar Alastair Blanshard suggested the exhibit had perhaps overstated the heroics. </p>
<p>In literature, Camilla Nelson and Jen Webb made their picks of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/unflinching-luminous-and-moving-the-stella-shortlist-will-get-under-your-skin-76148">Stella Prize</a> (won by Heather Rose for the Museum of Love) and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/heart-warming-biting-tragic-funny-the-miles-franklin-shortlist-will-move-you-83218">Miles Franklin Prize</a> (won by Josephine Wilson for Extinctions). We celebrated the <a href="https://theconversation.com/nobel-winner-kazuo-ishiguro-shows-us-the-illusion-of-connection-with-the-world-85329">Nobel win of Kazuo Ishiguro</a>, a deserving but perhaps safer choice after Bob Dylan in 2016, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/george-saunderss-lincoln-in-the-bardo-is-a-genuinely-startling-novel-85917">George Saunder’s Man Booker win</a> for the “genuinely startling” Lincoln in the Bardo.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200437/original/file-20171221-15864-rzhdlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200437/original/file-20171221-15864-rzhdlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200437/original/file-20171221-15864-rzhdlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200437/original/file-20171221-15864-rzhdlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200437/original/file-20171221-15864-rzhdlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200437/original/file-20171221-15864-rzhdlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200437/original/file-20171221-15864-rzhdlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200437/original/file-20171221-15864-rzhdlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trevante Rhodes in Moonlight.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And, because we can’t let our experts have all the fun, here are Arts + Culture editor Suzy Freeman-Greene’s picks:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My film of the year was the sublime Moonlight. Stage highlights were Simon McBurney’s mind-blowing recreation of an ill-fated trip to the Amazon rainforest in The Encounter and the <a href="https://www.aco.com.au/whats_on/event_detail/mountainpremiere">Australian Chamber Orchestra’s collaboration with Jennifer Peedom</a> on Mountain. In visual art, I loved Gerhard Richter at QAGOMA and the NGV’s Hokusai and Bill Henson shows. Books of the year included <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35111483-being-here?ac=1&from_search=true">Being Here: The Life of Paula Modersohn-Becker</a> by Marie Darrieussecq and Bill Hayes’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30038960-insomniac-city?ac=1&from_search=true">Insomniac City: New York, Oliver and Me</a> (which I reviewed <a href="https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/current-issue/4075-suzy-freeman-greene-reviews-insomniac-city-new-york-oliver-and-me-by-bill-hayes">here</a>) - my other choices can be found in <a href="https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/current-issue/4471-2017-books-of-the-year">December’s</a> Australian Book Review. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>For what it’s worth my picks of 2017 are: on screen, Call Me By Your Name; on stage, Taylor Mac’s The Innauguration; in visual art, Bill Henson at the NGV (and a shout out to TarraWarra Museum of Art’s international exhibit); and in books, Arundhati Roy’s <a href="https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiAs7ik45nYAhUDy7wKHTZ-BqAQFggsMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.goodreads.com%2Fbook%2Fshow%2F32388712-the-ministry-of-utmost-happiness&usg=AOvVaw0bOgGt4pUaQHuvllJo5dci">Ministry of Utmost Happiness</a>, Claire G. Coleman’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35881101-terra-nullius">Terra Nullius</a>, and Peter Polites’ <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32854935-down-the-hume?ac=1&from_search=true">Down the Hume</a>.</p>
<p>A huge thank you to our writers who worked tirelessly to bring us enlightening, thrilling and intelligent cultural criticism. As arts criticism shrank in some other publications we felt privileged to work with this expanding stable of experts. If you’re an arts academic interested in reviewing, <a href="mailto:james.whitmore@theconversation.edu.au">please get in touch</a>. </p>
<p>Finally a thank you to you for reading and engaging. Let us know in the comments what art you liked most this year, and what you’d like to see more of in 2018.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89359/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
2017 gave us a blockbuster female superhero, radical faerie realness rituals, and the ‘frenetic flapping of male genitalia’. Here’s what our arts critics made of all that.
James Whitmore, Deputy Editor: Arts + Culture, The Conversation
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/70639
2016-12-25T20:41:50Z
2016-12-25T20:41:50Z
2016, the year that was: Arts and Culture
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151150/original/image-20161221-13180-3qdeqv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Visitors take in Cameron Robbins’ Field Lines at Dark Mofo at the Museum of Old and New Art.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mona/Remi Chauvin</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>2016 was not a good year to be a famous male musician. In January, <a href="https://theconversation.com/david-bowie-in-the-divided-city-of-berlin-53034">David Bowie died</a> at just 69. He was mourned <a href="https://theconversation.com/david-bowie-pop-star-who-fell-to-earth-to-teach-outsiders-they-can-be-heroes-52995">by pretty much everyone</a>, including the German Foreign Office, which tweeted: “You are now among Heroes”.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y-JqH1M4Ya8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>In April, Prince went. <a href="https://theconversation.com/princes-passing-bookends-another-chapter-in-the-history-of-music-58286">His death was sudden</a>. He was only 57 – an <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-elusive-virtuoso-who-embraced-ambiguity-and-female-desire-58274">eccentric virtuoso</a>, a brilliant performer and a prodigious songwriter and composer. “Today, the world lost a creative icon,” said President Obama in an official statement.</p>
<p>Then, in November, Leonard Cohen died. He was 82 and as he had written to his muse Marianne, some months earlier, “we are really so old and our bodies are falling apart and I think I will follow you very soon”. Still, for those who had <a href="https://theconversation.com/goodbye-leonard-you-brought-us-so-much-light-68674">spent a lifetime listening to Cohen</a>, his sudden absence was hard to grasp. As <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-a-writer-musician-leonard-cohen-was-a-one-off-68676">David McCooey wrote</a>, Cohen – with his mesmerising baritone voice and “profound sense of playfulness and enigma” – was a one-off. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151131/original/image-20161221-13172-iy88bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151131/original/image-20161221-13172-iy88bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151131/original/image-20161221-13172-iy88bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151131/original/image-20161221-13172-iy88bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151131/original/image-20161221-13172-iy88bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151131/original/image-20161221-13172-iy88bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151131/original/image-20161221-13172-iy88bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151131/original/image-20161221-13172-iy88bw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Georgia Blain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scribe Publications</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Death comes to artists in every genre, of course, and late this year we lost two stellar Australian writers – <a href="https://theconversation.com/goodbye-georgia-blain-a-brave-and-true-chronicler-of-life-70329">Georgia Blain</a> and the remarkable <a href="https://theconversation.com/remembering-shirley-hazzard-art-is-the-only-afterlife-of-which-we-have-evidence-70519">Shirley Hazzard</a> – along with the pioneering Melbourne architect <a href="https://theconversation.com/remembering-peter-corrigan-a-life-of-movement-energy-and-integrity-69868">Peter Corrigan</a>. But there was much more to Arts + Culture in 2016 than sadness. </p>
<p>It was a year of creative foment – from operas fused with circus to hard-hitting feminist memoirs to young, bold festivals such as Adelaide’s OzAsia and Hobart’s Dark Mofo – and as always, intense debate about the importance of the arts to a thriving, democratic society. Here then, is 2016 as we saw it.</p>
<h2>Cultural identity</h2>
<p>In March, the Daily Telegraph informed readers that students at a leading NSW university were “being told to refer to Australia as having been ‘invaded’ instead of settled in a highly controversial rewriting of official Australian history”.</p>
<p>Archaeology professor Bryce Barker offered a much needed <a href="https://theconversation.com/of-course-australia-was-invaded-massacres-happened-here-less-than-90-years-ago-55377">informed perspective on this matter.</a> Detailed historical research on the colonial frontier, he wrote,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>unequivocally supports the idea that Aboriginal people were subject to attack, assault, incursion, conquest and subjugation: all synonyms for the term ‘invasion’.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The culture wars manifested in other ways, too, with Indigenous Australians featuring controversially in the cartoons of Bill Leak. In an <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-white-mans-burden-bill-leak-and-telling-the-truth-about-aboriginal-lives-63524">impassioned response to one cartoon</a>, Chelsea Bond wrote that Leak’s work “continues a long tradition of white men’s fantasies about the inferiority of Aboriginal people”. Philosopher Janna Thompson, meanwhile, pondered whether it was right to <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-racism-and-is-bill-leak-a-controversialist-or-a-racist-67993">accuse Leak of racism</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151135/original/image-20161221-13168-e5dksd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151135/original/image-20161221-13168-e5dksd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151135/original/image-20161221-13168-e5dksd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151135/original/image-20161221-13168-e5dksd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151135/original/image-20161221-13168-e5dksd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151135/original/image-20161221-13168-e5dksd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151135/original/image-20161221-13168-e5dksd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151135/original/image-20161221-13168-e5dksd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eric Gaillard</span></span>
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<p>In a global era dominated by Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google and others, Julianne Schultz argued <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-must-act-now-to-preserve-its-culture-in-the-face-of-global-tech-giants-58724">in her 2016 Brian Johns lecture</a>, that we needed to find “ways to embrace the particularity of being Australian in a global context and find new ways to express that”. Our cultural institutions were a vital part of this, she wrote. </p>
<p>Yet this year we saw further cuts to <a href="https://theconversation.com/changes-to-radio-national-are-gutting-a-cultural-treasure-trove-69397">specialist programming at Radio National</a>, and continued uncertainty around the question of <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-it-comes-to-books-and-copyright-the-government-should-leave-things-as-they-are-68911">copyright laws and Australian writing</a>. And arts funding continued to be a sore point.</p>
<h2>Arts policy</h2>
<p>As Sasha Grishin noted in March, a change in Prime Minister did not bring a fresh perspective on arts funding - indeed <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-silver-tongued-turnbull-fails-to-woo-the-arts-vote-55132">the urbane and eloquent Malcolm Turnbull</a> had rather spectacularly failed to woo the arts vote.</p>
<p>Arts Minister Mitch Fifield’s Catalyst Fund (a compromise after the furore over the proposed NPEA), began funding “innovative ideas from arts and culture organisations”. But there was a disturbing <a href="https://theconversation.com/where-is-the-balance-and-credibility-in-our-federal-governments-arts-policy-58485">lack of transparency</a> in the decisions it made, wrote Jo Caust. In May, the Australia Council announced who would miss out in its latest funding round. The unlucky included many notable theatre companies and the arts advocacy body NAVA: our <a href="https://theconversation.com/carnage-in-the-arts-experts-respond-to-the-australia-council-cuts-59368">expert panel was unimpressed</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151137/original/image-20161221-13154-lta2ty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151137/original/image-20161221-13154-lta2ty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151137/original/image-20161221-13154-lta2ty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151137/original/image-20161221-13154-lta2ty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151137/original/image-20161221-13154-lta2ty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151137/original/image-20161221-13154-lta2ty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151137/original/image-20161221-13154-lta2ty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The West Australian Ballet, one of the recipients from the Catalyst fund.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cortlan Bennett/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The arts sector loudly articulated its concerns during the federal election campaign, <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-where-to-now-for-australian-culture-62439">finding its voice as a lobby group</a>. We considered policy solutions to the pressing question of how artists could make a living wage in our series <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-artists-pay-their-taxes-in-art-57669">Making Art Pay</a>. And our crack team of experts compared the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-price-of-victory-comparing-the-cost-of-olympic-gold-to-an-elite-arts-prize-64159">cost of an Olympic gold to an arts prize</a> (guess which one proved to be better value?)</p>
<h2>Screen</h2>
<p>Mad Max: Fury Road won six Oscars in the fields of Film Editing, Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Production Design. We considered the implications of this success for <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-do-mad-maxs-six-oscars-mean-for-the-australian-film-industry-55564">our local film industry</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151140/original/image-20161221-13160-q22drj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151140/original/image-20161221-13160-q22drj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151140/original/image-20161221-13160-q22drj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151140/original/image-20161221-13160-q22drj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151140/original/image-20161221-13160-q22drj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151140/original/image-20161221-13160-q22drj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151140/original/image-20161221-13160-q22drj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mark Mangini and David White react after winning Best Sound Editing for Mad Max Fury Road.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Blake/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also reflected on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-star-wars-mad-max-and-the-real-vs-digital-effects-furphy-56137">use of CGI </a> in films; Martin Scorsese’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-it-felt-like-a-kiss-movies-popular-music-and-martin-scorsese-59231">cinematic use of music</a>, the work of the masterful <a href="https://theconversation.com/ivan-sens-goldstone-a-taut-layered-exploration-of-what-echoes-in-the-silences-60619">Australian filmmaker Ivan Sen</a> and new local films including <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-tragi-comedy-down-under-appropriates-cronulla-rather-than-offering-insight-63259">Down Under</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/joe-cinques-consolation-violence-delusion-and-the-question-of-guilt-63595">Joe Cinque’s Consolation</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/virtual-reality-film-collisions-is-part-disaster-movie-part-travelogue-and-completely-immersive-66563">virtual reality film Collisons</a>.</p>
<p>Bruce Isaacs dissected the <a href="https://theconversation.com/video-the-five-greatest-scorsese-scenes-episode-5-goodfellas-60170">five greatest Scorsese scenes</a> and began a new video column on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-great-movie-scenes-antonionis-the-passenger-65395">the great movie scenes</a>. After the death of the influential Australian director Paul Cox, film-maker Jonathan auf der Heide wrote <a href="https://theconversation.com/life-lessons-from-the-editing-suite-of-paul-cox-61578">a beautiful remembrance</a> of his time spent working with this complex, uncompromising auteur who unashamedly wore his heart on his sleeve.</p>
<p>On television, our experts reflected on Australian productions including <a href="https://theconversation.com/molly-is-lacking-as-a-tv-show-but-millions-including-me-are-hooked-54471">Molly</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/bloody-good-tv-how-rake-changed-australian-television-61433">Rake</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/dna-nation-raises-tough-questions-for-indigenous-australians-59877">DNA Nation</a>, the adaptation of Christos Tsiolkas’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/christos-tsiolkas-the-blasphemous-artist-and-barracuda-61434">Barracuda</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/man-up-inspired-genius-or-half-baked-celebrity-expertise-67143">Man Up</a> and Cleverman, which showcased <a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-cleverman-our-first-aboriginal-screen-superhero-with-healing-powers-and-a-political-edge-59813">our first indigenous superhero</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151143/original/image-20161221-13138-lylhgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151143/original/image-20161221-13138-lylhgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151143/original/image-20161221-13138-lylhgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151143/original/image-20161221-13138-lylhgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151143/original/image-20161221-13138-lylhgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151143/original/image-20161221-13138-lylhgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151143/original/image-20161221-13138-lylhgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151143/original/image-20161221-13138-lylhgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Elias Anton as Danny Kelly in Barracuda.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They considered the impact of <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-ways-reg-grundy-changed-australian-tv-for-better-or-worse-59068">the late Reg Grundy</a>, offered some ideas for the ABC under <a href="https://theconversation.com/memo-to-michelle-guthrie-expert-ideas-for-the-new-abc-era-58929">Michelle Guthrie’s reign</a> and argued that The Bachelor was <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-bachelor-turns-women-into-misogynists-62423">turning women into misogynists</a>. And controversially, Travis Holland declared that after 28 seasons, The Simpsons has now <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-simpsons-has-lost-its-way-67845">lost its way</a>.</p>
<p>Game of Thrones remained hugely popular. We examined the series’ <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-from-daenerys-to-yara-the-top-ten-women-of-game-of-thrones-58356">appeal to women</a> and how a Melbourne visual effects firm made its <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-game-of-thrones-emmy-award-winning-battle-scene-was-made-65235">Emmy award-winning battle scene</a>. We also asked Carolyne Larrington, a professor of medieval European literature, for her ideas about <a href="https://theconversation.com/wrapping-up-the-fantasy-how-will-game-of-thrones-end-67245">how the series might end</a>. She predicts the TV show will take a comic rather than tragic option, “contenting itself with a marriage between Jon and Daenerys and finding some quick fix for the White Walker problem”. </p>
<h2>Visual art</h2>
<p>Sadly, it was a year that saw continued terror attacks around the world. After the bombings in Brussels, Kit Messham Muir reflected on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/art-and-terror-a-new-kind-of-memorial-56734">new kinds of memorials being created to honour the dead</a> – from weeping Tintin cartoons to spotlit public buildings – and the selective nature of this mass grieving. </p>
<p>Major exhibitions reviewed included <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-surprising-spectacle-rescues-the-sydney-biennale-from-irrelevance-56417">The Sydney Biennale</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/dark-mofo-and-the-affective-power-of-a-creative-storm-60852">Dark Mofo</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-very-serious-painting-of-barry-humphries-is-a-welcome-prize-winner-62536">The Archibald Prize</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-mist-burnt-country-asks-what-remains-after-the-mushroom-cloud-66135">Black Mist, Burnt Country</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/review-the-naked-nude-from-the-tate-68324"> Nude: art from the Tate collection</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/david-hockney-interrogates-space-and-time-68671">David Hockney</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-ponder-the-evolutionary-urge-to-create-but-where-are-the-women-68414">On the Origin of Art</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151151/original/image-20161221-13138-1x2x3qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151151/original/image-20161221-13138-1x2x3qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151151/original/image-20161221-13138-1x2x3qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151151/original/image-20161221-13138-1x2x3qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151151/original/image-20161221-13138-1x2x3qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151151/original/image-20161221-13138-1x2x3qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151151/original/image-20161221-13138-1x2x3qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151151/original/image-20161221-13138-1x2x3qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The winner of this year’s Archibald Prize: Louise Hearman’s Barry, oil paint on masonite 69.5 x 100 cm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: © AGNSW, Nick Kreisler</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our ongoing Here’s Looking At series, meanwhile, considered great works on show here including <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-looking-at-whistlers-mother-54334">Whistler’s Mother</a>, Cindy Sherman’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-looking-at-cindy-sherman-head-shots-59444">Head Shots</a>, Frida Kahlo’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-looking-at-frida-kahlos-self-portrait-with-monkeys-61141">Self Portrait with Monkeys</a> and Janet Laurence’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-looking-at-deep-breathing-resuscitation-for-the-reef-by-janet-laurence-63408">Deep Breathing: Resuscitation for the Reef</a>.</p>
<h2>Literature</h2>
<p>Camilla Nelson mounted a powerful argument in favor of <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-literary-canon-is-exhilarating-and-disturbing-and-we-need-to-read-it-56610">reading the literary canon </a>- if only to critique it. And on the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Bronte’s birth, we <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-charlotte-bronte-still-speaks-to-us-200-years-after-her-birth-57802">paid tribute to</a> “the startlingly modern psychology” of the author’s many memorable characters.</p>
<p>Our writers analysed the impact of funding cuts to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-meanjin-funding-cuts-a-graceless-coup-59455">Meanjin</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/express-media-is-unique-and-young-people-need-it-59518">Express Media</a> and the need for an overhaul of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-prime-ministers-literary-awards-need-an-urgent-overhaul-61300">Prime Minister’s Literary Awards </a>. Jen Webb dived into the novels on <a href="https://theconversation.com/touching-ferocious-and-poetic-the-miles-franklin-shortlist-is-worthy-of-your-attention-64428">the Miles Franklin shortlist</a> and declared all a potentially worthy winner. And Nick Earls told us how the bookshop had <a href="https://theconversation.com/all-hail-the-bookshop-survivor-against-the-odds-63758">survived against the odds</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151152/original/image-20161221-13160-1i2rt1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151152/original/image-20161221-13160-1i2rt1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151152/original/image-20161221-13160-1i2rt1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151152/original/image-20161221-13160-1i2rt1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151152/original/image-20161221-13160-1i2rt1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151152/original/image-20161221-13160-1i2rt1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151152/original/image-20161221-13160-1i2rt1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151152/original/image-20161221-13160-1i2rt1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The survival of Australian bookshops: a good news story in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Snipergirl/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our Guides to the Classics offered a handy primer on great works of literature from Herodotus’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-histories-by-herodotus-53748">The Histories</a> to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-arthurian-legend-64289">Arthurian legend</a>. Also on a classical note, our ongoing series Mythbusting Ancient Rome sorted the facts from the mythology about controversial figures such as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/mythbusting-ancient-rome-the-emperor-nero-65797">Emperor Nero</a>.</p>
<h2>Music</h2>
<p>The release of Beyonce’s Lemonade was a pop cultural phenomenon. Lauren Rosewarne cautioned against a simplistic <a href="https://theconversation.com/beyonces-lemonade-tell-all-or-fizzy-soap-operatic-art-object-58513">autobiographical</a> reading of the album while Blair McDonald looked at the way pop musicians such as Beyonce were <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-quest-for-legacy-how-pop-music-is-embracing-high-art-58741">mining contemporary art</a> in their work. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EtHOmforqxk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>We analysed the <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-sounds-of-kanye-west-54169">sounds of Kanye West</a>; declared Tim Minchin’s Come Home (Cardinal Pell) to be a <a href="https://theconversation.com/tim-minchins-come-home-cardinal-pell-is-a-pitch-perfect-protest-song-54945">pitch-perfect protest song</a>; asked whether <a href="https://theconversation.com/sad-music-and-depression-does-it-help-66123">listening to sad music</a> can help with depression and looked at why learning a musical instrument later in life can be <a href="https://theconversation.com/ageing-in-harmony-why-the-third-act-of-life-should-be-musical-57799">good for the ageing brain</a>. As the music industry continued to be transformed by digital technologies we considered whether professional musicians were <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-loss-of-music-68169">an endangered species</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/richard-vella-52581/dashboard#">not</a>.</p>
<h2>Theatre and the performing arts</h2>
<p>The 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death was commemorated with a year-long party. Shakespeare’s words, <a href="https://theconversation.com/marx-freud-hitler-mandela-greer-shakespeare-influenced-them-all-57872">wrote Robert White</a>, influenced everyone from Karl Marx to Hitler to Nelson Mandela to George Bush. In a fascinating essay, Rachel Buchanan, curator of the Germaine Greer archive at the University of Melbourne, considered how Shakespeare influenced <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-how-shakespeare-helped-shape-germaine-greers-feminist-masterpiece-59880">the writing of Greer’s The Female Eunuch</a>. Still, it was intriguing to hear from Ian Donaldson on why Shakespeare’s death was largely seen as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-was-shakespeares-death-such-a-non-event-at-the-time-68713">non-event at the time</a>.</p>
<p>Julian Meyrick began a new series, The Great Australian Plays. While the idea of the canon is contested, his aim is to write about plays <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-the-great-australian-plays-refining-our-theatre-canon-64234">from the past 70 years</a> in a way that is “flexible, conditional and, dare I say it, fun”. The series will continue next year.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151145/original/image-20161221-13154-rgzpee.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151145/original/image-20161221-13154-rgzpee.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151145/original/image-20161221-13154-rgzpee.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151145/original/image-20161221-13154-rgzpee.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151145/original/image-20161221-13154-rgzpee.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151145/original/image-20161221-13154-rgzpee.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151145/original/image-20161221-13154-rgzpee.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151145/original/image-20161221-13154-rgzpee.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cirque de la Symphonie delivered virtuoso performances of both circus and music.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Aulsebrook</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Local productions reviewed included Ayad Akhtar’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/review-disgraced-turns-west-meets-islam-divisions-into-striking-melodrama-58224">Disgraced</a>, Belvoir St’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-wise-mans-art-twelfth-night-and-cross-mobility-casting-63321">Twelfth Night</a>, Victorian Opera’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/banquet-of-secrets-australian-musical-theatre-comes-of-age-55647">Banquet of Secrets</a>, a new production of <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-of-marlowes-finest-plays-roars-into-the-21st-century-63529">Edward II</a>, a spate of classical works <a href="https://theconversation.com/sequins-and-symphonies-how-opera-ran-away-with-the-circus-64125">employing the circus arts</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/gonzo-we-need-to-talk-about-young-men-and-porn-65948">Gonzo</a>, a groundbreaking play exploring young men’s use of porn.
Festivals we covered included those in <a href="https://theconversation.com/spirals-within-spirals-vortex-temporum-at-the-sydney-festival-52687">Sydney</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/absurdist-poignant-slapstick-plus-a-brass-band-in-en-avant-marche-64867">Brisbane</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/death-beauty-and-poetry-come-together-in-ancient-rain-66986">Melbourne</a> and Adelaide’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-shakespeare-in-hindi-to-tackling-human-trafficking-the-best-of-ozasia-festival-66385">OzAsia</a>. </p>
<h2>Gender</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, women continued to be under-represented in a range of artforms, from <a href="https://theconversation.com/harder-faster-louder-challenging-sexism-in-the-music-industry-58420">popular</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-sound-of-silence-why-arent-australias-female-composers-being-heard-59743">classical music</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-science-fictions-women-problem-58626">science fiction</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/women-arent-the-problem-in-the-film-industry-men-are-68740">the film industry</a>. We analysed the reasons for this and what could be done about it.</p>
<p>We learned, however, that roller derby is <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-chinese-roller-derby-is-empowering-women-57963">empowering women in China</a> and Australian women historians have (almost) <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-women-historians-smashed-the-glass-ceiling-66778">smashed the glass ceiling</a>.
And as debate continued over public breastfeeding we looked at <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-decent-woman-the-breastfeeding-and-visibility-debate-is-nothing-new-57728">historical attitudes to it</a> in the 18th and 19th centuries and found it wasn’t completely absent from public life during that time.</p>
<h2>Architecture</h2>
<p>Our new architecture columnist, Naomi Stead, wrote beautifully on topics that ranged from visiting <a href="https://theconversation.com/architecture-is-a-performed-art-and-the-eames-house-is-a-pretty-good-show-59511">the Eames House</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/cathedrals-of-light-cathedrals-of-ice-cathedrals-of-glass-cathedrals-of-bones-60557">cathedrals as metaphors</a> to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-return-of-the-breeze-block-63264">return of the breeze block</a>.
We reviewed the <a href="https://theconversation.com/venice-biennale-an-exhausting-beautiful-attempt-to-relinquish-architecture-60789">Venice Biennale</a> and assessed the proposal to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-sydney-opera-house-upgrade-deserves-a-single-guiding-vision-63934">upgrade the Sydney Opera House</a> and the growth of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/opening-doors-and-minds-the-open-house-phenomenon-63717">Open House movement</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151147/original/image-20161221-13147-pum4b7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151147/original/image-20161221-13147-pum4b7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151147/original/image-20161221-13147-pum4b7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151147/original/image-20161221-13147-pum4b7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151147/original/image-20161221-13147-pum4b7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151147/original/image-20161221-13147-pum4b7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151147/original/image-20161221-13147-pum4b7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151147/original/image-20161221-13147-pum4b7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The entrance to the Arsenale at this year’s Venice Biennale.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">provided by William Feuerman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And our Friday essay on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-australian-mosque-65101">Australian mosque</a> traced the history of mosques here, from the earliest known one – built in South Australia, likely in the 1860s – to recent incarnations such as Glenn Murcutt and Hakan Elevli’s Australian Islamic Centre in the Melbourne suburb of Newport. </p>
<h2>Religion</h2>
<p>After the June terror attack on a gay nightclub in the US state of Florida, Christopher van der Krogt considered what The Koran and The Bible <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-quran-the-bible-and-homosexuality-in-islam-61012">had to say about homosexuality</a>. Closer to home, new Australian research found that both <a href="https://theconversation.com/welcoming-but-not-affirming-being-gay-and-christian-64110">LGBT Christians and pastors alike</a> grappled with difficult spiritual questions. And on the eve of the canonisation of Mother Teresa, Philip Almond <a href="https://theconversation.com/questioning-the-miracles-of-saint-teresa-64743">questioned her “miracles”</a>. </p>
<p>Our Friday essays proved extremely popular this year. If you’re looking for a good read over the holidays, I’d recommend <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-naked-truth-on-nudity-66763">Ruth Barcan on nudity</a>, Michelle Smith on <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-talking-writing-and-fighting-like-girls-66211">feminist memoirs</a> Julia Kindt on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-secrets-of-the-delphic-oracle-and-how-it-speaks-to-us-today-61738">oracle of Delphi</a> or Raimond Gaita <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-reflections-on-the-idea-of-a-common-humanity-63811">on the idea of a common humanity</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151148/original/image-20161221-13140-23wn4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151148/original/image-20161221-13140-23wn4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151148/original/image-20161221-13140-23wn4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151148/original/image-20161221-13140-23wn4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151148/original/image-20161221-13140-23wn4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151148/original/image-20161221-13140-23wn4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151148/original/image-20161221-13140-23wn4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151148/original/image-20161221-13140-23wn4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bob Dylan performing in October this year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ki Price/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of course my introduction to this article was more than a little misleading. Lots of male musicians had an apparently excellent 2016 (from Flume to Ed Sheeran to Kendrick Lamar to Frank Ocean) – and Bowie and Prince albums sold like hotcakes. Then there was Bob Dylan, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. </p>
<p>Jen Webb <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-honouring-dylan-the-nobel-prize-judges-have-made-a-category-error-67049">memorably described the choice of Dylan for the prize</a> as “discourteous to members of the field of literature, dismissive of women’s achievements, and fundamentally kinda nostalgic”. David McCooey, however, reminded us of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-are-bob-dylans-songs-literature-67061">ancient link</a> between poetry and music. </p>
<p>The passion this decision generated was extraordinary. It showed how much the arts matter to people. We can’t wait for next year.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70639/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Many great artists died in 2016: Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen, Paul Cox, Shirley Hazzard. It was a year of creative foment and as always, intense debate about the importance of the arts to a thriving, democratic society.
Suzy Freeman-Greene, Books + Ideas Editor
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.