perception

The 'Papua New Guinea Work' in Canberra

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 11:53:00 +1100

In the last four days i have been working with composer Dan Portelli (Sydney) and interdisciplinary artist Michelle Outram (Perth) on Michelle’s work The PNG Work.
It has been a very interesting process where we have explored, investigated, witnessed and experienced layers and layers and more layers of the works concept.

Michelle has been developing this project over a couple of years and has invited artists from different art practices in Australia to work with her.

They left yesterday and we will try to meet soon again. Being part of her work is a great joy.

I want to acknowledge and thank Jackie Hallahan - Director of the Canberra Dance Development Centre for lending us her dance centre, and David Keany for his generosity and support.

michelle outram in studio before starting like this photo

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 11:23:11 +1100

michelle outram in studio before starting

like this photo

this is from the Schwa performance we did a week ago at the...

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 11:56:00 +1100

this is from the Schwa performance we did a week ago at the Canberra Dance Theater. Schwa is an improvised performance including drawing, dance and music (as a starting point!). David Keany - drawing, David Corbet and myself - dance, Hannah James - double bass.

new meeting...

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:58:00 +1100

just back from the studio in Spence. have been working with Michelle Outram. she is a interdisciplinary artist i met in Perth whilst working with Corazon de Vaca. Michelle was the sound artist for that project.
at the moment we are getting to know each other in the studio and have been working on various improvisation scores.
i am very pleased working with her!
Michelle just put in an application for Strut Residency for 2010. will find out about that in the next week or so.

ok, off to find a charger for my little 3ccd camera. really want a new one.
then off to the studio again to work some more.

Just had a meeting with mark dyson - light designer and production manager based in brisbane. we sat...

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:24:20 +1100

Just had a meeting with mark dyson - light designer and production manager based in brisbane. we sat in the garden of his family home and talked about the installation/dance performance project meg and i are currently working on.

lots of interesting discussions…
how the interaction between performer, installation and viewer will occur, evolve and effect the performance and therefor installation.
we spoke about space and its purposes to engage or include..or…
conceptual art installation performance
merging interacting excluding

mark is certainly an interesting person to work with. i look forward to meeting him again and continue these conversations.

sound..

reflection..

solo work next year

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:48:00 +1100

i have had this idea ever since i moved here to canberra…creating a solo work for Elizabeth Cameron Dalman - Australias dance pioneer. I first saw Elizabeth on the stage of The Street Theater introducing her work and honoring the aboriginal land on which the theater stands.

We will start the creative development in January. Looking forward to it.
I am hoping to make this work into a dance film with D.O.P. Evan Papageorgiou which i met during the making of Waste Land by video artist Elena Näsänen www.elenanasanen.com

Below is the project proposal i wrote in May -09 as my initial research project for the ausdance dance development project. the idea was to have a performance outcome at the street theater…

In this research, I will look at the relation between body and time.
I will explore around ideas and themes such as:

• How do we experience time - physically and mentally?
• Ways in which we choose to live time – past, present, future
• Chronological time
• Timing
• Time and perspective
• Body awareness
• Ageing
• Body memory – as a physical manifestation of the psyche.
• Carl G Jung - ´the body is merely the visibility of the soul, the psyche; and the soul is the psychological experience of the body. So, it is one and the same thing´.

in deciding to not do two projects (the other being the installation with meg) i decided to leave this to be created next year…maybe with their support if possible.

Chris Bendall, Artistic Director of Deckchair Theater in Fremantle WA invited me to perform this work.

http://www.deckchairtheatre.com.au/

will write more about this project and its process in near future.

short and sweet + dance 2010

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:06:00 +1100

the biggest little play festival in the world Short and Sweet will land its dance program here in Canberra in october 2010!

we are working in full speed on preparing the event and will very shortly have all the details regarding submission, performance dates, workshops and more.

in the meanwhile check out the website http://www.shortandsweet.org/

i am the artistic director for the Canberra short and sweet + dance. very exciting!

we will keep you posted!

i really like this sound artist or autodidact as he refers...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:03:00 +1100

i really like this sound artist or autodidact as he refers himself - Zimoun.
i just ‘met’ him so i really don’t know much about him more than that he creates these wonderful sound sculptures and installations. he also created the band NÅ in which he played el bass and composed. not sure if they still play. brilliant! the drummer is great!
check out http://www.myspace.com/zimounna

Zimoun will be showing his work in Scandinavia - Stockholm and Bergen in November this year. more info on http://zimoun.ch/

take a moment of your time and go. then tell me about it!

the evening has arrived canberra.

this is the whole scene, me improvising to the text performed by...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:32:00 +1100

this is the whole scene, me improvising to the text performed by maitland. i always enjoyed this part of the performance. this kind of work - text and movement is what we are interested in exploring further.

at this point...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:42:00 +1100

i am reading 4.48 psychosis by sarah kane. i have only just started. it takes you through the experience of her body and mind in her deep depression.
something quite beautiful (and sad) she says when she is trying to explain how she feels

…it’s not a metaphor, it’s a simile, but even if it were, the defining feature of a metaphor is that it’s real.

i am reading 4.48 psychosis because a friend, performer and poet wants to make a work based on this play. i met maitland schnaars in ‘the bridging project’.
we enjoyed working together so we decided that we would do so again.

maitland is the founding member of corazon de vaca with theater director and writer julián fuentes reta from spain. they have created several works and have a fascination about sarah kane’s plays. they performed phaedra’s love in 2007.

coming from different training and experience we wanted to explore these diverse vocabulary and create a new work.

sarah neville, director of ‘the bridging project’ is a choreographer who, as she puts it on her website instigates inter-disciplinary practices and invests in multi-platform processes and production outcomes .
we quickly found that we wanted to have space and time for a creative development.

so we applied for a four week residency in stockholm at dansens hus (house of dance) but ah - no luck.
we are applying for other swedish and australian dance platforms.

the group are us three and visual artist mia holton and my swedish friend and dance artist madeleine karlsson.

some links:

http://www.corazondevaca.com
http://sarahneville.com/
http://www.dansenshus.se

i came across this beautiful clip - Danse Serpentine by Loie...

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:28:00 +1100

i came across this beautiful clip - Danse Serpentine by Loie Fuller.
´Fuller combined her choreography with silk costumes illuminated by multi-coloured lighting of her own design.´
´Fuller became the embodiment of the Art Nouveau movement. Her Serpentine Dance was filmed in 1896 by the pioneering film-makers Auguste and Louis Lumière.´

brilliant!

dance development project

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:29:00 +1100

i am currently working on a creative development of a new performance/installation work in collaboration with artist meg millband. we started this project early this year but with me going to perth etc has put the project on hold. now we are in the right time to continue from where we left it.

in may this year we submitted a grant application to the artsACT. successful applicants will be announced at the end of this month.

so.. meg and i are currently taking part of this ‘dance development project’ which is facilitated by ausdance act. its aim is to support local independent dance artists in their practice and creative process. the 5 week project involves mentoring by liz lea, studio space and open forums for other dance practitioners. the forum will allow us to share the process and progress of the work and involve them in our practice to encourage dialogue.

we found this ‘development..’to be a good occasion to work intensively on our project and also to meet and take part of other dance practitioners work in the ACT.

so what is our project?

the performance/installation is looking at textures and metaphors in material and movement. we will be exploring the relation between physical manifestation of memories and how material evolves through time.

our project is entitled ‘embedded’

Excerpt of The Bridging Project by Physical Theater Company -...

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:23:00 +1100

Excerpt of The Bridging Project by Physical Theater Company - Corazon de Vaca. Directed by Sarah Neville, performed by Maitland Schnaars (text by Julian Fuentes Reta) and Adelina Larsson (dance), Caitlin McLoughlin and Taciano Cavalcante. This project was supported by the Department of Culture and the Arts and Deckchair Theatre Umbrella Program.

We shot this during the Screen Dance Lab in Sydney 2008. David...

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:52:00 +1000

We shot this during the Screen Dance Lab in Sydney 2008. David Corbet and I were in the process of Cribrosa (cribrosa.tumblr.com) when we came across this space.
This clip is shot with an 3ccd mini dv cam. We went back with Justine Kerrigan to film with an HDV cam. We are currently working on the footage.
The Lab was mentored by David Hinton in support by Critical Path and Reel Dance.

part of our ongoing practice in improvisation and dance for...

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 16:16:00 +1000

part of our ongoing practice in improvisation and dance for screen.

proximity this clip is a single take shot of an improvised...

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:45:00 +1000

proximity

this clip is a single take shot of an improvised performance (for the camera) by myself and david corbet.

the music is trans siberian by nest

this is me. I had an MR angiography done to be able to examine...

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:11:00 +1000

this is me.

I had an MR angiography done to be able to examine the vertebral arteries.
The MRA was performed with the contrast material which was injected in a vein in my arm.

It was pretty claustrophobic! Couldn’t help to feel slightly anxious when locked in a ´hannibal lecter helmet´with loud hammering noise for more than 25 minutes. I was told not to move.. and being a dancer…well, that’s not my nature!

but what a great pick eh! totally worth it!

a cow's heart

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 01:34:00 +1000

will be going to Perth in two weeks to work with Corazon de Vaca, a physical theater company based in Spain and Australia.

www.corazondevaca.es

i am looking forward to be part of this project. they seem to be a nice group of people working in other art forms then myself. all of them are performers and also audiovisual designers, poets, composers and musicians. very exciting to get to know them and to create with director sarah neville. funny she actually lived in sweden for a while.

another joy will be my very first dip in the indian ocean! got told i need to make a day trip to rottnest island…then so be it.

cribrosa

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 23:27:00 +1000

This is an extract of a documentation written by Jodie McNeilly.

You can find the whole on www.criticalpath.org.au

In the basement garage of the apartment where David and Adelina are staying, they
discover - while doing the laundry in the morning before they leave - a great location for ‘spontaneously’ shooting “a little movie”. In a single shot we see Adelina emerging out of a lift. She walks unaffectedly toward the camera, past it, then suddenly gliding, facing away with arms raised. Subtle shifting contractions become visible on her exposed back. Her trajectory softly and deftly forms an arc, very smoothly, too smoothly: could she be skateboarding? The shot goes on long enough to realise that Adelina is riding a revolving car plate which turns vehicles around in tight spaces.
They show their single-shot video to the other participants and David, it is positively
received. With only hours left they decide to return that afternoon with Justine and shoot it on HDV. There is some deliberation as to whether or not the unrehearsed, serendipitous good fortune of the morning’s shoot could be reproduced. The immediacy, qualities, textures and temporal rhythms of the context itself could be redescribed with different equipment and camera operator, compromising the moment. David digitises their morning’s effort. Nothing lost, only much to gain.

www.vimeo.com/2200686“>

stills taken by Justine Kerrigan in sydney during the dance...

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 23:03:00 +1000

stills taken by Justine Kerrigan in sydney during the dance screen lab with David Hinton, Critical Path and Reel Dance.