Music

DEMOLISHED: video screening at SHED / 2024 Adelaide Fringe Festival

That bodged together iron clad building in the back yard where workbenches, shelving and the family’s forgotten history live. It could be a shed for cows, shearing or boats; the man cave or the she shed. Or it could be the flaked off, discarded, junked, scrapped, the gotten rid of. Shed a tear, shed some light, shed your inhibitions. Once a year, a group of contemporary visual artists get together to produce work in response to a single word, this year’s word is SHED. The words we’ve responded to in the past (since 2009) have been words with a Port-centric theme as the exhibitions have taken place in the Port:  RUST | SALT | TAR | SMOKE | KNOT | GRIT | GRAIN | BRIDGE | VESSEL | BILGE | HOLD. Never predictable, often accidental, sometimes unruly and provocative, always pretty wonderful. Curated by Tony Kearney. Click here to see more about previous shows.

THE PACKING SHED
Hart’s Mill, Mundy Street, Port Adelaide

https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/shed-af2024

For this year’s SHED exhibition, I have made a new video – DEMOLISHED. All the sequences have been composited and animated from images taken in and around the Packing Shed at Hart’s Mill in … Click here for more.

Awards!

I don’t go about making videos with the intention of winning awards or prizes: I’m just happy to have my work selected for screening. On the other hand, it’s most gratifying when something does pick up an award. This year has seen a remarkable run – I’ve been amazed!

 

The Life We Live Is Not Life Itself made with Greek poet Tasos Sagris and musician Whodoes continued to do well around the world. In November, it was awarded Overall Winner – Best Poetry Film, selected from over 2000 entries for the Poetry In Motion 2023 festival in Colorado, USA. Here is a sample of what the judges said:

“The Life We Live Is Not Life Itself is hauntingly beautiful with images and words that linger long after the viewing is over. The poem is poignant and even more so when influenced by voiceover and visuals. The faces that appear throughout left me wondering if I was the watched or the watcher… Joy transforms into loneliness and lands on acceptance.” Jayme Hastings.

“With cinematic  visuals, highly functional slow motion and ethereal background audio, the film was inescapable… Simple yet elegant descriptions bring together; the highs and lows of … Click here for more.

Limits of language, limits of experience – extended interview with David Adès for Poets’ Corner

It was a huge pleasure to be interviewed by acclaimed poet David Adès for Poets’ Corner hosted by Westwords. Each month a poet is invited to read and talk about their poetry on a theme of the poet’s choice.

For this episode, we talked on the theme of Limits of language, limits of experience in the context of my poetry videos. We covered a lot of ground but the conversation falls naturally into more or less bite-sized chunks. We start with an extended discussion on the nature of video poetry, how they are made, how they can work, and more. Then we go on to talk about some of my specific pieces.

The Youtube clip includes excerpts of these videos, in order: after-image; Palingenetics; and furthermore (indexed); A Captain’s; The Ferrovores; FUTURE PERFECT; and An Introduction to the Theory of Eclipses.

Critical Point at FELTspace

Critical Point is a sequence of three new videos screening at FELTspace Gallery in Adelaide CBD, 12 October – 4th November. They’ll be shown in the FELTdark area at the front of the gallery, visible from the street during at evenings, from 8:00pm – midnight.

In physical chemistry, the critical point is where the temperature and pressure of a substance are both sufficiently high that there is no longer any difference between its liquid and gas states. In mathematics, the critical point is where the rate of change of a variable of interest is undefined or zero. In the rest of the world, anthropogenic climate change is advancing at an ever-increasing rate. Climate scientists warn us that once we cross some critical climate tipping points, there can be no turning back: things will only get worse and the “new normal” will be largely undefined.

Nevertheless, we can guess how things might look. When language fails to describe how we feel about the disasters occurring around us now, we must invent new forms of expression. As the world contorts and reshapes to the stresses we place upon it, we should bear witness and record what is passing, what is coming to … Click here for more.

UGLY – a NOT fairytale

UGLY – a NOT fairytale was a mixed media stage performance performed at the Mercury Cinema in Adelaide as part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2022. A Labyrinth Production, it was directed by Georgina Hahn, featuring Kaelia Cockington, Michael Jaxon Carson, Keshia Vitor, Lilian Lava, Karney Doll and Vee Von Claire, written by Andrew Dudek, Georgina Hahn, Michael Jaxon Carson and Michele Saint-Yves, choreographed by Michael Jaxon Carson and Anania Tikolamadra, costumes by Summer Sumner. I created nearly 90 minutes of animated, synthesised and composited video that was projected onto the cinema screen behind the live action. I also composed some music for several section of the piece.

The story was a simple one about a young person coming to grips with their difference, in the face of the potentially conflicting elements of fire, air, earth and water, and the ever-present threat of their self-confidence being eclipsed by the ill-will of others. A constant metaphor was one of butterflies, with their metamorphosis from caterpillar to winged adult.

Making the video for UGLY was a long and complex process, requiring coordination and matching of many factors: the … Click here for more.

SALA 2023: Beyond the Floodtide…

SALA, the South Australian Living Arts Festival, is a statewide festival of visual art, spanning the entire month of August. In 2023, it involved over 700 venues across the state with nearly 11,000 participating artists. SALA is Australia’s largest and most inclusive visual arts festival, and takes place in galleries and non-traditional arts spaces across South Australia, featuring visual artists working at every level, in any medium, from all backgrounds and all parts of the state. Indeed, there are few if any festivals of this nature anywhere in the world.

For SALA 2023, I presented Beyond the Floodtide… a sequence of mostly new video works with environmental themes, at The Joinery in the Adelaide CBD, in collaboration with the Conservation Council of South Australia and coordinated by Sally Francis.

Faced with accelerating anthropogenic climate change, how will life on earth cope with global warming and rising sea levels? Plants, animals, humans, forms yet to evolve: all will need to adapt to challenging new environments. This video sequence imagines how we and the biosphere around us might deal with the consequences of our effects on the planet.

In addition to screening the videos at The Joinery on each Friday … Click here for more.

Beyond the Floodtide… SALA 2023 at The Joinery

SALA, the South Australian Living Arts Festival, is a statewide festival of visual art, spanning the entire month of August, and involving over 700 venues across the state with nearly 11,000 participating artists. SALA is Australia’s largest and most inclusive visual arts festival, and takes place in galleries and non-traditional arts spaces across South Australia, featuring visual artists working at every level, in any medium, from all backgrounds and all parts of the state. Indeed, there are few if any festivals of this nature anywhere in the world.

I have enjoyed participating in SALA in different ways over the years. For SALA this year, I am excited to present Beyond the Floodtide… a sequence of mostly new video works with environmental themes, at The Joinery in the Adelaide CBD, in collaboration with the Conservation Council of South Australia and coordinated by Sally Francis.

Faced with accelerating anthropogenic climate change, how will life on earth cope with global warming and rising sea levels? Plants, animals, humans, forms yet to evolve: all will need to adapt to challenging new environments. This video sequence imagines how we and the biosphere around us might deal with the consequences of our effects on … Click here for more.