The Last Days of Chez Nous and Love Lust and Lies

In Review A Container of Memories:

Australian National University School of Art Gallery
Continuing until Saturday July 31

Art exhibitions are too-frequently characterised by the paint smell from hastily-completed display spaces.  Infused with the scent of fresh woods and sealing oils, A Container of Memories is refreshingly different.  The show was been put together by Rodney Hayward, the head of the Australian National University School of Art’s Furniture Design and Wood workshop, along with a large number of dedicated young artists. 

It comprises students and alumni from across the art school.  Most of the artists are from Hayward’s workshop, but their wood pieces are complimented by works of various other media.  The fact that this integration is so seamless only goes to show that it is not really ‘integration’: it’s just art.  It is an exhibition which showcases both emerging artists and the strength of the school, particularly Hayward’s Furniture Design and Wood workshop.  It is a large show of varied work.  It is calm, confusing, funny, passionate, dire and comforting.  One work questions our confidence in memory, the next exalts in it.  It presents the ephemeral impossibility and the physical reality of our memories.  ...or that’s what I remember. 

The exhibition’s theme asks a series of complex questions that probe our responses to and ideas about life.  After all, the notion of memory itself is inherently personal.  Artist Elliot Bastianon, whose work ‘Alzheimer’s’ (2010) is on display in the exhibition, says that “for many of the current students, this exhibition was a chance to exhibit pieces that were highly individual, stemming from a very personal place – an emotional response to a brief, as opposed to following a set of guidelines.” 

This personal, emotional thesis makes for a refreshingly original and captivating exploration of art.  Some artists have responded to the theme literally, with the creation of cabinets and secretive lockboxes.  Others, like Elliot, have responded more conceptually or metaphorically: his work is a box of sorts, a juxtaposition of organic and machined wood, in which is hidden a tangle of cassette tape.  It is an emotional response to the reality of a debilitating illness.

It is the curse for artists who work with wood, or who simply create works that are functional, to be considered somehow less artistic than their painterly peers.  Hayward’s workshop combines what has been mistaken for a simple, physical discipline with a very strong philosophical base.  He encourages his students to question, to seek and to explore and this is the strength of A Container of Memories.

Night. Time.: Dancing in the Dark

QL2 Dance Studio’s Ruth Osbourne is nothing if not passionate about dance. “I feel really strongly about dance being a great vehicle in the development of young people,” the artistic director tells me, as we catch up to talk about the studio’s Quantum Leap dance ensemble.

Quantum Leap is an auditioned ensemble that runs annually. The program commissions four professional choreographers from around Australia to come and develop the performance with young dancers, of up to 26 years of age. The final production is performed at the Canberra Theatre, and this year’s show, Night. Time., will run from July 28 to 31.

“We plan the project all year, but we audition in February, and from March onwards we run Sunday workshops. In that time, the young dancers, along with myself and my assistant, create work collaboratively,” Ruth explains. “Then, in the holiday period, we have the commissioned choreographers coming in.”

With such an exhaustive process of development, the dancers are able to be heavily involved in the creation of the entire performance.

“The dancers are definitely part of the creative process, not just having steps taught to them,” Ruth agrees. “They’re learning to create and collaborate and be part of a whole project together.”

This year’s performance is named Night. Time., and deals thematically with the wee hours. “We’re basically looking at the period from dusk to dawn, and what goes on. Each choreographer has chosen a different aspect of the subject matter, but it all connects together and feels like one performance.”

This year, the choreographers involved were Anton, Jodie Farrugia, Adam Wheeler, and Malonie Palomares, each of whom has focused on a different idea - ranging from the scientific elements of sleeping, such as rapid eye movements and REM, to the lives of those who don’t sleep during night time, such as shift workers. The show is structured in two parts, and is accompanied by an original score composed by Adam Ventoura as well as a video installation produced by Bearcage Productions.

“For audiences it’s interesting, because it doesn’t feel like the same thing the whole way through, and you get a lot of variety through the music and the movement, and the ideas behind it,” Ruth explains.

As Ruth reminds me, “Quantum leap is an important part of Canberra’s youth arts, and it’s great that it’s supported so well. I really hope that people come along if they haven’t seen it before, or if they have, know that this will be a different kind of performance. Hopefully you’ll love it!”

Night. Time. performs at The Playhouse from July 28 to 31. Tickets through Canberra Ticketing.

The Girls: God help the mister that comes between me and my sisters

An intimate cabaret performance, The Girls promises an unadulterated exposé of self, as performers Hannah Ley, Leah Baulch, Hanna Cormick and performer-director Dianna Nixon bare (almost) all through music from Nick Cave, Tom Waits and Edith Piaf and Carole King, among others.

It’s likely you’ve seen some of the talented girls on stage before—but never like this.

Part of the Street Theatre’s Made in Canberra season of independent local work, The Girls was conceived by Dianna Nixon. A vocal and drama coach, she’s been providing voice lessons for the other three girls for a year or more, and this seemed a natural progression for the performers and an opportunity for them to put their new skills into practice.

“Dianna set a framework, and with the addition of the ridiculously talented Sarah Kaur [set design], invited us to add flesh to the bones. It has very much been a collaborative process,” explains Hannah Ley.

While the performance is musically driven, each of the girls brings a different background with her—from Nixon’s experience as a musical director, Baulch’s background as a director and teacher and Cormick’s mask work and cross-art practice.

“I have a dance background first and foremost, so my natural contribution has been through choreography and movement, both for myself and other members of the cast,” Ley says.

“I think it can be a challenge when you’re not only from different backgrounds, training and preferred mediums of theatre, but in this instance we’ve been given a fair amount of freedom to contribute without fear of prejudice or a ‘we don’t do it that way’ response! Initially I felt a little out of practice in regards to devising and extending an idea into a whole show—this was certainly a departure from the comfort zone and an exercise in trusting my own ideas and responses.”

Extending it even further out of the comfort zone are the personal elements the performers bring with them. While they sit at dressing tables in a room styled by Kaur, each girl weaves her stories into the narrative thread, revealing themselves through song. 

“I toyed for a long time with what I wanted to say—how much, would anyone care, will it entertain or come across as schmaltz?” Ley says.

“There are definite elements of ‘me’ in there, some of them are obvious, some only those close to me will recognise. I didn’t feel a burning need to expose my heart and soul; for me there are some things that are only for the ears and eyes of my husband!”

 The Girls is a celebration of frivolity and solemnity; secrets and half truths, the frank and the feminine—and plenty more. And for just one night, the girls are your closest friends.

The Girls opens at the Street Theatre Thursday 29 July, playing 7pm and 9pm nightly til Saturday 31 July.