Sunday Arts Magazine

The Melbourne Prize Trust

The Trust is delighted to offer the Melbourne Prize for Music 2022 & Awards.

This year’s program has been made possible through the generous and ongoing support from our partners, who are acknowledged below.

The three categories offered this year providing Victorian musicians with opportunities to benefit their careers and are importantly open to musicians and groups (composers and performers) across all music genres.

The line up this year includes the $60,000 Melbourne Prize for Music 2022, the $20,000 Beleura Emerging Composers Award 2022, the $10,000 (+ $1,000 Qantas voucher) Professional Development Award 2022 and the $2,000 Civic Choice Award 2022.

One of Melbourne’s great cultural treasures is returning to its spiritual home. The Australian Antique & Art Dealers Association’s Melbourne Fair is returning to the iconic Malvern Town Hall over the Queen’s Birthday Long Weekend, celebrating 60 years of offering the nation’s finest antiques for sale.

Sacellum

Sacellum (pron: sa-chell-um): a small chapel within a church, or a sanctuary dedicated to a deity

Sacellum is an infected confection of the sacred and technology. A melancholic wink at consumerism

and spirituality. A dialogue between a certain past and an uncertain future. Chris Orr reclaims

engravings of Renaissance images and layers them with a mélange of modern detritus – from

aluminium cans to discarded laptop motherboards – scanned at ultra-high resolution to reveal

surprising new views and hidden landscapes.

Technology is as omnipotent and omnipresent as religion once was, controlling what we see and feel,

for better or worse. In the past, priests and preachers were the exclusive producers of cultural

propaganda, but today this role is subsumed by the ubiquity of our devices and our connection to the

internet.

Sacellum is a contemplation of this control of our hearts and minds; a moving patternation of the

classical and the contemporary. The portals of belief continue to look over us, providing a glimmer of

hope for what lies ahead.

After the Fire

From the end of 2019 into the beginning of 2020, fuelled by years of severe drought, massive

bushfires ravaged much of Australia. Their aftermath had a devastating impact on people and the

land. Thoughts of recovery seemed far from our control. To make sense of it all, Gavin Brown painted

a work called After the Fire – an attempt to find beauty amidst the chaos of the crisis.

And then coronavirus hit. The artist spent the majority of Melbourne’s lockdown in his studio, looking

outward. Once again, everything appeared so ugly. Trying to make sense of this bizarre and difficult

time, Gavin turned his focus to hope. Instead of dwelling on the destruction he chose to concentrate

on the regrowth of Australia’s flowering gums and native flowers. In response to this, he set about

creating optimistic artworks out of that time of devastation.

After the Fire aims to bring a series of works that inspire confidence in the resilience of humankind

and the regrowth of nature.

Described by the New York Times as ‘thrilling and engaging – universal, profound… and uplifting’ Joan Didion’s celebrated memoir is brought to life by Green Room Award-winning actor Jillian Murray in a critically-acclaimed solo performance that reunites her with director Laurence Strangio.

This highly personal account of loss through the lens of hope unpacks a surreal and overwhelming time in Didion’s life as she faces the sudden loss of her husband John, and later her daughter Quintana.

Deeply moving, sometimes funny, and ultimately joyful, this is one woman’s story of the journey to find acceptance, and the lessons learnt in letting go.

Stephen talks to David and Neil about what’s on in Melbourne.

There are some really intriguing illuminations – Now Breathe created by Resolution X collaborators Jamie Russell, David Bartholomeusz and Kait Hall transforms the square’s urban forest into a living, breathing organism through the interplay of high-spec lighting tubes with a soundscape of over 250 recordings of human breaths.

The Victorian Pride Centre is a welcoming, inclusive, and respectful space for all LGBTIQ+ communities and their allies.

Our vision is a world where every LGBTIQ+ person has a place where they are welcomed, valued, respected and celebrated.

Our purpose is to connect, support and amplify LGBTIQ+ voices, resources, services and groups so that our communities are cohesive, resilient and thrive.

The Pride Centre’s visual arts programming has a focus on art by LGBTIQ+ artists and/or art that focuses on LGBTIQ+ issues. Visual arts at the Pride Centre should reflect the diversity of LGBTIQA+ communities and be a catalyst for dialogue both within the LGBTIQA+ community and with the wider community.

The Pride Centre provides opportunities for visual arts and archival display through programming, gallery exhibitions and display of art in other suitable spaces in the Pride Centre, including the Pride Gallery. The Pride Gallery is programmed by the Visual Arts Working Group, a voluntary group of LGBTQIA+ artists and art workers.

ANYTHING FOR YOU is the 38th commercial release for Australian songwriter Ruth

Picker under the Song Tailors brand. This neo-soul track marks the return of U.S

based vocalist Dylan Kline to the fold and pays homage to classic sounds, featuring

a live band with Ruth Picker on the keys.

‘I’m proud of having written this song in a neo-soul style and feel it demonstrates

my growth as a songwriter and musician. It’s been a pleasure to work with Dylan

again as he delivers the song’s meaning with heartfelt emotion.’ ‘I’m excited about

the sound of this song which is our third collaboration with Dylan. I hope listeners

enjoy the live band groove together with the message of unconditional love.’

Ruth Picker

‘It’s honestly my favourite collaboration we’ve done so far. Really a testament to the

great song writing, great producing and musicians on the track. I am happy to have

been a small part of its success too. I am excited to see what the world thinks of this

track.’

Dylan Kline

The Song Tailors is an Australian creative platform creating opportunities for both

established and upcoming artists worldwide.

A casualty of the 2021 Victoria Lockdown, Wil King (ABC/Netflix’s Why

Are You Like This, Strangers in Between) and their real-life partner,

award-winner Patrick Livesey (The Boy, George, Gone Girls) now finally

bring Melbourne audiences Angus Cameron’s gripping new work; DIRT.

Directed by Bronwen Coleman (The Actors Studio, NYC), DIRT is a thrilling and seductive exploration of sexuality,

solidarity and persecution. A multi-award winning production, it scooped four awards at the 2021 Adelaide Fringe

Festival, two at the 2022 Fringe World, was nominated for Best Independent Production by The Adelaide Critics

Circle Awards, and has earned over a dozen five-star reviews.

Traversing the compelling course of one night, DIRT presents as a simple meet cute – but all is not as it seems.

When a Russian and an Australian walk into a bar in modern-day Moscow, they decide to drink and party togeth-

er – but both need something from the other, and both have something to hide.

“Wil and I had talked a lot about queer persecution across the Russian Federation and were aware that not many

people in Australia knew what was happening.”, explains Actor/Producer Patrick Livesey.

“During the 2020 lockdown we decided to commission Angus Cameron to raise money for LGBTQIA+ organisations

in Russia and Ukraine. DIRT is a thriller that really plays with the audience’s perception of what is real and what is

not. We wanted the tone of the work to emulate the experience of being persecuted, of having to be on guard

constantly. It’s hard to bring thrillers and live theatre together, but we feel we’ve achieved that here.”

Proudly supported by the City of Stonnington, Regional Arts Victoria through their Sustaining Creative Workers

Initiative and amplified by Melbourne Fringe through their Cash for Creatives program this electrifying hot ticket

season runs for two weeks only and promises to be a highlight on the Victorian arts calendar – not to be missed.

Written by Angus Cameron – Directed by Bronwen Coleman – Performed by Wil King and Patrick Livesey – Sound

Design by MzRizk – Lighting Design by Matt Ralph – Dramaturgy by Alice Qin

The Jewish Museum of Australia: Gandel Centre of Judaica, in collaboration with PHOTO 2022 and the

Helmut Newton Foundation, presents HELMUT NEWTON: In Focus, a landmark exhibition of one of

the fashion industry’s most prolific photographers and provocateurs. Tickets are now on sale ahead of the

exhibition’s Friday 29 April opening.

Known for his eyebrow-raising images and voyeuristic worldview, which changed the fashion landscape

forever, HELMUT NEWTON: In Focus will provide a new look at the life and legacy of the man behind the

lens. Celebrating Newton’s extraordinary personal story of reinvention and determination, the expansive

survey will include never-before-seen details of his remarkable upbringing alongside highlights from

Newton’s career as one of the most influential and visionary fashion photographers of all time.

Carefully curated by the Jewish Museum to explore the early years Newton spent working and living in

Melbourne, this is a global story with a uniquely Australian influence. Featuring a fascinating collection of

letters, diary entries and photographs, the flagship exhibition will shine a light on Newton’s Jewish roots and

early days in Berlin before charting his post-war life as an ‘enemy alien’ in regional Victoria and later work in

Melbourne.

Before leaving for Paris in 1961, where his risqué photography saw him dubbed the ‘King of Kink’, Helmut

would first begin to harness his skills in Melbourne. With little money and no connections, Newton opened

a photography studio on the top floor of a building in Melbourne’s Flinders Lane in 1946 and set about

establishing a career as a photographer in fashion, social and theatre circles. The exhibition will also

include insights into Helmut’s relationship with his Australian-born wife, the acclaimed actress, artist, and

photographer June Newton, who he met in Melbourne at this time. Through this period, Newton forged

a lasting bond with Melbourne (and with Australia, more broadly); a chapter of his life the exhibition will

capture like never before.

Over the course of his fifty-year career, Newton would go on to push boundaries and challenge norms

surrounding the depiction of femininity, sexuality and desire in the arts and the media. He photographed

countless high-profile women at the forefront of the world stage, including Grace Jones, Isabella

Rosselini, Claudia Schiffer, and even Margaret Thatcher. Helmut’s photography appeared in leading

international fashion magazines from Vanity Fair to Vogue, with more than sixty covers for Vogue Italia

attributed to Newton.

“We’re so looking forward to sharing HELMUT NEWTON: In Focus with our visitors – a program that will

inspire, challenge and undoubtedly leave an imprint on all who journey with us,” said Jewish Museum

of Australia Director and CEO, Jessica Bram. “Not only will the exhibition showcase Newton’s iconic,

trailblazing, and at times controversial works, it will also, and perhaps more significantly, share details

of the lesser known aspects of Helmut’s Jewish heritage and his formative and ambitious twenty-year

chapter here in Australia.”

With around 200 items on display, from original photographs and magazines – including the first edition

of Australian Vogue (1959) – and a trove of personal artefacts and letters from the Helmut Newton

Foundation, HELMUT NEWTON: In Focus will zoom into the unique story of Newton. The result is a

panoramic picture, never-before-seen, of the personal and historical forces that would go on to shape the

life and career of the visionary photographer.