Sunday Arts Magazine

With cigarette smoke curling through the air, and Jatz cracker crumbs settling on the carpet, Maureen sits before you. You’re her guest, so you’d better sit up and listen.

It’s in this bohemian living room, accompanied by minimal props or costume, that writer and performer Jonny Hawkins transforms into Maureen: a razor tongued doyenne with stories to tell, inspired by Hawkins’ friend and self-described “working class glamour queen”.

Co-created with director Nell Ranney, Maureen: Harbinger of Death, is a celebration of the rich lives of older women. It lifts up the wisdom, experience, vitality, kindness and humour of women too often overlooked or dismissed by society. A night of wit, imagination and storytelling.

Golden Square is RISING’s swirling art car park—three levels of art, performance, parades and rooftop bars.

Smack bang in the middle of the longest continuous Chinatown in the West is a twisting maze of contemporary art. Cultures, religions and identities overlap with new iterations of centuries-old folklore. Rough concrete pillars, glowing pyramids and a capitalist mega-church are the architecture of our multi-level exhibition of ritual, mythology and digital spirituality.

St Kilda Film Festival is Australia’s largest and longest-running short film festival. The Festival is an Academy Awards qualifying event, showcasing Australia’s emerging cinema.

Fart Fabulous is a farty party for grands, grandkids and teenagers alike. A playful, punk variety show bursting with circus, drag, dance, visual art and live music.

From the team behind Fu#k Fabulous, this genre-bending bonanza with multi-generational appeal offers a bold vision of a queer new world, that embraces difference in all its messy glory. Reverberating with the rock and roll spirit, the cast remind us that bodies have folds, make noises and come in all sizes, shapes and genders—all of them are valid and all of them fart.

Fart Fabulous is a jam-packed hour of queer celebration, rebellious performance, comedy and joyful anarchy.

Finally, after two long yearsof lockdown Robert Earp and Venus Tomarz will launch Venus Virgin Tomarz.

Two brilliant minds come together for the Venus Virgin Tomarz photographic exhibition showing this

May in Melbourne’s, CBD. Combining the electrifying conceptual photography of Robert

Earp and the ‘surreal realness’ of Venus Virgin Tomarz. This is an exhibition that goes

beyond gender to a meeting of minds and worlds. The exhibition is named after Earp’s

‘divalicious’ collaborator and muse whilst the work explores the journey of gender and

transition between worlds.

The true story of Venus Virgin Tomarz is told in hyper-colourful composite photographs

that recall the sci-fi kitsch of yesteryear. “Venus’s idea of taking 1960s sci-fi as the metaphor

of her story of transgender, I just thought that was brilliant,” said Robert Earp, Photomaker.

“I’ve always loved the magician’s trick where you’re at a magic show and there is a woman

floating […] you know in your head there are strings attached but you still feel as though she

is really floating. In this work I have conceptualised Venus as my floating muse”.

In Earp’s images, entire galaxies and epic encounters have been created in minute detail,

using everyday household items as the building blocks; the stars are bicarbonate soda;

chalk dust becomes star dust; the moon a swirl of poured beer while a Kitchenaid blender

whips up tornadoes and alien flesh is created from fish in Earp’s own tank.

Earp came to acclaim early on in his career with an exhibition at the National Gallery of

Victoria with only his third roll of film. Fast forward and he was quickly embraced by the

commercial and fashion world making his name as a ‘maker’ of photographs, turning

concepts into art.

For Venus this was a meeting of minds “This art extravaganza is an astounding collaboration

between myself and Photomaker, Robert Earp” said Venus “who believed in the idea and

these important art dimensions for the globe. I have pure respect for the understanding, the

beauty and passion for detail of this production team of professionals.”

In this exhibition, nothing is as it appears and the piece poses profound questions around

perception, ideology, society and the future. Where are we going and how are we getting

there? Will we be able to accept each other in whatever guise we appear?

“Behind it all, the narrative is about equality, really,” says Earp. “It’s also about that fight between

Venus and Mars in the classic sense from literature – you know, men are from Mars and women

are from Venus. That fight is in everybody.”

Based on the film starring Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Michelle Gellar comes Cruel Intentions, the ultimate ‘90s throwback.

Featuring back to back iconic songs including Bittersweet Symphony (The Verve),  Every You and Every Me (Placebo), Bye Bye Bye (*NSYNC), Sometimes (Britney Spears), Just A Girl (No Doubt), Foolish Games (Jewel), Genie In A Bottle (Christina Aguilera), Breakfast At Tiffany’s (Deep Blue Something), Kiss Me (Sixpence None the Richer), Iris (Goo Goo Dolls), Candy (Mandy Moore)  I’ll Make Love To You (Boyz II Men) and more!

Drawing you deep into the manipulative world of Manhattan’s most tempting liaisons: Sebastian and Kathryn are seduced by revenge and fuelled by passion. Set out to ravage the virtuous Annette Hargrove and anyone who gets in their way, the siblings find themselves entangled in a web of secrets, temptation, and the cruelest game of all: love.

Are you ready to make your wager?  Missing out might just ruin your reputation…

Happy hunting!

Hercules was seen as a hero, a great protector and a role model. However, the lesser-known story of his violent murder of his wife and children is all but forgotten.

A powerful and challenging new work created by the acclaimed Daniel Schlusser Ensemble, Hercules is an unflinching attempt to topple hero-worshipping and idolisation while grappling with incomprehensible acts of violence.

Taking the twelve labours of Hercules as its entry point, Hercules is a visionary work of theatre that excavates the violence that lies beneath the myth of the hero.

Performed by a trio of fearless female performers: Mary-Helen Sassman, Katherine Tonkin and Edwina Wren, Hercules draws on Euripides, meme culture and contemporary politics as well as personal insights from the performers, who are mothers of young boys.

Hercules is a multi-modal theatre work. Three performers are trapped inside a kindergarten room that is suffocating in tragedy until it cracks open to reveal powerful symbolic and mythological worlds.

Daniel Schlusser said it has been almost 10 years since the ensemble presented its acclaimed M+M in Melbourne, “Our newest work tackles a range of social realities – the pressures of hyper-productivity, particularly on mothers and carers; culturally codified misogyny; and the tragic consequences of confused masculinity, heroism and coercive control.”

“Hercules is a complicated love affair with a hero. We are devising a theatrical poem that investigates heroism, surrounded by violence, infanticide, divinity and madness,” said Schlusser.

Arts House Artistic Director, Emily Sexton, welcomes Daniel Schlusser Ensemble, “This is a timely and politically urgent work on a topic that has received less attention that it should as we’ve navigated the challenges of the pandemic. We could not be in safer hands than with these exceptional artists, and I trust them fully to create a theatrical world that both surprises and challenges us in equal measure.”

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Pete can trace a knitting and knotting obsession all the way back to Newcastle, UK, where his grandparents owned an arts and craft shop. Sadly for Pete, it was very much a “look don’t touch” situation, and his passion continued to bubble away under the surface.

It wasn’t until Melbourne was plunged into lockdown due to COVID-19 that Pete’s craft came into its own. Using locally sourced materials, Pete specialises in working natural materials into knots and patterns to create exquisite wall hangings, plant hangers, and wearable art.

Since operating as a business in 2018 Mr Macramè now hosts workshops for people to come and learn the craft, opened an Atelier as part of the ‘Renew Fitzroy Street’ initiative, stocks Macramè cords and rope for other macrame makers, all while working on a DIY book soon to be published later this year.

His latest artistic venture into Macramé Artwear has already gained interest from festival productions, boudoir photo shoots and story telling photographers. With some exciting new projects on the horizon for 2022, Pete is always looking to collaborate with other like minded creatives in events and performances to showcase Macramè as a more modern, contemporary art form.