Sunday Arts Magazine

Opening on 15 June, MENTAL: Head Inside, the first exhibition to be presented at Science Gallery Melbourne’s new purpose-built gallery, will reflect a range of different perspectives on mental health.

In the exhibition, science, technology and art come together to showcase stories and experiences from across the mental health spectrum.

It will feature over twenty projects from local and international artists and research collaborators, each challenging societal stereotypes surrounding mental health and reflecting different ways of being, surviving and connecting in the world.

The fourth exhibition to be created by Science Gallery Melbourne, MENTAL: Head Inside has been curated collaboratively with young people, for young people, and will be the first to be launched in the gallery located within the University of Melbourne’s new innovation precinct Melbourne Connect.

Science Gallery Melbourne is the first and only Australian node in the internationally acclaimed Science Gallery Network, a series of museums embedded in universities around the world, with a proven success at engaging 15-25 year olds in STEM subjects and pathways, the key being the presentation of immersive, experimental and experiential exhibitions that blend scientific theory and new technologies with conceptual themes and creativity.

University of Melbourne’s Museums and Collections Director Rose Hiscock said she was pleased to present an exhibition on mental health as the inaugural program for the new gallery.

“The Science Gallery model focuses on topics that are especially relevant to young people. The content and topic for MENTAL came from ongoing conversations with young people. We know that almost half of us will directly experience challenges to our mental health at some stage in our lives, and young people are an especially affected group,” Ms Hiscock said.

The interactive exhibition, curated by Science Gallery Melbourne’s Head of Curatorial Tilly Boleyn with Creative Director Dr Ryan Jefferies, and a team of young people, includes:

* Selfcare_4EVA, a new performative work set within a fake bedroom in the Science Gallery street-level windows. Melbourne-based artists Mary Angley and Caithlin O’Loghlen will spend seven days on view, pursuing the impossible goal of becoming the most famous wellness influencers on the internet. Each day they will create an increasing amount of content, joined by a series of guests including self-care enthusiasts and mental health professionals, working to uncover what goes into creating an image of perfect wellness, and exploring whether the industry helps or hinders mental health.  Their progress can be viewed live in the gallery and online.

* Wheel is a collaboration between renowned artist Hiromi Tango and Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health researcher Dr Emma Burrows that explores the effect of vibrant colour, playful spaces and exercise on mood, and the influence of positive social reward on our exercise commitment. The project has been realised in collaboration with Human Computer Interaction researcher Dr Tilman Dingler.

* Respite Space, a new project by Wemba Wemba and Gunditjmara artist Rosie Kalina, who will create a space within the exhibition designed for rest and reflection. This space will emphasise the importance of respite in the colony, inviting visitors to consider the impact racism and continued colonisation has on the mental health of Aboriginal people.

* The Aesthetics of Being Disappeared, a multi-media project from Wednesday Kim. Born in South Korea and now based in the US, Kim’s work is informed by the artist’s personal experiences with therapy, human psychology and the absurdity of information-saturated contemporary life.

* Distorted Constellations by UK artist Nwando Ebizie,

Rohan is back talking to David about all things Arts.

NotFair 2021 is being held at the former Kardinia Church, Chris Gahan Reserve, 61-71 McIllwrick Street, Windsor, May 20-30.

|notfair| was founded in 2010 by artists Sam Leach and Tony Lloyd – who then invited writer Ashley Crawford to join their curatorial team – as a satellite event to the Melbourne Art Fair, in order to showcase independent artists who often do not fit the commercial mould and are overlooked and under-recognized. The initial grass roots event has grown into a well-known and popular event on the Australian arts calendar. Now in its 10th year |notfair| has launched many artists into successful careers, while the nature of the event is still unchanged: we do things differently.

|notfair| aims to be a low-cost event in order to ensure that the artists can secure a higher percentage of the sale price. This also ensures that |notfair| can continue to take risks, exhibit the unusual and the experimental. The glue that binds this, say the curators, is the choice of artists who carry integrity, talent and devotion to their craft while being unafraid to take risks. Most of our participating artists are independent and are not represented by a commercial gallery. |notfair| becomes a stage where artists, dealers, collectors and art lovers find each other and new relationships are formed.

 

Set in Rose’s new house in a retirement village the two-hander play explores the story of a complex and unfiltered mother/daughter relationship, during a time when a mother’s inhibitions are being compromised by her decline into dementia. Although their bond isn’t close, the daughter finds herself in a challenging position trying to care for her. 

Directed by Julian Dibley-Hall and starring Jules Allen and Iris Walshe-Howling, Allen’s work is deeply truthful and nuanced. ‘Betty’ marks her fourth play, after her 2019 masterpiece ‘Slipped Through the Cracks’ where she was described by Australian Playwright, Hannie Rayson as “a playwright with enormous potential”.  

Starring alongside Allen in this production is multi-awarding winning actor and director, Iris Walshe-Howling. Active in the Melbourne Independent theatre scene since the late sixties when she was an ensemble member of the infamous La Mama Company, Iris has worked with numerous companies including as a founding ensemble member of The Contemporary Performance Centre, actor with Crow’s Bar Cabaret, performer with Australian Theatre Company Back To Back.  

Exiting a long break from acting to take on the role of mother ‘Rose’, Iris is rekindling her performance relationship with Allen, having directed Allen’s first play ‘Slipped Through the Cracks’ in 2019.  

For Allen, the importance of family has always rung true; having fostered over 32 children as a single mother and adopted three after the birth of her own son. As a Social Scientist and advocate for human rights, ‘Betty’ is no different to Allen’s aesthetic, as this story is one that rings very close to home and opens with some very honest storytelling. 

‘Betty’ is a story for families. Allen spoke about the play having something for everyone, as the story is extremely relatable on many levels to many audience members. 

On the brink of artistic discovery, Michel’s plans for the future are interrupted by a diagnosis of schizophrenia – he must rely on his sister – yet Karen has dreams of her own, how long can she push them aside to care for him?

Drawn from the writer’s lived experience of schizophrenia, this powerful play explores the relationship between siblings who grapple with managing this condition, which interrupts their focus on transforming the world through art.

Michel is writing his first novel, Hipflask, his older sister Karen is in Europe turning the world into paintings. Michel’s letters take a strange turn. He believes Joan Miro and Franz Kafka are his companions and he can speak with them. His sister Karen rushes home. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, Michel is unable to accept it. Karen becomes her brother’s career, which tests but cannot destroy their strong bond.

Since childhood I have sensed the ever-present power and beauty of nature in our world. It is

and has always been my intention that my art practice is concerned with the transmission of

this power and beauty.

This exhibition ‘Intertwined’- Recent Works is comprised of paintings made from 2019 to the

present. It brings together landscape paintings with paintings of flowers. During the quiet of

lockdown, I was able to work back and forth between the paintings of landscape and the

paintings of flowers. The floral paintings became a way of expressing a more intimate inner

world of forms.

Here I intentionally present both painting subjects, the landscapes as an overview of the

power of the natural world with the paintings of the beauty of the flower in full bloom.

Painted on a similar scale I hope to emphasize their equivalency.

I believe we are moving into a different paradigm where time and perceptions of what is

important is shifting. A slowing down, which will hopefully allow a reevaluation, resulting in a

renewed reverence for the natural world and in turn an overpowering need to preserve/reset

our planet.

Jill Kempson April 2021

Stephen talks about films.

After dazzling audiences across Melbourne for more than 30 years Evelyn Krape (Ginger, A Toast to Melba) takes on her most challenging role yet as the formidable King Lear in Melbourne Shakespeare Company’s new production directed by emerging prodigy Ayesha Gibson (Romeo and Juliet).

“It’s an incredible fusion of old meets new” explained artistic director Jennifer Sarah Dean (The Globe – London) “ Evelyn brings so much wisdom, power and experience to the role which amalgamates perfectly with Ayesha’s fresh contemporary vision for the piece. The combination is electric!”

Presented at the intimate fortyfivedownstairs King Lear  is a tender, violent, and intimate exploration of old age portrayed in all its vulnerability, pride, folly and wisdom.  The multiple Green Room award winning actor will take on one of the greatest roles in literature for a limited run of just 10 performances.

Krape will be supported by a formidable ensemble including Kevin Hopkins (Twelfth Night) as Kent, Don Bridges (As You Like It) as Fool, Augustin Tchantcho (Book of Morman, Othello) as Albany and Anthea Davies (A Room of One’s Own) as Gloucester. Audience favourite Matthew Connell (Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet) will return for his third season with the company as the bastard son Edmund, and introducing Isabella Ferrer as Cordelia.

Sound design from Ben Keene (The Rapture) transports us to the dystopian world within this play is set and the business inspired costume design from Aislinn Naughton (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) perfectly captures the corporate world where warring siblings fight for power in an desperate race to the bottom.

Presented by The Torch, Confined is an annual exhibition of works from Indigenous artists currently in or recently released from prison.  For the first time it will be at the Glen Eira Town Hall Gallery, from 13 May to 6 June, to accommodate the ever-increasing number of artists and artworks. Confined 12 can also be viewed online at The Torch website via a scrolling mosaic and a 3D virtual tour.

With a record 350 artworks from 320 artists from 16 correctional facilities across Victoria, this collection of works is a strong visual metaphor for the over-representation of Indigenous Australians in the criminal justice system.

“The mass incarceration of First nations Australians is a national disgrace. Fortunately, organisations such as The Torch, show that Indigenous led and delivered solutions to some of the ongoing issues caused by systemic over incarceration can be addressed successfully if driven by the Indigenous community,” said Kent Morris, CEO The Torch.

This year’s exhibition includes an extraordinary range of paintings and three-dimensional artworks including a 2.2m high culturally carved wooden post and lintel construction and Brancusi like vertical sculptures, woven baskets, bush dyed silk scarves, decorative ceramic homewares, an intricate model motorbike made from matchsticks and coffee stirrers, an array of shields, boomerangs, clapsticks and painted yidaki’s.

All works will be available for purchase from the gallery and online with 100% of the sales going to the artist. For participants, the creation and sale of their artworks is part of the rehabilitation process that helps build confidence, social capital, economic stability and pathways to reconnect with the community.

2021 marks 30 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody handed down its historic reporting, with over three hundred recommendations to end Black deaths in custody. In the 10 years The Torch program has been running, several participants have died in custody including a cousin of The Torch’s CEO Kent Morris.

“Three decades later, Australian governments have failed to implement the majority of these recommendations and First Nations peoples are dying in custody at horrendous rates, with over 470 lives lost in the last 30 years. In 2021 alone, seven First Nations people have died since March.

Indigenous communities are driven to provide sustainable, culturally appropriate and connecting solutions to the dire impacts of the over incarceration of our people because it affects us deeply in so many ways, on so many levels”, says Morris.

The knowledge and experiences of Community Elders and those participating in The Torch program continues to define the program’s design and delivery. The employment of men and women from the program to work on all aspects, including going back into prison to support others, has been significant to its ongoing success. The organisation now employs 18 permanent staff, 12 are Aboriginal men and women – five of whom have transitioned through the in-prison and in-community programs to now work at The Torch.

In 2016, the Victorian government developed the Aboriginal Art Policy Model allowing Indigenous men and women in the program to sell their artworks while still in custody. Under the policy, a major percentage of the money received from the sale and licensing of artworks is held in trust by the Department of Corrections until the participant is released from prison.

Individual requests from in-prison participants can be made to release money for specific approved purposes such as supporting children’s education costs, funeral expenses and supporting family members looking after the children of those incarcerated.

In a remarkable retrospective, Back to Back Theatre presents three of its major world-renowned performances – Food Court, Ganesh Versus the Third Reich and small metal objects – at this year’s inaugural RISING festival, offering audiences a unique opportunity to plunge into the works of one of the world’s most acclaimed companies.

Inspired by its own ensemble of actors with intellectual disabilities, Back to Back Theatre is a leading voice in contemporary world theatre and one of Australia’s most important cultural exporters. Each of these multi-award -winning works first premiered at the Melbourne International Arts Festival before touring the globe, where they delighted audiences and critics, and inspired audiences to think in new ways about the world we live in. Now the shows return to Melbourne, presented together for the first time ever, for RISING.

“We live in Geelong, it’s a regional town, but we try to allow everyone to see our work. Access to art is a basic human right. That’s why we are coming to Melbourne and performing small metal objects, Food Court and Ganesh Versus the Third Reich.” Back to Back Ensemble

Bruce Gladwin, Artistic Director, Back to Back Theatre commented: “When we set out to make these three works, our number one aim was to make theatre that would be truly transformative for an audience. As the late and great Sonia Teuben said, ‘Theatre should be in your face, it should blow the audience’s minds’. The reality is, in making small metal objects, Food Court and Ganesh Versus the Third Reich it was the artists at Back to Back who were transformed.”