Sunday Arts Magazine

Reference Material, a new dance work from

choreographer Alisdair Macindoe exploring

the process and history of dance making in

the age of narcissism, debuts as a part of

Darebin Arts Speakeasy season at the

Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre.

Sitting somewhere between a lecture, a

stand-up show, a guided tour and a dance

recital, Reference Material is a chaotic and

humorous performance that reflects a world

saturated by media technology.

In an effort to salute the historical figures

and social icons who have paved the way

toward our current privileged performance

culture, Reference Material takes on the

impossible task of acknowledging and

referencing its own cultural context,

unashamedly exposing its own creative

process in doing so.

Alisdair Macindoe is an Australian dancer, sound designer and choreographer. His

experience in these fields has taken his work to many countries worldwide, earning critical

acclaim in the media and receiving local and international awards including five Green Room

awards, a Helpmann and a New York Bessie award. Alisdair is a recipient of the Peggy van

Praagh and Sidney Myer Fellowships, and a board member of Ausdance Victoria.

Notable collaborations include his work as a dancer for Lucy Guerin, Chunky Move, Antony

Hamilton, Stephanie Lake and DanceNorth, and his work as a sound designer for Chunky

Move, Antony Hamilton, STOMPIN and DanceNorth. His choreographic work includes

commissions for DanceNorth, Lucy Guerin, Next Wave, Performance Space, and STOMPIN.

Reference Material is based on ideas Macindoe began exploring during a commission on the

graduating year of dance students at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2017.

Directed by Charlie Shackleton, Richard Misek and Melbourne based Oscar Raby, the experimental hybrid video essay uses virtual reality to pull the audience into the images, instead of merely inviting them to sit down in a movie theatre full of distractions. Inspired by filmmaker Peter Kubelka’s “machine for viewing” theatre, this unique work invites us to ponder what it means to ‘watch’ a piece of cinema, with three episodes totalling a 30-min runtime.

 

Participatory iterations of the work premiered at Sundance and the International Documentary Film Festival, where audience members in cinemas were invited to wear the VR headset and step into the film. Now it has been reimagined as a digital offering, and this instalment of the evolving work will exhibit a single cinema patron’s unique experience of A Machine for Viewing (filmed at the Astor theatre) in a global online premiere which will be exclusive to MIFF YouTube channel from Thursday 8 April at 6pm, kicking off a massive MIFF season which is just around the corner!

Families can set sail on urban seascapes, go to war with fiendish grannies, get their rock on, enjoy a circus spectacular at The Spiegeltent and even do a spot of shopping during a fun-filled April school holidays at Arts Centre Melbourne.

“We are excited to finally be able to welcome children and families back to Arts Centre Melbourne. Throughout the pandemic, families have had to be incredibly resilient and manage a lot personally so it feels like a gift to finally give them the opportunity to reconnect with live performance and for children to be transported to a magical place through theatre. We are also really proud to be profiling Victorian performers and new works made specifically with COVID-19 safety regulations in place,” said Mary Harvey, Arts Centre Melbourne Creative Producer, Families and Children.

Internationally renowned, Melbourne based company Polyglot Theatre presents Boats – a rollicking voyage for children 3 to 10 years of age and their families to navigate an urban seascape in a colourful vessel.

In this free event, large lightweight boats are moored on Art Centre Melbourne’s main lawn waiting for children’s imagination and energy to take them out on an adventure. Once aboard, the boats are propelled by a flurry of feet, with children working as a crew to find their own path and voyage across the high seas. As they journey, Polyglot artists float as castaways to be rescued or as mysterious elements of the urban ocean. Together they guide the boats to safe harbour ready for a new crew, and the next adventure.

“Boats  was inspired by the stories of children who have experienced journeys across the sea, as refugees from life-threatening situations, and plays with the idea of arrival at a strange land. This work is a joyous response to how children unerringly find the play in their surroundings, and can lead us all to new perspectives. Children are often forgotten in the huge events of the world and Boats places them firmly and with happy disruption, in urban spaces, to find their own imaginative adventures in the everyday,” said Sue Giles AM, Artistic Director and co-CEO, Polyglot Theatre.

TarraWarra Biennial 2021: Slow Moving Waters, curated by Nina Miall, is an exhibition of new works by 25 artists from across the country whose practices explore ideas of slowness, deceleration, drift and the elasticity of time.

The Biennial’s title Slow Moving Waters comes from the translation of the local Woiwurrung word ‘tarrawarra’, after which the Museum, and its surrounding area of Wurundjeri Country in the Yarra Valley are named. The exhibition responds to two related themes: the idea of slowness, and the winding course of the Birrarung (Yarra River), which flows south of the Museum grounds.

The media preview will feature an opening presentation of a large-scale sonic artwork The Rivers Singwhich has been commissioned for the inaugural RISING festival. Conceived by artists Byron J Scullin and Thomas Supple and composed by YortaYorta/Yuin composer and soprano, Deborah Cheetham AO, The Rivers Sing’s celebration of the Birrarung (Yarra River) and the Maribyrnong River finds a natural home at TarraWarra.

KEY PICTORIAL OPPORTUNITIES: 

·       First showing of eleven newly commissioned artworks that reflect the unique context and sense of place particular to TarraWarra;

·       Interview and photograph some of the 25 exhibiting artists with their artwork, including dynamic installations involving melting ice and liquefying toffee;

·       A five-minute preview presentation of The Rivers Sing at 10am and 11am ahead of the full ten-minute presentation of The Rivers Sing at 12:15pm.

KEY EDITORIAL OPPORTUNITIES:

·       This 7th TarraWarra Biennial surveys new forms and ideas in Australian contemporary art practice, addressing timely and urgent issues: environmental fragility and an aesthetics of care, First Nations’ creation stories and caretaking for Country, deep listening, heightened awareness, interconnected ecologies, alternative conceptions of time (cosmological, geological, microbiological) and ways of being in the world;

·       Site-responsive contemporary art responses to slow ideas and practices in an age of acceleration with artworks unfolding in different ways over the course of the exhibition.

·       First Nations artists represent more than a third of the exhibition including senior Wurundjeri Elder Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin AO who has collaborated with Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones;

·       Interview with Guest curator, TarraWarra Biennial 2021: Slow Moving Waters, Nina Miall;

·       Introduction by Composer of the

Stephen talks to the team about films.

MONIQUE DIMATTINA RELEASES ‘TIDES’ FOR SOLO PIANO

“Monique diMattina has reached that hallowed ground where influences and inspirations coalesce to produce a unique voice” Martin Jones, Rhythms Mag

“A touch, tone and sensibility only found in artists of the highest calibre”

Dr Tony Gould AM

“Monique diMattina is one of Australia’s finest composers. Her music is divine”

Clare Bowditch

TIDES is a stunning new album of solo piano compositions from one of Australia’s most accomplished and respected composers, Monique diMattina.

Echoes of Satie, Philip Glass and Lili Boulangère are present in this exquisite collection of piano miniatures, but the compositional voice is unmistakeably Monique diMattina – an artist whose six albums move freely from jazz/roots to classical worlds with rare mastery.

 

Monique, a Fulbright scholar and Yamaha artist, singer/songwriter, marathon runner and mother, has lived and worked in NYC, Europe and China, and is now based in Melbourne where she teaches in the VCA (Melbourne Con) and Monash University jazz departments.  Her ABC and RRR radio segment ‘Shaken Not Rehearsed’ involved writing a bespoke song in an hour to listener requests. She lives in Fitzroy, Melbourne with her two daughters.

Monique diMattina performs TIDES at the JAZZLAB.club Brunswick, Sat 27 March 7.30pm

Story telling in all forms is crucial to sharing and understanding historic and popular culture.

Deadly Narratives: Recent Collection Highlights brings together Victorian Aboriginal narratives represented by 5 years of art collecting by the KHT since moving to the Birrarung (Yarra) Building at Federation Square in 2015.

The deadly narratives are told through a range of media including acrylic on canvas and board, prints, ceramics, textile, pokerwork possum skin, weaving and jewellery.

Deadly Narratives showcase the unique and important place the KHT collection holds in Victoria and nation-wide. The collection highlights in the exhibition reflect the strong, vibrant and living culture of south east Australia, representing individuals and communities that continue to connect to place and country.

Featured artists: Frank Hood, the Pitcha Makin Fellaz, Mandi Barton, Patrice Mathaymiles Mahoney, Marlene Scerri, Lisa Waup, Lucy Williams-Connelly, Steaphan Paton, Josh Muir, Monique Grbec, Marlene Gilson, Kait James, Uncle Greg Muir, Lee Darroch, Raymond Young, Cassie Leatham, Isobel Morphy-Walsh, Peter Waples-Crowe, Marilyne Nicholls,  Laura Kirby and Daniel Kelly

Entries for Sisters in Crime’s 21st Davitt Awards for women’s crime books now open

Sisters in Crime Australia’s 21st Davitt Awards for the best crime and mystery books by Australian women are now open. Publishers have until Friday 7 May 2021 to enter. Self-published books are eligible. Books co-authored or edited by men or including chapters by men are not.

This year the Davitts are again supported by Swinburne University of Technology.

Six Davitt Awards will be presented at a gala dinner in Melbourne, probably in late August or early September, though this may change depending on the pandemic: Best Adult Novel; Best Young Adult Novel; Best Children’s Novel; Best Non-fiction Book; Best Debut Book (any category); and Readers’ Choice (as voted the 500+ members of Sisters in Crime Australia).

Award-winning crime short story writer, Philomena Horsley, is serving as Judges’ Coordinator.

“2021 already looks like a bumper year for the Awards. There are already 126 books in contention, including an astonishing 85 adult crime novels. It’s likely we will exceed the 2019 record of 127 books in the competition. Whatever the final figure, it is a massive increase on the seven books nominated back in 2000,” she said.

“Forty of the books are debut. This is not surprising since the crime and mystery genre is hugely popular and it’s a genre that allows writers to explore so many different issues and so many different time periods, a ‘broad church’, as we wont to joke. Whether it’s the illegal wildlife trade, sex trafficking, evil twin sisters or baby farming, women crime writers write stories that thrill, entertain, subvert and inspire.

“Their stories, which often feature women kick-arse heroes, find a ready audience, particularly amongst women – and women, of course, make up the majority of book buyers and book club members. The crime books on the list are also notable for their striking evocations of place and time. They transport us from the heat of wartime Brisbane and the frigidity of the Snowy Mountains to the waters off Fiji and the coast of France.”

Horsley said that women’s crime books were increasingly recognised in other awards.

“Last year, women crime writers notched up wins in the ARA Historical Novel Prize (worth $50,000), the Ned Kelly Awards, the Danger Award, the Thunderbolt Prize, and the Banjo Prize,” she said.

“Australian women’s crime writers are now a global sensation, winning major awards overseas and increasingly being translated to the screen. In the past year, we’ve been able to enjoy Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears, inspired by Kerry Greenwood’s 21 Phryne Fisher novels, Miss S, a Chinese remake of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries television series, and The Dry, the Eric Bana film based on Jane Harper’s novel of the same name.”

The Davitts are named after Ellen Davitt, the author of Australia’s first mystery novel, Force and Fraud, in 1865. They cost publishers nothing to enter. A longlist will be published in May, a shortlist in July.

The awards are handsome carved polished wooded trophies featuring the front cover of the winning novel under perspex. No prize money is attached.

The judging panel for 2021 comprises Philomena Horsley, winner of the 2018 Scarlet Stiletto Award and medical autopsy expert; Joy Lawn, YA expert and reviewer; Janice Simpson, author and academic; Emily Webb, true crime author and podcaster; and Sisters in Crime national co-convenors, Moraig Kisler and Tara Mitchell.

Previous Davitt Awards have been presented by Val McDermid; Scottish crime writer (2020, 2010, 2003); NZ crime writer Dr Joanne Drayton (2019); Danish thriller writer, Sissel-Jo Gazan (2018); lawyer and true crime writer, Hilary Bonney (2017); Australian crime writer Liane Moriarty (2016); UK crime writer Sophie Hannah (2015); South African crime writer Lauren Beukes (2014); New Zealand crime writer Vanda Symons (2013); Swedish ...

Applying the blow torch to sex-trafficking: Robin Gregory, Traffic

Traffic (Clan Destine Press), the debut novel by author, Robin Gregory, applies a blow torch to sex-trafficking.

Melbourne Private Investigator, Sandi Kent, has her hopes for an easy December dashed when two complicated cases crash into her lap.

First, she is hired by her sexy but volatile ex-girlfriend, Cassy Joynson, to rescue a young South Korean woman from an illegal brothel. And then – in a curiously parallel case – she’s engaged by a lawyer friend seeking defence angles for a Colombian immigrant charged with murdering a sex worker.

As Sandi juggles the demands of her clients (and her desperately low bank balance), she becomes embroiled in the city’s seamy underworld of human trafficking, drugs and murder. And soon more lives, including her own, are at risk …

Gregory was prompted to write Traffic by an incident at a community health centre where she was working some years ago.

“A young Asian woman came in, fearing for her life. She’d been bought and brought as a sex slave and the man who had acquired her, married her to solve any visa issues. The only place where she was able to go was church and that’s where she fled from her husband,” Gregory said.

“The minister’s wife accompanied her to the centre – she had been sheltering with a friend for a few days but a longer-term solution was needed. Her husband had hired someone to hunt her down. A black car ominously remained outside for the better part of the day while we struggled to find her a refuge. We eventually had to call on the police to escort her to safety.”

Gregory started researching sex-trafficking and connected with Project Respect, an organisation which offers support to women who have been trafficked and advocates on their behalf.

“Sex trafficking is surprisingly prevalent, even in legal brothels, but prosecutions are few and far between. The sex workers are often reluctant to go to the police. They rightly fear that, if they speak up, they’ll be deported and lose any slim hope of a new and better life in Australia. Getting evidence that will stand up in court is very difficult.”

“I decided that it was a problem that Private Investigator Sandi Kent should confront. Sandi has been around for twenty years – she featured in a story of mine that was shortlisted in Sisters in Crime’s Scarlet Stiletto Awards – and remarkably hasn’t aged!”

Gregory said that Sandi, who supplements her meagre PI income by teaching swimming part-time, has a lot going for her.

“Sandi is in her late twenties. She is strong, she is brave – sometimes recklessly so – and like many women of her age, experiences the crashing waves of love. In Sandi’s words her relationships ‘start well and then sourly plummet’. Her relationships with her mother and sister are fraught but she does have a wonderful best friend – Stewart, a gay man who Sandi ropes in as a sidekick,” she said.

“Part of my motivation all those years ago in making Sandi a lesbian was that there we so few of us represented in novels or on the screen – and, if we were, we inevitably met a ghastly end. Thankfully, that’s no longer the case. Sandi will appeal to a mainstream audience.”

In the course of her research, Gregory didn’t actually venture inside any brothels but, like her PI, she did actually spend time parked outside both legal and illegal brothels. Like her, Sandi is also a student of Spanish, a skill which she is able to utilise to great effect when investigating the Columbian man charged with murder.

“One of my other missions in my novel was to represent Melbourne’s diversity in all its glorious complexity,” Gregory said. “I like to think I’ve succeeded.”

Gregory is well on her way with a second Sandi Kent novel.

First created by Dutch illustrator Dick Bruna (1927-2017) as a bedtime story for his son in 1955, the little white bunny, or ‘nijntje’ as she is known in Dutch, has evolved from her life as a children’s book character into a globally-recognised and universally loved design icon. Captivating children and adults alike for over 65 years, the figure of Miffy features in a major, free exhibition following the exhibition’s stellar launch at Brisbane’s QUT Art Museum late last year.

There’s great imagery as you can see attached, and I think it makes for a lovely feel-good conversation given its universal appeal on the whole idea of family, friends and relationships. There’s a lot to unpack around the history of Miffy and how it continues to cross cultures to this day through art, literature, and how the exhibition explores the character’s firm place within an Australian context.

The exhibition also places Miffy alongside the work of seven of Australia’s most exciting contemporary artists including Stephen Bird, Sadie Chandler, Nadia Hernández, Carla McRae, Nell, Brian Robinson, and Vipoo Srivilasa.

While deceptively simple, the character of Miffy is grounded in the ideas of 20th century avant-garde art, reflecting ideas of abstractionism and colour theory. With her pared back details and purity of line, Miffy embodies a universal language of minimalism.

miffy & friends shows at Bunjil Place Gallery from 27 March – 11 June: