Sydney's Carriageworks Unveils Excellent 2017 Program

A new citywide exhibition, a throwback to 1917 Sydney and a Tokyo-inspired night market.
Imogen Baker
November 18, 2016

Sydney's multi-faceted arts precinct Carriageworks has released their 2017 program — and, as we've come to expect by now, it's killer. Director Lisa Havilah last night revealed the line-up at the Eveleigh space, saying "the stories we tell through our collaborations and our programs is the story of contemporary life, contemporary urban Sydney of an imagined future driven by always remembering and acknowledging our shared histories". It's a poetic summary of the 2017 program, which is an interesting mix of 67 forward thinking and retrospective pieces.

The big ticket item is the inaugural year of the huge citywide The National: New Australian Art, which will launch on March 30. It's the first exhibition of the six-year partnership between Carriageworks, the Art Gallery of NSW and the MCA that was announced earlier this year. Aussie artists included in next year's exhibit include Archie Moore, Justene Williams and Richard Lewer, but about the structure and content of the exhibition, they're remaining tight-lipped.

Carriageworks is also collaborating with the City of Sydney to present a show based on the industrial strike in 1917, which happened on the current site of the precinct. With a mix of historical objects and new commissions to be included in the exhibition, artists include are Sarah Contos, Franck Gohier, Will French, Tom Nicholson and Raquel Ormella. They'll also continue their commitment to indigenous projects, bringing back Klub Koori and extending their Solid Ground partnership with Blacktown Arts Centre.

For January's Sydney Festival events (of which they are hosting 12), they'll once again bringing the wildly successful Night Market back, this time in collaboration with chef Kylie Kwong. As it will coincide with the Sydney Chinese New Year Festival, this one will be inspired by the streets of Harajuku in Tokyo, Hongdae in Seoul, and AnFu Lu in Shanghai.

Other shows include large-scale performance Lady Eats Apple from Back to Back Theatre, a Bangarra triple-bill called Ones Country – the Spine of our Stories, and MDLSX, a show that's part performance art, part DJ set from Italian company Motus. The space will once again host Mercedes Benz Fashion Week and Semi Permanent in May. Music events include Open Frame — curated by Lawrence English and featuring Xiu Xiu Plays the Music of Twin Peaks, Elysia Crampton, Klara Lewis and Alessandro Cortini — and an operatic performance of The Rape of Lucretia by Sydney Chamber Opera under the direction of new artistic director Kip Williams.

We could go on. But in the interest of keeping this short, we'll just point you to the full program and let you get excited for 2017.

Image: MDLSX, by Diane Ilariascarpa. 

Published on November 18, 2016 by Imogen Baker
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