Overview
Everyone's favourite rail yard turned arts centre, Carriageworks, has announced a vibrant program for 2013 that includes work from local and international heroes including Chinese artist Song Dong, New York cabaret icon Mx Justin Vivian Bond, famed choreographer Martin Del Amo, Melbourne kooks The Black Lung Theatre and Whaling Firm, and Ireland's Pan Pan Theatre.
This is only the second comprehensive annual program for the still young institution, which boasted doubled attendance figures in 2012, projected to be 220,000 visitors. Now 2013 might be marked as the year where Carriageworks truly carved out its place in Sydney, by further embracing its Redfern home while making new connections with our broader neighbours, the Asia-Pacific.
Kicking off the year is the visually flooring large-scale art installation Waste Not by Song Dong. A transformative representation of his mother’s mourning process following the death of his father, the work will involve laying out the entire contents of her house to fill the Carriageworks foyer.
Cross-cultural colabs with the Asia-Pacific continue throughout the year as Carriageworks brings out the Black Lung Theatre and Whaling Firm's thrillingly unexpected project with East Timorese rockers Galaxy and LiuraiFo'er, Doku Rai (You, dead man, I don't believe you); Pan Pan Theatre (Ireland) and Square Moon Culture (Beijing)'s vividly absurdist card game Fight the Landlord; and Samoan choreographer Lemi Ponifasio soaringly elegiac Birds with Skymirrors, a depiction of the tiny island of Tarawa in the time of climate change.
Carriageworks' commitment to supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts and culture will be very visible this year with the Australia Day Yabun concert in Victoria Park, to be headlined by Archie Roach. Kicking off the next day is the two-week Yellamundie playwriting festival, which will bring together Indigenous writers, dramaturgs, directors, and actors to develop six new plays. Mid-year, catch the free LIVE and DEADLY exhibition, which recalls iconic moments from the streets of Redfern — including Keating's speech, the Apology, and the riots.
Other highlights include a newbie from documentary theatre whizzes Version 1.0, Vehicle Failed to Stop, which looks at private contractors working in Iraq. Martin del Amo shows off 12 choreographic portraits in Slow Dances for Fast Times, and FBi Radio's Marty Doyle hosts a one-day record fair dubbed At First Sight.
Carriageworks is also looking to the future; a new three-year strategy will see them commission 18 Australian and six international artists to create 24 new works that play at the boundaries of choreography, visual arts, and film. The initiative comes complete with a great title — 24 Frames Per Second.