blackmarket - pvi collective

Overview

We're living on borrowed time. If it's not the climate that wipes humans out, it'll be our over-inflated desire for financial growth. Given that almost every nation in the world runs on a bloated economy of debt and speculative trading — the prayers of a banker religion — imagine the horror when it all falls apart. How is life, both the barest form of it, not to mention the healthy quality of it, able to flourish in the dusty aftermath?

This is the question asked by Perth's tactical media art renegades pvi collective in their new work, blackmarket, presented by Performance Space, which premieres in May at Alaska Projects. Audiences are invited to a future version of Kings Cross, a postcode scorched by riots and the eating of the rich, where a grassroots, underground economy has sprung up based on ancient traditions of barter and gifts. It seems a bleak setting, but there is scope for great humanity in this raw marketplace.

Playing the role of post-apocalyptic survivors, known as “hustlers”, audiences arrive at the blackmarket with objects to trade in order to flourish. It may not require dollars, but some sense will help hustlers go far, so we spoke with pvi collective's Kelli McCluskey for her advice on how to thrive in a world after the banks come crashing down.