Tiny Stadiums

Overview

Forget the arena spectacular. The new frontier of public art is found in the dimension of the intimate, in those tiny stadiums behind our eyes where imagination and emotion achieve more than the most exorbitant budgets. For the next week you have the opportunity to experience such works by a new generation of artists in the village of Erskineville. Curated by Quarterbred and produced by PACT, Tiny Stadiums overtakes public and performance spaces throughout Erskineville with live, sound, visual and participatory projects.

Let's hover for a moment on that word "participatory". Long feared by audiences across the world, the concept of participation has shifted significantly for Tiny Stadiums. Rather than a forced exposure in front of your peers, this style of participation is about an invitation for the public to engage with the work on a tactile or task-based level. In this 2011 program, Tiny Stadiums will have audience members promoting shows with flyers, writing postcards to old friends, being awoken by industrial alarm clocks and competing with one another to achieve corporate success.

For those not wanting to do much more than watch, Tiny Stadiums also presents works that contain a sense of intimacy without actually touching your flesh. Nat Randall's solo piece, Cheer Up Kid, is a disarming encounter with three characters whose comic idiosyncrasies become tragic revelations of quite melancholic realities. Elsewhere, Bennett Miller (of Dachshund UN fame) has created a film designed to welcome and honour the ibis birds that decorate Sydney bins, parks and playgrounds.

Definitely stretch your imagination this week, and get active in rebooting your world with this third installment of Tiny Stadiums.