As the great warrior-poet Margaret Thatcher once said, "being powerful is like being a lady; if you have to say you are, you aren't," and so it goes with Cathy Hunt’s production of Judith: A Parting from the Body. This revisionist take on the biblical story of Judith — courtesy of British playwright Howard Barker — toys with the idea that seduction can play on the vulnerabilities of both parties. Where the Hebrew tale has the Jewish widow calculatingly ingratiate herself with the general of an invading army before ultimately beheading him, Barker's version inserts layers of romantic nuance. It’s no new tack to repaint Judith as a seductress; you could argue the role is implicit in the original story. (Judith murders the general Holofernes in his sleep.) But Barker extrapolates further: What if Judith falls for the man she plans to postcoitally behead? What if the Holofernes sees what is coming but is drawn to Judith regardless? And what is the emotional cost of investing in someone only to destroy them? These are all ripe scenarios, but Barker addresses them here with painfully turgid dialogue, which Hunt's direction and the small cast do little favour with a 'louder equals more dramatic!' reading. Which is a shame, as Judith's is an inherently visceral story, having piqued noted wild man Caravaggio’s interest, among others. But this production stretches too far for emotional heft, undercutting the story's existing impact by reaching too hard for more. All three characters — Holofernes (Benedict Samuel), Judith (Luisa Hastings Edge) and her servant and partner-in-crime (Anna Houston) — wax philosophical (and melodramatic) about sex in the shadow of death. But the three dance around the leads’ will-they-or-won’t-they courtship with all the emotional nuance of virginal teenagers ("I’m a killer, I know not looooove," etc), laying a poor foundation for the emotional notes the play eventually has to hit. To be fair, this doesn't completely sap the production's appeal. In a roundabout way, the characters' initial ineffectualness makes Holofernes' death all the more jarring. When the play leads where it inevitably has to, the sudden absence of one of the previously verbose characters tells. Likewise, the dynamics that follow between a shattered Judith and her more pragmatic servant are genuinely interesting. Judith's movement through shock and loss to something more cold-hearted is powerful stuff (though, again, overplayed). But these moments don't have the heft that a lighter touch would have afforded. When the preceding hour's performance hasn't rung true, it's difficult to muster the necessary shock when Judith cries over a bloody sack containing her would-be paramour's head.
SoundSchool is one of those concepts that seems simple enough but which actually has an incredibly complex and profound effect on the lives of the young people it has touched. In short, Oli Mistry, Jay Hemsworth and Jarrod Paul formed SoundSchool after Oli travelled to India and saw the interest and joy that his guitar, and music in general, sparked in the underprivileged kids he encountered in the streets. SoundSchool, formed in April 2010, aims to raise money to provide children around the world with the otherwise unlikely opportunity to learn and play music, thus bringing the uplifting gift of creative expression into their often challenging existence. Photographer Julian May was so inspired by the SoundSchool mission he jumped onboard as the official photographer to document the musical magic-making as it happened. In his first solo exhibition Julian presents his images spanning the first fundraising event for SoundSchool at the Beach Rd Hotel (rock-star pics all around) through to his beautiful images of the kids under the care of Salaam Baalak Trust in Delhi, India, getting the SoundSchool experience. The final piece in this jigsaw of the community-minded collaboration is the Camera Club — the setting for the Julian's visual representation of the SoundSchool journey so far. Located upstairs at the Beach Rd Hotel, this sweet gallery space (complete with bar and pizzeria) celebrates and promotes creativity and community by exhibiting photographic works around a particular theme each quarter. So at every level of its conception and execution, SoundSchool by Julian May is an exhibition about real people intervening in the lives of those less fortunate by offering creative opportunities to uplift and add richness and depth where they are truly needed. Much respect. Lend your support to the SoundSchool mission and get acquainted with the work of Julian May and the Camera Club concept from this Thursday. The exhibition is open every day and Thursday nights will feature a revolving schedule of music, food and additional photography activations.
While there are many that are bemoaning the loss of print media, there are those who are looking in the other direction, down that interesting little alleyway, where they can find a vast array of engaging, exciting and original magazines. Strangelove will add to that mix. A high grade, high class and most importantly, free print publication, Strangelove will look at books, music and film in a playful and fresh way. With its launch, Strangelove will be the first in a long line of creative collaborations with the Oxford Arts Factory — and what a spectacular launch they have planned. The night promises to combine "music, art, film, performance, design, literature, spoken word, written word, sound, sight, smell, touch, taste and type in a melange of introverted thought in an extroverted fashion," and who can really say no to that? If the venue itself and its history of excellent parties, as well as the exciting reason for this particular bash isn't quite enough to tip you over the edge, the line-up on the night includes: Ghoul, exclusive book reading by Dave Graney, Evil J + Saint Cecilia, Sands Through the Hourglass, the Jingle Jangle DJs, screenings of Seventh Seal and the Jack Shit + Robbie Buck Rare 78s Shellac Set. So adopt some Peter Sellers attitude and get your Strangelove on this Tuesday.
Here’s a secret: I really don’t like Little Red. Their constant allusion to the 1950s, their tight, infectious melodies, their clean, boyish charm — I find it irritating. Of course, the last time Little Red came on the radio, I turned that radio up and, confession of confessions, I tapped on the steering wheel. So what’s the lesson here? Little Red’s music is straightforward, accessible and ridiculously popular, but that’s only partly their fault, so chill out. Put down your boxed set of The Wire, stop lurking on the forums of Australia’s premier indie music site and ROCK IT (ironically, in your living room, if need be) because Little Red is touring in June and it’s going to be fun, fun, fun. For those who’ve not followed Little Red, because, like me, they spend too much time dancing with their intellect, the band has been overseas a lot lately. They have played everywhere from New York City to Papua New Guinea, with a whole bunch of summer festivals in between. Now they are returned, and I’m going to suggest you celebrate by going to see their show.
Entering the Australian Centre for Photography brings you face-to-face with a wall of photographs: Lee Grant’s Belco Pride exhibit set in Belconnen, a suburb on the outskirts of Canberra where Grant grew up. The direct, square-cut prints hold an echo of polaroid snaps taken on a Sunday afternoon, with a darker undertone. A mixture of revealing portraits and urban scenes, the exhibit is an honest, sometimes affectionate essay about place, landscape, pride and suburban Australia. The main show is Melbourne photographer Conor O’Brien’s first major survey exhibition. O’Brien’s aesthetic is intentionally muted and voyeuristic — the experience is like walking through the pages of a stranger’s family album. Meaning is obscured, stories are hidden. What I find most notable are the many photographs of women whose faces are obscured or have their backs are to the camera. In the only photo where a face can be seen, the subject has her eyes shuttered closed. These photos are strangely haunting; is the artist depicting his privilege? Can only he know the secrets of these women hidden from the camera? Why aren’t these women turned outwards? Why are they not a part of the conversation between the photographer and us, the voyeuristic viewer? Around the corner is Rebecca Dagnall’s wonderfully immersive There is unrest in the forest, there is trouble in the trees. Evoking an elemental Australian gothic, Dagnall’s huge photographs are thickly atmospheric creations of trees in a local park set amongst pooling darkness. By mirroring the images, or creating mirroring within the images, Dagnall produces a mystical set of creatures within the forest. Eyes stare. Spiders manifest. There are tigers, bats, horned goats. My companion declares, with a delicious twinkle in his eye, that he fully intends to return with a mate later in the week when they’ve both had a “puff of the trumpet”. Image: Rebecca Dagnall, There is unrest in the forest, there is trouble in the trees, 2011
One wall of the MOP gallery is given over to Alex Wisser’s collection of large-scale photographs, titled Blank Canvas. Both moving and hypnotic, the photographs depict the interiors of homes that have been lived in for more than 30 years, taken on the day of their sale by auction. Corners, doorways, frames, hallways, mirrors — all transform into eyes and mouths, opening and swallowing the viewer into these alternative lives. The viewer cannot help but be seduced into imagining the stories behind these rooms and homes. The photographs, beautifully framed and puckered with light, meditate on the ephemeral nature of the spaces we all choose to exist within and the affection that can be contained in simple objects. The photographs concertina past, present and future. The houses are spaces full of ghosts and longing. In the Brown Council’s Group Work, three names are written in chalk on three chalk boards. The viewer is invited into the memories of the artists who, each morning before the gallery opens, recall momentous events and influential people in their lives in relation to love, sex and death. These names or phrases are then written onto the blackboards and then written over, and over, and over. Dara Gill’s In Action, Inaction really grew on me over the time I spent in the gallery. It draws you in, as if you’re an actor just cast in a Jean Cocteau film. You are drawn into a world with shades of grey, piles of rubble, flashing signs and lists of conditions. The work is made up of three interactive areas that the viewer is invited into. The first holds two screens, which flash ‘NOW’ to indicate the four births that occur every second and the two deaths that occur every second. The main wall hosts an interactive survey on the notions of modern, urban anxiety, where you are asked to move a piece of rubble into a pile marked ‘YES’ or ‘NO’. The third wall is filled with identical, blank, Kafka-esque ‘To Do’ lists. I find it hard to disengage from the work and the ideas Gill creates. It’s simultaneously meditative and disturbing. As I leave a girl walks in and sits in the middle of the concrete floor, ‘NOW’ pulsing silently above her head. Image: Alex Wisser, Blank Canvas, 2011
Fresh from dazzling the crowds at Stereosonic, Pretty Lights bring their spectacular show to the Oxford Art Factory this week, giving you one more chance to see them before they head back to the States. Producer Derek Vincent Smith and drummer Adam Deith promise to deliver a performance that will not only showcase Smith’s mad production skills and Deith’s deft drumming, but will also take electronic performance to the next level, thanks to a fully immersive and spectacular light show. With a background in grunge and hip hop before discovering electronic music, Smith has carved his own niche fusing diverse elements together in a combination of intricately woven samples, digital production and synths. He performs live on stage with a drummer and an increasingly intricate light show. A soulful groove permeates most of his sound, but the mix is wide, ranging from beats and bass, funk and soul, to glitch and grime. The last two years have seen Pretty Lights make waves across the festival circuit in the US, where Smith has continued to push his live performances to the next level. His productions have also been gathering a steadily increasing number of followers, with downloads of his music jumping from just a few hundred a month to over 10,000. Oh, and did I mention he gives his music away for free? Well for a small donation anyway. This unique business model gives him creative freedom when using samples and allows him to maintain his artistic integrity, and to keep pushing the boundaries of electronic music.
The conditions and motivations under which we build buildings has a long and serpentine history. As we all know we have built, and build, for a choir of reasons; shelter and survival, history, pleasure, tourism and entertainment, the desire to reach an ideal (utopia), money, development, a growing population, lifestyle, symbolism...it's a list that seems unbounded by the highest of walls. Given that we've all been in buildings before, it's not being silly to say that we all possess an intimate and brilliant knowledge of architecture. This year's Sydney Architecture Festival takes a broad and varied look at architecture and our relationship to it, offering a collection of talks, tours, exhibitions and workshops for those wanting to explore and think about the built environment. Occurring over 10 days, some highlights include an exhibition of previously unseen Max Dupain photographs, an exhibition at the Goethe-Institut of the German Modernist Bruno Taut, Sydney architecture walks and tours, and the Expanded Architecture exhibition on show at Carriage Works. A little civilization of events will be held in venues throughout the city including Customs House, Tusculum, the Museum of Sydney, the State Library, Object Gallery, Government House Sydney and the Powerhouse Museum.
If you have not heard the name Pina Bausch yet, you will certainly know this dance visionary quite intimately by the end of the 2011 Spring Dance at the Sydney Opera House. Not only is Wim Wenders releasing a film dedicated to her (in 3D) this month, but Spring Dance is also hosting a trilogy of celebratory sessions in her honour. As well as showcasing the exquisite Belgian company Les Ballets C de la B's Out of Context - for Pina. Bausch's practice of dance theatre is a good touchstone for the majority of the works curated for this season. Returning to Australia for the first time in ten years, British company DV8 combine transcripts from interviews and documentary footage with their explosive dance style to create Can We Talk About This?, an exploration into the many faces of censorship. On a more intimate level is Ros Warby's Monumental, in which she single-footedly unpacks the ballet icons of the swan and the soldier. The theatrical is also very much in plain sight in Fevered Sleep's The Forest, which takes young audiences into the wooden in-between world that lies far beyond urban borders. Finally, playing for Australia is Chunky Move's I Like This, and their dance about a dance demonstrates the manner in which all of these more theatrical performances may have been choreographed. While there are many different styles and practices represented in this Spring Dance, it is clear that this season is a showcase of dance that has moved far from the constraints of tradition, but without losing any of the precision or skill required by the form. https://youtube.com/watch?v=05N_N5coYFI Image by Chris Van der Burght
Angela Lane’s work is Armageddon writ small. Her paintings capture a sense of impending doom and vast emptiness, even the ones that are less than 10cms across. By using the imagery of miniaturist landscapes from 15th and 16th century Netherlands, when the Dutch saw man’s failing relationship with God in the hardships of the Eighty Years War, Lane has transformed the antiquated concerns of medieval Europe into something startlingly modern. As the natural world seems to become less and less able to support the lives that we’ve built, the foreboding in Lane’s work seems not only spiritual but desperately practical. Where Dutch artists contrasted peaceful images of the infant Christ with ravaged battlefields and the toil of everyday life, it seemed as if to illustrate just what we were missing. Lane is even less forgiving, seeing our sins as against the landscape itself. The figures in her haunted world scrabble around naked, doom written in every brushstroke. The places they inhabit are not metaphors for loss, they are what has been lost. Waiting for the Fall shows us an uncertain future in lovely, disquieting glimpses. Image: Angela Lane
Water is life. No dispute. 71% of the Earth is covered by it. 85% of our bodies are composed of it. But as the ocean continues to rise and droughts pose greater and greater threats, our relationship with this semi-transparent liquid will undoubtedly change. Two photojournalists who are fascinated by the human relationship with water, and the labour, recreation and movements that happen in and around it, are Lisa Maree Williams and Tracey Nearmy. Flow situates these two award winning photographers together, exhibiting vibrant, colourful and honest photographs of a life lived by the sea. While the photographs are by no means overbearing or preachy, they make a subtle argument to our eyes as to why water is so appealing and so fundamentally precious.
Pouring performance, film and music into one licensed venue for a tiny three day festival seems like a recipe for either disaster or roaring success. Last year's inaugural Home Brew Festival, a bluesy riot of original theatre and boutique beer, was the latter. Given the pedigree, we have reason to be optimistic about its upcoming sequel. From this Thursday to Saturday, the Old Fitzroy Hotel and Theatre will hold the aptly named Home Brew Festival #2. The line-up boasts music from Cash Savage and the Last Drinks and Sleeve Merry, as well as performances from Tin Shed, Mel Matheson, Mime is Money, Time Spencer and award-winning playwright Caleb Lewis.
Drums are the world's oldest musical instrument, though they are constantly underappreciated. Their full awesomeness is only realised when they're laying down the rhythm for other instruments, and they're not allowed at band practice because you can't restrain their sonic power without using those lame pads. Your average stage set-up banishes the drums to the back corners of the stage and — being an instrument that requires hard physical work — they're usually teamed with the largest, hairiest, sweatiest member of the band. Sydney-based multi-creative Max Doyle is bringing drums out of the back corners of the stage in his latest project, aptly titled 'Drums'. Being a musician himself — Doyle fronts local drone-pop band Songs when he's not shooting Vogue covers, publishing Doingbird, making films or coaching girls' soccer — he's paying his dues to the ubiquitous percussion tool by documenting how a drum kit survives the thrashings and dripping man sweat of a gig. The drums kits in the photographs were taken while Doyle was on tour with Songs last year, each picture snapped moments before the band performed. The opening night of the exhibition also featured solo work by local drummers Nick Norton, Alex Gilles and Susie Patten, who kept partial nudity and excessive sweating to a gallery-friendly minimum. Image: The Workers Club Melb, Max Doyle, 2009
Canada, oh Canada, a land of wide plains, challenging mountains, great falls, eclectic cities, clashing cultures and comedians who are claimed by the US authorities; is it any wonder that this country deserves its own film festival? Punching a sixth notch in its moose leather belt, Possible Worlds hits Sydney this month with twenty features and five shorts spread amongst Dendy Opera Quays, the Factory Theatre and the Australian Museum. Given that Canada is a country that jumps from ocean to ocean, it's no surprise that the films on offer reveal many alternate views of the Great White North. By no means is the following a definitive list of the 'best' of the festival, but these are certainly films that have grabbed my attention. The Festivalists have cleverly chosen to open proceedings with a screening of Score: A Hockey Musical, which keeps no secrets in its title. Featuring Olivia Newton-John and gallons of youthful exuberance, Score cheekily doffs its helmet to one of Canada's biggest passions. Pontypool hikes festival-goers over to the infection horror genre, with an intelligent twist that involves a zombie-like virus spreading through language, while existentialism gives birth to the filmic riddle that is You Are Here. Taking a route amongst more down-to-earth matters are the documentaries Kinngait (about the Inuit arts capital) and Force of Nature, a film biography of David Suzuki. Broken Social Scene fans can dance away in This Movie is Broken, which tosses a romantic interlude amongst a BSS concert. Actually, it's quite hard to just choose a few films from the Possible Worlds line up - the Festivalists have themselves a program that will compel you to live in the cinema for two weeks.
Nestled in the seemingly peaceful, suburban atmosphere of Woolloomooloo is a installation work that evokes the tensions of history underlying this newly gentrified suburb, while pointing towards the possibility of an apocalyptic future. The installation is a site, frozen in time; a kind of archeological dig evidencing the last stand of humanity against the collapse of the world we now know. Located in a vacant lot roughly behind Artspace, reaching the installation takes a bit of detective work. The site is strangely eerie, barely marked as 'art', with its components open to the elements. It might perhaps be the last moment at the 'End of Time' and the only pitiful evidence of human existence. The title of this work draws on New World Order conspiracy theories and is a specific reference to a speech made by George W. Bush in 1990. While some reference points are more extreme, such as the survivalist movement, the main thrust of Michael Goldberg's work speaks to common environmental concerns, particularly global warming, and economic concerns, capitalist greed and the abuse of resources - concerns which have additional resonance in this place which has known such a troubled past. Image: Toward A New World Order, site installation view, 56-58 Nicholson Street, Woolloomooloo, Sydney, 2011
As with those who drop the 'F-bomb’ on radio, those who utter a different F-word — feminism — should still perhaps expect a few dismissals from those within earshot. But why is this so? Is 'feminism' really so dirty a word? To shed some light, this March the Sydney Opera House, as part of its Ideas At The House program, will play host to an afternoon of fierce and exciting debate about the state of feminism, featuring Germaine Greer and Naomi Wolf — two of the movement’s most audacious and influential avatars. While the spirit of the first wave shines-on, the focus of feminist critique has probably changed a little over the last decade. Sex and gender discrimination can be tougher to conceptualise when they crop-up in unfamiliar, newly global, locales. Consider Wolf’s observation of a few months back that the riot police involved in stymieing the US Occupy movement seemingly targeted women in their brutish crackdowns of last year. For feminists like Wolf and Greer, today’s feminist debate is as much about geopolitics as gender-politics. The day itself will see Greer and Wolf deliver separate lecture presentations, following which they will together be joined by a debate panel featuring international journalist/poet Eliza Griswold, SlutWalk Melbourne organiser Clem Bastow, and human rights activist Samah Hadid. Tickets to each of the lectures and to the final debate panel are sold separately, or together at a discount, so you may pick and choose what to attend according to your interest, or you may attend all three. If you’re at all interested in women’s rights, or in the insights offered by its champions, these three events present an uncommon opportunity to hear from those at the front, to speak your mind, and to nourish your political wits.
Guaranteed to darken the brightest of days (albeit in one of those achingly artistic, ‘wow, that was so clever, wasn’t it?’ type of ways), comes Martha Marcy May Marlene by Sean Durkin, a 29 year-old American who executed this directorial debut so courageously that it scored him Sundance’s Best Director award last year. Be warned: using the term dark is totally sugar-coating the shadows this film casts, which linger long (like days, in all seriousness) after the credits have rolled. Centered around a young woman who is returning to life after escaping a cult, the story offers a warts-and-all look into the fragility of the human psyche. Martha, played by girl-of-the-moment Elizabeth Olsen (a worthy tag given this alarmingly convincing first-time performance), struggles to adjust to the world her sister and British husband live in. She sees barely any sense in clothing and seeks comfort in their love-making, snuggling up beside the couple mid-going at it. But that’s really all we see of the world Martha is attempting to reconnect with. Everything else Durkin offers up is straight out of Martha’s mind: an utterly confused, helplessly empty universe. Her warped state of being is so brilliantly brought to life that viewers won’t know whether or not what they’re watching is real. And that’s the most terrifying part. Sure, the cult looks pretty freaky. We switch from the ‘real’ world to Martha’s memories of her cult buddies throughout the entire film. Those cult kids are full of slow head-tilts, vacant stares and unnecessary smirks, and they get up to plenty of weird mischief. But it’s Martha’s inability to separate her nightmares from reality that really put her in danger. And when our protagonist isn’t sure about anything, who on earth are we to rely on? Durkin’s masterful use of suspense deserves a nod from the Academy, for real. John Hawkes, who plays the cult’s leader, deserves props of the similar variety for his scary-as-shit blend of charming and terrorising. But most of all, the pairing of Olsen and Durkin just seems to click. Could we have here yet another muse-director relationships of cult appeal? Perhaps. But please, don’t use that word with me ever again.
A few years ago Miles O’Neil came across a box of old Super 8 home movies at a Melbourne garage sale. In his first solo show, opening at the Old Fitz, this found footage acts as the backdrop to a selection of songs, impersonations and stories taken from Miles’ life. Nostalgia, according to Mad Men’s Don Draper, is Greek for “the pain from an old wound” and this show captures that bittersweet feeling perfectly. Miles recounts and reenacts conversations he’s had with cabbies, couriers and mechanics about love, cars and the essentials of happiness (cheese is important, apparently) It’s an excellent show but a hard one to describe. It would be tempting to call it a “gentle comedy”, because the whir of the super 8 projector dictates it’s own steady pace and the comedy is inclusive and warm as opposed to cruel. But “gentle comedy” has come to mean code for boring or bad. It is also technically musical comedy, a term which is even more fraught with bad connotations. I would say that it is funny, beautifully written, heartfelt and masterful. When so many other comedians are drenched in irony it takes a certain type of tight rope walker to make a show this sincere and genuine without tipping over into being twee or embarrassingly earnest. It’s a comedy with a lot more depth than we’ve come to expect.
Sydney seems to have a bit of a soft spot for Texas. We tend to think a taco isn’t really Mexican unless it’s had a Tex-Mex melted cheese makeover, and there are apparently enough of us willing to cram into a 747 for 15 hours and 25 minutes to fly straight into the Lone Star state. We are also pretty obsessed with Texas band Okkervil River, but this probably has less to do with the fact that they’re from Texas and more to do with the fact that their music is lyrical genius. No, really, it is. Guitarist, vocalist and visionary pessimist Will Sheff has been commissioned to pen his thoughts for Dave Eggers’ publishing house McSweeney’s, the band got their name from a Russian short story written by Leo Tolstoy’s great-grand-niece, and their songs sound like short stories themselves. Short stories shrouded in a turbulent blend of country, folk and rock. Their latest album I Am Very Far is arguably the best example of the band’s music standing up to Sheff’s ambitious lyrics, and one of the best things to come out of Texas since Shiner Hefeweizen beer. Don't miss them at the Metro this Tuesday.
There is a rather abstruse but very distinct cultural 'thing' whereby at the opening of an art show one is, despite the drinking and chatting aspect, being some kind of extra-civilised above and beyond the being-at-a-bar-with-your-friends modality. But now Diana Smith (you may know her from Brown Council) has gone and ruined that a bit by creating a functioning Dart Game as an exhibition. She does, however, redeem herself by having the handpainted board reference hard-edge abstraction, so you the art thing comes somewhat back into effect. Tega Brain goes real-world-referential in her exhibition, too, by bringing domesticity (laundry) and environmental awareness (water conservation) into play in Coin-Operated Wetland. Ever wanted to do your laundry in an art gallery but been too shy about relational aesthetics to ask? Here's your chance! The third exhibition on show is Karla Dickens' Home is where the rabbits live. In her signature collage-based paintings and installation and video works made in collaboration with Nils Crompton, Dickens depicts the presence of rabbits and Rabbitohs in the Redfern of her childhood in a reflection on community and belonging and the ways in which spirituality can be approached.
Sydney Dance Company artistic director Rafael Bonachela has established himself as a leader in contemporary dance choreography, and this performance is a representation of that. The storyline of The Land of Yes and the Land of No captures how our chaotic world is so crowded with signs, directions and instructions on such a large scale that overwhelmed people miss all of them as they go about their lives. The beauty of the performance is that it clearly highlights that at different times everybody goes through the same feeling of isolation within a busy, crowded world, and though we may sometimes feel alienated, people will always come to our assistance. The particular collection of dancers from the SDC form a very attractive cohort indeed. Their attire may not be pointe shoes and tutus, but it's a perfect fit for the production regardless: bare feet and simple white outfits. Although all unique in styling, they were obviously linked to each other through a repeated use of fabric and pleating. This choice in wardrobe worked well for the performance, as it again highlighted the link between humans despite their differences. The large number of fluorescent light bulbs arranged on stage would not look out of place in a Daft Punk or Justice concert but add an interesting, youthful element to an otherwise plain stage. Throughout the show there's a level of anticipation to see how the light changes relate to the scene ahead, as they occur prior to dancers entering. The performance opens with a blackout, and then from the light bulbs, a single doorframe emerges. The first dancer on stage is a lone female whose solo to a quiet classical piece represents a struggle with living in this century. Shortly after, a male companion with the task of 'saving her' joins her on stage. There are clearly two different levels of choreography that Bonachela has created for the piece, as after the slow beginning, a larger number of lights are turned on, the music becomes more dominating and a larger cohort enters the stage. Throughout the show, these two levels continually alternate, but the sections where either all or the majority of dancers were on stage were my favourites; the choreography very cleverly highlights how everybody goes about their life doing the same activities without generally noticing each other. The Land of Yes and the Land of No is worth seeing, as it addresses some very current and universal themes about the way society is conducting itself and the detriment it is doing to humans. It's a lecture on humanity, in dance form.
The Story of Mary MacLane by Mary MacLane was first published in 1902 and was popularly received, selling 100,000 copies in the first month and launching the 19-year-old writer into the fame she so desired. Bojana Novakovic has adapted MacLane's writings into the play The Story of Mary MacLane by Herself, which arrives at Griffin Theatre via Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre under Tanya Goldberg's direction. Novakovic plays Mary as well as herself and is joined on stage by musicians Tim Rogers (who composed the music), Andrew Baylor and Mark Harris. We are introduced to this "wild woman of Butte" as a 19-year-old searching for "fame — ahem, happiness" and follow her to New York, where she encounters varying success both with publications and sexual partners. We leave her in her final hour after a shattering rejection by the Devil — a "fatter and shorter" gentleman caller than she'd expected. The story is presented as a farrago of song, dialogue and confessionals from both MacLane's and Novakovic's personal lives. The theatrical device of MacLane performing in a hammy vaudeville show somewhat against her will is amusing and allows for some humorous interludes; however, it confines the piece to a faux amateurism befitting of Rogers' rock-star acting but not of Novakovic's polished performance. Because of this, the piece never escapes its own subject; it cannot transcend the narcissism of MacLane and Novakovic to comment of the problem of selfhood in a narcissistic society. It seeks our attention more than it hands over insight. The production has humour and charm, the best song written about a potato this decade and is a welcome introduction to a fascinating yet popularly neglected writer, but MacLane's self-professed genius and the philosophy of her "own good peripatetic school" seem to have wandered off somewhere along the way. https://youtube.com/watch?v=4XQxLTrcStM
Now with twice as many allusions to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, it might be assumed that those running Sydney's White Rabbit– the huge and exquisite private art gallery reposing in a quiet-for-the-moment Chippendale nook—have a thing for Carroll’s fable. But nay, while White Rabbit is very likely to make one feel very small amid it’s four tall levels of ample art space, its library, teahouse, and theatrette, the gallery’s name actually comes from the idea that a good artwork can ‘leap out.’ And cause, as director Judith Neilson says, ‘serendipity and surprise’. After all, White Rabbit’s not about proto-trippy literature, but about showing striking contemporary art from the East, having been commissioned by the Nielson’s foundation in 2008 to bring to Sydney the best Chinese art produced this side of the millennial turn. With Down The Rabbit Hole, we are cajoled to take a light-trip to China via Taiwan, and then back again. Artist pair LuxuryLogico (not a high-end corporation of logicians, but a set of twin Taiwanese futurists) bear a penchant for repurposing old technologies to create high tech sculptural forms. For this exhibition they’ve put together Solar, which, comprising a couple hundred recycled lamps individually wired and programmed, turns on to create a spate of meaningfully coded, hallucinatory light patterns. The light show continues with Wu Chi-Tsung’s Wire, a sculptural sleight-of-hand made up of mesh wire fabric and a commonplace light projector. The ultimate effect of which is to bring about a shanshui type landscape that moves, breathes and flexes on the wall. At the more material end of the exhibition, Ashley’s Heart by photographer and multimedia artist Wu Daxin is a giant, cool (read: refrigerated) sculpture of that most vital of human organs, the heart. Daxin’s art practice revolves around a fascination with his own ability, living in China, to make large-scale art objects for a comparably miniature cost (and to make a living from them too). Elsewhere, Wu Jian’an’s landscapes offer a different kind of trance. Here, Jian'an's seemingly thick, swarming and jungle-like landscapes reveal themselves at a close distance as the painstaking layering of many finely-cut, multi-coloured paper cutouts. Lastly, in a huge piece, Michael Lin's Untitled Gathering (pictured) brings together 320 flat-top, wooden stools. Originally ungathered, they create a jigsaw-like patchwork upon which appears a super-scaled swatch from an ancient Chinese floral textile design. Down The Rabbit Hole is open from Thursday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm.
As an artist, Sydney-born Siouxzi Mernagh is uncommonly dexterous. Mernagh writes and performs poetry, she’s a photographer (polaroids are her specialty), an award-winning filmmaker (she's made eight short films, including most recently The Dangers and Exit), and a novelist, having already scrivened two novels, the latest of which is The Peep Show. Mernagh is also adroit in a more theoretical mode, having recently finished her fellowship at Berlin's Institute of Cultural Inquiry, where she produced her seventh film, and published a number of reviews on avante-garde, underground, and counter cinema. Mernagh's latest project, PEEP, is an art installation and a conceptual synthesis of her experimental film Exit and her book The Peep Show. And when one considers ALASKA Projects as the show's exhibition space — subaltern, cavernous, mysteriously hidden in the basement of a carpark — it strikes that the titles of Mernagh’s works function as shepherding metonyms for our total experience of seeing art, and specifically Mernagh’s installation, in this extraordinary site. Among its own various ‘exits’, for example, ALASKA surreptitiously offers a ‘peep show’ through which we may see the art world ‘outside’. Likewise, PEEP offers only a small, but strangely representative peek at Mernagh’s larger ouevre as a multidisciplinary artmaker. The first eight chapters of The Peep Show, for instance, are viewable in the form of pasted-up extracts around the carpark walls, but they remain only a glimpse of the larger story. Especially effective is the use to which Mernagh puts ALASKA’s stairwell, which now functions as a dark antechamber and as a direct earline to the subconscious. In this strange, liminal zone voices we might expect only ever to hear in our heads, while reading, become spookily real and resonant in a voice performance of Mernagh’s novel. All the same, we’re confused: stuck between floors and wedged between paragraphs, one can never quite be certain of one’s place within the narrative, let alone within the gallery. In the main room, meanwhile, amid a muddy mattress and some discarded clothes and furniture, different sequences of Exit (Mernagh’s filmic ode to life on a lost highway, and a love story between two nomadic young women) play all at once on a quadrant of screens. Profoundly cinematic, thoroughly underground, unsettling and dissociating, the overall effect of PEEP is original and beguiling. Alaska Projects opens 6-8pm Thursday & Friday nights, 1-6pm on weekends.
There's something I really love about an Aardman film: I get all nostalgic about the days of Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run, for one, but mostly it's that in each of their films or shows, there's always a point where suddenly you stop and think, "Holy fuck, they made that with plasticine." Despite the fact that these days they apparently use some more technical material, the hand-sculpted models in The Pirates! Band of Misfits never fail to impress with their detail and depth. The story follows the Pirate Captain and his titular misfit band of followers as they try to win the Pirate of the Year competition. In attempting to terrorise as many ships as possible to claim the best booty, the Pirate Captain instead stumbles across Charles Darwin, who encourages them to go about their win in a slightly different fashion. Voiced by Hugh Grant, David Tennant, Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson and Imelda Staunton, this is a fun film that manages to avoid the pitfalls of trying to offer wink-wink jokes to parents while simultaneously distracting kids with the pretty colours. The adventure is daring and crazy, the characters are loveable, and the more than 500 days of production effort that went into the film are more than enough to keep you giggling along in your seat. Extra points go to Staunton's Queen Victoria, who somewhat takes the niceties out of the traditional portrayal.
If someone says something is big in another country, chances are it’s because the rest of the world doesn’t really care for it — like how Celine Dion is big in Vegas, or how Brazilians like making sugary avocado smoothies. But Australia loves Kirin as much as Japan loves Ksubi, because cool clothing and delicious beer are two things that don’t have geographical boundaries. Something we don’t consume quite so frequently is modern Japanese expressionism, but that’s what Kirin and Ksubi are aiming to change. Cue the eclectic range of Japanese artists, performers and musicians coming to Australia to make this one cultural exchange you’ll really want to attend. Among them are Berlin-based Butoh dancer and choreographer Yuko Kaseki, indie rock duo and self proclaimed “masters of girl magic” Kiiiii!, electronic ‘Japanoise’ sound producer OVe-NaXx, and avant garde khoomei singer Fuyuki Yamakawa, who works with lightbulbs, yogic breath, antiquated medical equipment, modified musical instruments and the beat of his own heart. This party looks set to be even crazier than the fact that everyone’s invited, so get your RSVP in early.
Opening the show as the first temporary exhibition for the newly-refurbished MCA is an exhibition whose focus settles on the passing moments. Marking Time has assembled eleven artists from Australia and beyond whose work focuses on the ticking of the clock. In Daniel Crooks' Static No. 12 time gets stretched like a physical thing, from one side of the screen to the other. Its two moving images, of a man practising Tai Chi, see his movements ripple from past to future. Elisa Sighicelli's Untitled (The Party is Over) sucks fireworks back to the instant of their explosion and Lindy Lee's Conflagrations from the End of Time suspends burnt scrolls along the wall, their marks like little stars. As well as the art itself, the Museum is running a program of talks, screening Christian Marclay's epic the Clock and running Celestial Radio's entry in the Local Positioning Systems selection of performance art. Still from Static No. 12 (seek stillness in movement) by Daniel Crooks.
A mix of sculpture and video installation feature at Shoot from the Hip, Lauren Brincat’s first solo show at a private gallery. Southeasterlies to the Doldrums' full-size sail dominates the room, drooped from the ceiling to a low corner mounting. Fronds of magnetic cassette tape dangle from its underside, shaggy mushrooms under the sail's cavernous ceiling. On opposite sides of the room, coloured pyramids Your Move and Golden Stranger are perplexing to the eye. Made from three triangular beams of wood with their pointed edge outward and the colour inside, each seems to disappear inwards like feet rolling on their arches. Doldrums, meanwhile, hosts a pair of cymbals facing each other expectantly, like speaker cones waiting for a fresh head to come between them. Three pairs of video artworks sit along the far wall. Brincat has labelled each a “documentation of an action”, and in the exhibition’s accompanying essay, Tania Doropoulos describes their cyclical moments as having been “based in childhood memories.” Snare the Sea holds a drum by the lip of the sea, as surging waves roll in and bang it. In Dressing Down, a woman sits and stares into the middle distance. Behind her, someone slowly drags damp cotton whool over her eyes. Carciofo Arcimboldo films Brincat eating an artichoke, leaf by leaf, discarding its husks. She looks forward: pensive, concentrating. Wisps of Carravaggio seem to lurk in its folds and shadows, and the flattened profile suggests an oil painting. Steady as She Goes, the show's poster image, has Brincat walk past us into the distance, between green grass and pre-Raphaelite mist. The mist and grass form a swirl across the diagonal, the whole scene moodily invoking a lone moment in the country. For all of these video works, the narrow depth of field combined with the high resolution make them seem like flowing moments of painting, or still photography.
In the Seventies, when Jamaican music ran rife with reggae beats, an energetic new genre called dancehall began to make waves. As dancehall’s often controversial lyrics boomed from stereo systems across the nation, a new breed of dance and subsequent dance parties took shape. Most interestingly, vibrant advertising for the new culture began to turn people’s heads all over the world. Sydney artist Robin Clare, who was born in Jamaica, has based a new exhibition around the edgy Pop Art-inspired advertisements that helped shape Jamaica’s musical identity. A repetition of prints a la Andy Warhol style, blended with bold and wacky text (which makes reference to some of the out-there dancehall party promotional slogans) create eye-catching artworks, filled with added nostalgia. Modern day Jamaican advertisements for have also been incorporated into Clare’s multi-sized collections of prints. But no dancehall-inspired art exhibition would be complete without some wicked beats to accompany it. The Large, a London dancehall-inspired DJ will hit the decks during the night. She’s one part of the Hipsters Don’t Dance DJ collective as well as one of the editors behind the popular dancehall online zine, Shimmy Shimmy. Dancing shoes required.
Artist Kevina-jo Smith could be described as a little obsessive. Ribbon, twine, bottles, plastic bags: what other people throw, she collects. This collecting is driven by what in someone less creative might be an almost crippling environmental consciousness. Luckily, Smith is an inspiringly creative person so what for others would be trash becomes, in her hands, vivid treasures. Three Years of Everything is a literal title. Pieces of string and torn shopping bags are painstakingly reworked into abstract textural pieces. It's tempting to read these in a number of ways: as timelines, tracing stories in her past, or perhaps as sheltering forms, tents or blankets. But perhaps the best way to read these works is simply to sink into them. Through the woven loops, a fortunate viewer might even catch a glimpse of a more optimistic future. Penrith Regional Gallery feels like a particularly appropriate place for this work. Modernist architect Sydney Ancher's influence still resonates throughout. The gentle, low and open architecture of the rooms is at one with the surrounding environment, only a hop from the banks of the Nepean River. And it's telling that the gallery has grown from the home of two artists: intimacy and warmth still emanate from the walls. The garden is something that deserves comment in its own right, and I was disappointed to get only a vague impression of this on the launch evening. Only more reason for a return visit. Right now, actually, would be a good time to do so. The Pick, a program which features work from non-artists, is currently exhibiting drawings by Shayne Roberts. He is the gallery's Heritage Gardener, and his works are accompanied by brief histories of the Lewers, the aforementioned artists, and the site. In what was once the Lewers house is a joint exhibition from John Nicholson and Justin Trendall, two artists inspired - like the Lewers - by early Modernism. And the mixed exhibition, tellingly titled Hello Dollies, is both playful and surprising.
And we thought catching some of the country's finest cinematic works was reason enough to book tickets. In only its third year, the Australian Film Festival will offer Sydneysiders a chance to get their hands dirty in the world of film with a range of seminars, workshops and outdoor screenings. Across 11 days, Clovelly Beach will play venue to a Saturday night screening of Red Dog, starring Josh Lucas and Rachael Taylor, film editing and screenwriting classes will be held, a short film competition will be judged and a lineup of fabulous local films will be screened. And just to ensure there are no white spaces in the diary, Deborah Mailman and Barry Otto will be inducted into the Australian Walk of Fame and also receive plaques on the footpath outside Randwick's gorgeous old Ritz Cinema. Film wise, book now to see Swerve, featuring Emma Booth and Vince Colosimo; LBF (Living Between F***s), featuring Toby Schmitz and Gracie Otto; Burning Man, a story about an English chef working on Bondi Beach who tries to reconnect with his son; and more. We're also hanging out for the Australian Directors Guild's Directors Panel discussion, where the likes of Kerry Armstrong, Rowan Woods and more will talk shop for a couple of hours. Plenty to look forward to, really.
Though it’s stolen much international limelight, and not to mention that little Best Picture gong at last month’s Oscars, The Artist wasn’t the only stellar film to come out of France in 2011. Judging by the talent this year’s French Film Festival is boasting, there’s plenty more where that came from. In its 23rd annual showing and across four Sydney venues, Alliance Francaise will present another quality collection of cinematic experiences. Staged at Palace Norton Street and Paddington’s Palace Verona as well as the nearby Chauvel Cinema and Cremorne’s Orpheum Theatre, films such as the highly acclaimed Declaration Of War, which received a 15-minute standing ovation at Cannes last year, and Jane Birkin’s documentary Souvenirs of Serge are bound to attract crowds. Film lovers will be especially treated on the evening of Thursday, 15 March when Birkin herself will stage an in-person Q&A with her audience. An unbelievably hot ticket, though there’s a string of similarly impressive events outlined on the festival’s website. Other bound-to-be-popular films will include the two new Audrey Tautou flicks, Against The Wind and Delicacy, as well as the new provocative Juliette Binoche drama, Elles. As last year’s festival attracted about 100,000 people across the country, you’d best start reserving those seats now. To win one of ten Festival passes, just make sure you are subscribed to Concrete Playground then email your postal address through to hello@concreteplayground.com.au
The duo behind some of Sydney's fine-dining greats is trying its hand at something new this spring: pizza. Yep, Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt, whose restaurants include Barangaroo's seafood-focused Cirrus Dining, award-winning Bentley and wine bar Monopole, are putting down the tweezers and picking up a pizza peel for their latest culinary trick. Called Ria Pizza + Wine, the new restaurant is set to open inside Monopole's old Potts Point digs this spring. As announced earlier this winter, the eight-year-old wine bar is relocating to Hunter Street in the CBD in October and will serve its last meals on Macleay Street this September. But, the restaurant won't be empty for long. After a quick refresh, the space will reopen in November as Ria, which is set to be casual and fun, with crisp sourdough pizzas, snacks and small dishes. "Nick and I both love pizza and we have always joked about starting our own pizza place," Chef Savage said in a statement. "When we decided to relocate Monopole to the CBD, we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to launch the concept in Potts Point". Savage says the pizza won't be Italian or American in style, but "Australian". So, in true Savage style, expect plenty of local ingredients sourced direct from farmers and growers. Whether any pizzas will pay homage to the restaurant's predecessor is still up for debate — salt cod brandade or scallops and sweet corn atop pizza? I wouldn't say no — but, Monopole's greatest hits will be returning to the menu from Thursday, September 3 for a final run. Similarly, Hildebrandt's well-known wine ethos will also shine through at Ria — albeit on a significantly smaller scale. At the moment, Monopole has upwards of 500 bottles, whereas Ria's list is expected to be "short and considered". Find Ria Pizza + Wine at 71 Macleay Street, Potts Point from early November. Monopole will close in late September before reopening on Hunter Street in October. Top image: Monopole by Letícia Almeida.
If you're a New South Wales resident with a trip to South Australia in your future, this chaotic year might have just interrupted your plans. With a growing cluster of COVID-19 cases identified in the South Australian capital over the past few days, the NSW Government has advised the state's inhabitants to avoid going to SA for the time being if possible. Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, November 18, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said that "as a precaution, if you don't have to go there in the next few days, delay your travel." She also explained that NSW isn't shutting its border to SA, but is asking folks to be cautious. "The borders are completely open, but if it's not essential travel, think about if you want to go in the next few days." The travel advice marks a role reversal of sorts between the two states, with NSW residents restricted from entering SA for a period this year when it was experiencing its own spike of coronavirus cases — until the latter reopened its border to the former in late September. But if you're a Sydneysider dreaming of heading to SA for a wine-fuelled holiday anytime soon, you might want to rethink those plans. NSW might not have closed its borders to SA, but it joins a growing number of Australian states and territories that are being wary about the new cluster. Queensland has shut its borders to all local government areas in Adelaide, while Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory have also introduced new entry requirements for SA residents, or those who've visited the state. In WA and Tassie's case, both states had only just started reopening to folks from the rest of the country over the past few weeks. Victoria has also declared SA a hotspot, but isn't shutting its border. https://twitter.com/SAHealth/status/1328591909821046789 At the time of writing, based on the last figures announced by SA Health on Tuesday, November 17, South Australia has 34 active cases of COVID-19 — with 20 confirmed cases linked to the current cluster, and 14 other people suspected of being linked to the cluster but awaiting their test results. For more information about the status of COVID-19 in NSW, head to the NSW Health website.
It has been a long time between dances for Sydney. Outside of a brief two-week window when indoor dance floors of 50 people were allowed before being restricted again due to the northern beaches COVID-19 cluster, it's been over a year since dance floors were shut down in NSW. This Saturday, the drought will be broken, as 2000 people will be allowed to dance in The Domain as part of Summer in the Domain. Following the NSW Government's announcement that a slew of restrictions would be rolled-back from Monday, March 29, including any restrictions on dancing, Summer in the Domain has been granted a public health exemption and will be allowed to open up the dance floors a couple of days early and host Sydney's first major dancing-permitted music event in 12 months. The CBD concert series was first scheduled to take place between Thursday, March 18 and Sunday, March 21, however extreme weather conditions saw the final two nights delayed to the following weekend. As it stands, a trio of party-starters – Client Liaison, Confidence Man and Touch Sensitive – will all take to the stage on Saturday, March 27 and Vera Blue will take part in a special one-off performance alongside the Sydney Symphony Orchestra on Sunday, March 28. [caption id="attachment_804132" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ball Park Music at Summer in the Domain[/caption] Tickets for Summer in the Domain are purchased in pods of two, four or six where each group is given a private picnic table to sit at. This pod system will be kept this weekend in order to maintain social distancing between strangers, however dancing with your pod-mates around the picnic table will be permitted. Food trucks and a bar will also be on site so you can enjoy a meal between sets or a G&T during the show. Summer in the Domain will continue on Saturday, March 27 and Sunday, March 28. Tickets to both shows are still available via Moshtix and start at $82 per person. Images: Cole Bennetts
It was an ill-designed defence mechanism at the time of the first white settlers, then a pretty awful place for convicts. Now, one of Sydney's most historic harbour spots and recently a pretty fancy schmancy dining destination, Fort Denison has announced the return of its summer drinks and dining series, Sunday Sunsets. That's right, Sundays from now on? Fortress parties y'all. You'll be able to sail on out to Fort Denison Restaurant for Sunday afternoons of cocktails, food, nature walks and live music every Sunday from November 6 until the end of January 2017. Sides and mains for a two-course sit-down sunset dinner are included in the ticket, so prepare to load up on kingfish carpaccio, lamb short ribs with pomegranate and mint, crispy skin Humpty Doo Barramundi, roast Hunter Valley pork belly, Wagyu beef cheeks and Muscovy duck breasts. Chuck in a National Parks tour of the heritage site, as well as a little acid jazz and R&B from resident DJ and saxophonist Zak (a multitalented, multitasking dude is Zak), and you've got yourself a supremo Sydney date. There'll be water taxis from Circular Quay included in the ticket price, with the last service departing from CQ at 6.30pm — so you can make it a pretty long lazy Sunday. You'll have book though, to ensure your spot on the fortress, so check out the session times and prices on the website and lock in your spot. UPDATE NOVEMBER 18, 2016: Due to demand, Fort Denison are extending their Sunday Sunset Sessions to include four Fridays this year: November 18, and December 2, 9 and 16.
Anyone who's caught The Jezabels live can nod to a hoarse throat and an emotional upheaval at the close. One of Australia's best live outfits, the Sydney foursome sure pack a punch on stage, leaving festival crowds at St Jerome's Laneway Festival, Groovin the Moo and Big Day Out thoroughly uplifted and homeproud. After extensive UK touring and support slots for Depeche Mode and the Pixies, The Jezabels are back on home turf ready to blow minds at the Sydney Opera House for their 2014 headliner tour. Following the release of their colossally successful debut release Prisoner, The Jezabels spent two years on a furious touring escapade; leaving fans generally euphoric at over 200 shows worldwide. Gradually refining their epic live presence, the Sydney locals are a long way from their Manning Bar days — rounding out 2013 by opening for Depeche Mode and the Pixies through Ireland and the UK. The crew based themselves in London, hooked up with UK Producer Dan Grech-Marguerat (Radiohead, The Kooks, Lana Del Rey) and crafted their second album, The Brink, which debuted at #2 on the ARIA chart. No biggie. For their first headline dates for 2014, The Jezabels will fill every eave of the Sydney Opera House with Hayley Mary's supercharged vocals. And because she's got mad skills, keyboard player Heather Shannon will open the show playing the coveted Opera House grand organ, the largest tracker-action pipe organ in the world. That's how the 'bels roll. Tickets available from the Sydney Opera House Box Office or you can live stream the concert from home on Tuesday at 8:10PM [AEST]. https://youtube.com/watch?v=pQ3fAMOz-Ic
The team behind Bacon Brewfest, Wolli Creek's Discovery Markets and the Brewery Yard Markets at Central Park are bringing their new monthly food extravaganza to Sydney for the second time. Truckstop! Round #2 will take over the carpark of Rosebery's Saporium from 5pm on Friday, August 4. The evening will feature six of Sydney's best food trucks in a night of eats, drinks, live music and art. Food will include pizzas from Happy As Larry, fried chicken from Dirty Bird, yakitori and gyoza from Shiso Fine, tacos from The Nighthawk Diner, pork belly buns from Tsuru Food Truck and barbecue from Eat Art Truck. DJs will be providing beats while Work-Shop runs live street art demonstrations. If you fancy a Friday bevvy, Rosebery neighbours Frenchies will be providing the beers along with Batch Brewing. The carpark will be decorated with long communal tables, white marquees and fairy lights to create a cosy midweek market atmosphere.
Two top-notch Thai chefs are joining forces for Sydney's inaugural Taste of Thailand Food Festival. Taking place at Café Mix, within the Shangri-La Hotel in The Rocks, from April 20-29, this decadent event features a cornucopia of flavours, colours and textures from Northern Thailand. Think tropical fruit, freshwater fish, fragrant spices, lush herbs and chefs who aren't afraid to experiment. One such chef is Pawitra In-Eya, who hails from Shangri-La Hotel, Chiang Mai. The hotel group is flying the talented chef here specifically for the festival, to work alongside Aum, head chef at Darlinghurst's Moon, who's known for blending traditional Thai cooking with fine dining techniques. Together, the chefs will create an epic buffet. Just some of the dishes to look out for are beef cheek khao soi , 72-hour braised ribs with tamarind glaze, steamed sea bass with chilli-lime sauce (pla neung manao) and black lip mussels in a spiced coconut broth. After sampling these savoury delights, head to the dessert station. Here, you'll find everything from mango sticky rice to tab tim krob — a traditional Thai dessert made from water chestnuts and sweetened coconut milk — and desserts by pastry chef Anna Polyviou. The Taste of Thailand buffet is open for dinner every night from 6pm to 9.30pm and for lunch on weekends from midday till 2.30pm. Usually it'll set you back $65 (for all-you-can-eat, mind you) but if you head in for dinner on a Friday or Saturday night it'll cost $85 — because you'll have access to the hotel's decadent seafood buffet, with fresh oysters, crab, lobster and much, much more. To make a booking, head here. The festival is presented in partnership with the Tourism Authority of Thailand and Thai Airways International.
Sometimes, it isn't just enough to watch your favourite TV show. You want to live and breathe it, feel like you're stepping into it, and obsess over it any way that you can. For Yellowstone fans, that can now include hitting up a pop-up Dutton Ranch-themed bar — for three days only, to celebrate the Kevin Costner-starring western series' return for season five. Your IRL destination: Surly's American Tavern. Your mental destination: Montana, where Yellowstone's dramas play out. This pop-up by Australian streaming service Stan — which airs the show here — is all about immersing you in a Dutton-style hoedown, complete with different reasons to drop by on each day. Head along on Friday, November 18 for ropin' and bull ridin' all day long, as well as $15 wings and tinnies combos. That'll add a yeehaw to after-work festivities — cowboy hat and boots optional. Then, on Saturday, November 19 you'll be able to listen to live music from honky-tonk acts Amber Rose and James Ellis and The Jealous Guys from 6pm. There's a new $15 deal as well, pairing brisket and beer. Wrapping things up, the Sunday, November 20 agenda serves up burgers and bourbon for your $15, and also includes Yellowstone-themed trivia from 4–6pm. Images: @jadedamico.
Staring at art is easy. Getting into collecting it doesn't always prove the case, however. You might have bare walls and empty shelves positively screaming to be filled, but you also may not know where to start. Our suggestion: Carriageworks' Cut N Polish: Artist Car Boot Sale, which is exactly what it sounds like. Actually, it's even better, because it's bringing together a whopping 90-plus Greater Sydney artists to sell their works directly to the public. From 11am–5pm on Sunday, May 1 at Carriageworks' Blacksmiths' Workshop, no one will be standing in the middle of you and these supremely talented folks — and no one will be taking commission and reducing the funds that'd otherwise go to the artists, either. You'll also get to meet fabulous creatives, chat to them about their work and hear their stories while you're supporting their practices via a cash-and-carry setup. The brainchild of Consuelo Cavaniglia, Jonny Niesche and Brendan Van Hek, Cut N Polish will feature emerging and established artists alike — such as Emma Maye Gibson (aka Betty Grumble), Tully Arnot, Will Cooke and Izabela Pluta, as well as artist collective Dirt Witches (who you might know from their Romance Was Born and Tom Polo collabs). Entry is free, and prices will start from $50 — with everything from art, ceramics, prints and sculptures to clothes, art books and plants on offer. And, because all that browsing and buying is hungry and thirsty work, Sonoma, Bar Pho and more will be on food and drink duty. Top image: Toby Peet.
God of Carnage begins with two sets of parents sitting down in a modern Parisian apartment to discuss a fight that occurred between their children. What starts out as quite civilized, rapidly descends into a maelstrom of tears, name-calling and fist-fights. The play seems to have a bit of an identity crisis. It’s weighty sounding title and some of the subject matter suggests that it’s a serious examination into the violence and barbarism that lies beneath the thin veneer of civility. It’s not.What it is, is a very well realised comedy of manners for yuppies, backed by an impressive ensemble cast including acclaimed actors Sascha Horler and Russel Dykstra, as well as E-Street heart-throb, Marcus Graham. All the performances are top notch but the standout is relative unknown Helen Thomson who steals the show as an uptight businesswoman. Over the course of the play she tears the apartment apart and releases the most gratuitous arc of fake theatre vomit you will ever see. God of Carnage is a tightly executed, bawdy night out and an excellent excuse to see some great actors tearing up the scenery. Literally.
The pairings for this year's Redlands Konica Minolta Prize have just been announced, giving you a glimpse into the future of Australian art. For those unfamiliar, this unique annual award couples together emerging and established artists to produce new works. In its 18th year, the prize is as important as ever in building and reflecting on some of the best artistic practices that have burst forth in recent years. Aimed at fostering mentoring relationships between different generations of visual artists, previous participants have included the likes of Ben Quilty, Tim Storrier and Julie Rrap. This year's prize will be curated by the highly regarded painter, Tim Johnson. Among the participating established artists are Reg Mombassa, whose iconic imagery has infiltrated Australian culture over the past 30 years, and Simryn Gill, who has previously represented Australia at the prestigious Venice Biennale. This collaborative and cutting-edge exhibition will showcase a variety of media, from painting, sculpture and drawing, through to photography and new media. Spanning a whopping six decades of artistic talent, the works will be judged on April 10, and exhibited at the National Art School Gallery from April 11.
