Sunday Arts Magazine

24 Jan 2016

Melb.Opera, Exit Ceremonies, Koorie Heritage Trust, AEON Art Walk

Arts, Comedy, Music, Performing Arts, Social Sciences, TV & Film, Visual Arts

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Our trio are all in and start off by talking about MONA ( Museum of Old and New Art) in Tasmania. Then straight into film with Daniel and Brendan discussing The Danish Girl. Both thought it was excellent and deserved more accolades than it got. Beautifully acted, directed and shot with evocative music and giving equal weight to the emotional turmoil of both the transgender husband and his wife 5.0 and 4.5 stars respectively. Music today showcases Australian artists as it’s nearly Australia Day.

Our trio later talk about the film Looking For Grace written and directed by Sue Brooks of Japanese Story fame. David interviewed her on Friday Drive. The movie was filmed in WA and beautifully showcases the Australian scenery. Brendan predicts the young actress playing the daughter will be a breakout star this year. He and Daniel also discuss the star Radha Mitchell. They enjoyed the film but consider it a bit light-on but David added that it is getting a lot of interest at the big film festivals. 3 stars

Special guests today are:

11:13 to 30:55 mins—Christopher Lincoln Bogg is from Melbourne Opera. He initially talks about his background—singing in choirs, doing theatre, studying music at the VCA developing his unusual high-tenor voice as well as connecting with the drama and dance schools. He chats about a fellow alumni Bernadette Robinson. After VCA, Chris sung in various operatic companies, and later won a German operatic prize which took him to Cologne. He guested at the Dresden Staatsoper which is a ‘big deal’ as he interacted with many famous singers. He details his experience there and the European Opera experience overall and the problem of staying connected with Australia. Also, the importance of immersing himself in time and place and emotional expression when singing. He’s back in Australia with Melbourne Opera starring in Mozart’s comic opera The Abduction from the Seraglio at the Athenaeum Theatre on the following dates—3, 5 and 9 February at 7:30pm. It will be sung in English and Chris considers it very listenable and it has virtuosic music, dialogue instead of recitative and sight gags. It’s not hugely different from a theatre musical. Chris sees opera in general as on the continuum of Musical theatre using vocal expression to highlight the emotional side of things. Chris likes variety and his next project will be Wagner’s The Ring. He also teaches now and loves it.

32:10 to 46:11 mins—Joe Talia is a multifaceted musician who is here to talk about the show Exit Ceremonies on 6 February performing with the Australian Art Orchestra at the Melbourne Town Hall. He was originally a jazz drummer—he studied jazz at VCA and spent a while playing in the jazz scene in Melbourne. Later he looked at avant-garde electronic music and 20th century classical music–being interested in abstract, textural things. He considers the ‘drum-kit’ can offer these; it’s more than a timekeeping, beat producing instrument. The 3 commissioned pieces for the pipe organ at the town hall use a combination of jazz, classical and experimental electronic musicians—a small ensemble of about 9 people. The pipe organ is the centre piece and has been modified with hoses etc to change pitch and create microtones. Joe was asked to be part of the project because he could play both traditional jazz drums and also electronic music. What’s next for Joe?—He’s composing a solo drum piece and intends to record it. Listeners will hear the drum-kit in a way they’re not used to. Joe talks about his idols, the Art Orchestra, Paul Grabowsky and the composers.

52:30 to 1:11:22 mins—Tom Mosby is CEO of The Koorie Heritage Trust. Tom’s background involves working as an art restorer in in W.Australia and NGV, then training and working in law, going onto Masterchef and next, heading up the Indigenous Engagement program in Qld which included many projects such as Creative Writing in fiction. One of the Writers who won a prize is now heading up a Victorian Indigenous Writing Festival for Melbourne launching on 21 February at the Wheeler Centre. Then Tom came back to Melbourne in 2012 with his partner Tony and was offered the CEO position at The Koorie Heritage Trust. It has the only collection of Victorian aboriginal art and artefacts; collected since 1985. It’s a different style of art from the North. It’s more graphic and no dots are used. The Trust also works with artists to develop their style, revisiting old traditional Victorian styles. Many Victorians don’t think there is an aboriginal community in Melbourne or regional areas. The Trust is about promoting, supporting and celebrating Aboriginal Victoria. They have a partnership with NGV and ACMI and are now located at Fed Square, having moved from ‘the fringe’ on King St. They plan to work with the NGV to showcase more of the Victorian art in their Australia-wide collection. The Gallery is the ground floor and first floor of the Yarra Building opposite ACMI at Fed Square open every day from 10am to 5pm. The focus is on the contemporary part of the collection. They also do walking tours and keep in touch with their community through their Facebook page.

1:11:36 to 1:32:31 mins—Liz Dunn is a performance artist with a difference here to talk about her new walking project called AEON. She trained in interior architecture in Qld and then diverged into videos and performative art. She moved to Melbourne to be part of the Next Wave Festival and also joined Aphids, a contemporary Arts Co. In that festival she made her first big performative project called Flyway which is different from a theatre performance. Liz explains this difference from her perspective, saying it’s important for patrons to feel they’re part of something that’s unfolding together live. When doing Flyway, she became interested in migratory birds and made a walking project involving 12 urban people to give them the experience of nature and how it relates to them in cities. Cities generally have pigeons, gulls and sparrow but people are usually not aware of these other migratory birds around them, some who travel huge distances. Flyway was a success overseas and somehow led to Liz being involved in experimental operas in Europe! She will be continuing the Flyway work in April but can’t give specific info yet. Liz’s new project AEON has the same team of artists from Flyway but it expands on the idea. It brings together her interests such as birds and queer ecology—which is understanding ourselves in relation to the world we live in. It uses birds as a lens to look at issues e.g. Why are some things seen as natural or unnatural? What are reasons for this? It’s still a work in progress but there are 2 walks coming up—28 January 6.30 to 8.30pm and 30 January 2.00 to 4.00pm. Info can be found looking up AEON on Facebook.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:24:26 — 38.7MB)

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