Enjoy an afternoon with 4 artists living or working in regional Australia…
DIRt is an ongoing project with artists practicing in regional Australia. In the first DIRt (January 2017) Rosalind Crisp invited six artists to Orbost, Victoria – one of the most pillaged eco-systems in Australia. Artists had field trips and talks from the local Aboriginal Council and local ecologists, exploring sites of environmental, social and economic degradation caused by years of logging and the damning of rivers. These field trips were folded into the daily dancing, filming, performing, writing and conversing.
In the second DIRt to be held at Critical Path, four of these artists will continue to share practice and explore similar issues.
Beyond representation and mimicry how can dance develop a form that enacts, not just radical politics, but radical dance? How do we develop a process and language for dance that seeks to explore, embody, understand and connect to unfolding environmental devastation? And how is this relevant to people in all places from all walks of life?
The afternoon will consist of:
* Sharing of outcomes from a week’s development at Critical Path
* Conversations with Rosalind Crisp & Peter Fraser on their individual practices
* Shadows and Consequences – multi disciplinary artist Vic McEwan will discuss his experience with the DIRt project and how it relates to his ongoing body of work under the title Shadows and Consequences. By sharing process of three projects Haunting, Shadow Places and Specimen, Vic will explore how arts practice can be an essential element to explore the ‘hyperseparation’ that is at the heart of a lot of current social and ecological crisis.
* Facilitation Andrew Morrish
Reserve your place: email [email protected]
Rosalind Crisp is one of Australia’s most established dance artists, founder of Omeo Dance studio Sydney, choreographic associate of Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson, honorary fellow of the University of Melbourne-VCA and Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres (Dame of the Arts – France). Over thirty years she has developed a radical physical critique of dance, her current work is concerned with dance’s capacity to enact change in this time of extinctions. www.omeodance.com
Vic McEwan is the Artistic Director of The Cad Factory, an artist led organisation creating an international program of new, immersive and experimental work guided by authentic exchange, ethical principles, people and place. Working with sound, video, installation and performance, he is interested in creating new dynamics by working with diverse partners and exploring difficult themes within the lived experience of communities and localities. Vic was the 2015 Artist in Residence at the National Museum of Australia and the recipient of the Inaugural Arts NSW Regional Fellowship 2014/16.
Peter Fraser’s performance investigates the body as ecology. Work with De Quincey Co Ensemble since 1992 includes extended desert and other site-specific work and Metadata, 2016. Other recent work includes co-director/performer, Melbourne 47, (47 site-specific performances) Environmental Performance Authority, 2016; Sounds like movement, exploring sound/movement/materials, FOLA, 2014; Compress/Decompress, eXchange, Taipei Arts Festival, 2015
Andrew Morrish started improvising with Al Wunder’s Theatre of the Ordinary in Melbourne in 1982. From 1987 to 1999, he was half of the duo “Trotman & Morrish” performing throughout Australia and in the USA. Andrew is recognised as a senior figure in the improvisation communities in Australia and Europe. He is currently a recipient of the Australia Council Dance Fellowship. www.andrewmorrish.com
Photo: Rosalind Crisp