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May 2018
Next Wave Festival: On the Border of Things Pt. II
An artist and a fruit picker take o on a road trip. They’re blood, but not close. Similar, yet with very different ideas about life. As they hit the road, you’re invited along for the ride. Presented in three parts across three separate locations, On the Border of Things sees artist James Nguyen share a drive with his uncle, Ai – himself an artist who makes a living by picking fruit in regional Australia. Like James’ parents, Ai attempted to flee Vietnam back in the eighties. But in contrast, free-spirited Uncle Ai isn’t interested in this idea of being the “good new Australian” as they are. Viewed from the driver’s seat of an old ute, the documentary is a playful and refreshingly candid take on the classic road trip trope. 4 May: Abbotsford Convent 10am – 4pm 5 May: Abbotsford Convent 9am – 3pm 6 May: Abbotsford Convent 10am –…
Find out more »Next Wave Festival: Deep Water Dream Girl
Devotion, attachment and an unrelenting wet permeate Athena Thebus’ exhibition of video, sculpture and sound. The camera follows two cousins as they negotiate their separate but intertwining passages and mythologies. Although distinct from one another, each is deeply influenced by their Filipina mother. Moods shift tidally, a sleepy volcano awakens. Channelling Sappho through fragments of punished desire and pride, the Sydney-based sculptor and lm-maker brings together her blood and “chosen” family to traverse notions of queerness, Catholicism, and Filipina femininity. Ricardo Morales-Arevalo appears as talent and muse, while club music producer Marcus Whale (Black Vanilla, Collarbones) and Jess Lavelle (Jikuroux) collaborate on the original score. Deep Water Dream Girl opens May 4, and is showing May 5th-20th Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10am-6pm, with a B-Sides Party on May 19th 5-11pm. This is a free screening. Secure your tickets here.
Find out more »Next Wave Festival: Baby Cake
Two performers, one baby. One life, one choice. Your hosts, Kerensa and Yuhui, are both women of childbearing age. One is a mother. The other is not. Both are acutely aware this single decision has the power to alter the course of one’s entire life. This compelling live performance slips between the autobiographical and the absurd, the banal and the surreal, the conversational and the theatrical. Amidst chaos and control, restraint and rebellion, a baby watches the performance unfold from his throne. Drawing on their interest in domestic ritual, Diball and Ng-Rodriguez invite you in and offer morsels to share. Partake in their candid response to the pressures of being a good woman, a bad mother, becoming our mothers and what it means to have children. Or not. As a part of Next Wave Festival, Baby Cake runs from 9-13 May, Wednesday to Saturday at 6.30pm, and a relaxed performance on Sunday…
Find out more »Yang Yongliang: Exhibition
Sullivan+Strumpf Sydney is delighted to present the first solo exhibition in Sydney by celebrated Chinese new media artist Yang Yongliang. Yang Yongliang (born in 1980, Shanghai, China) exploits a connection between traditional Chinese art and the complexities of contemporary urban life, conflating ancient oriental aesthetics and literati beliefs with modern language and digital techniques. Born in Shanghai where he now lives and works, Yang Yongliang was schooled from early childhood in the art of traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy, graduating from China Academy of Art, Shanghai in 2003, majoring in Visual Communication. His groundbreaking use of new media including virtual reality and multi-channel video–included in numerous international museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum in New York–is informed by Chinese Philosophy and his early training in the inherited traditions of Song Dynasty landscape painting.
Find out more »Loops and Knots: Weaving Workshop with Hannah Gutchen
Date: 19 May 2018 Time: 11:00AM-4:00PM Cost: This is a free event. Loops and Knots is a series of four free weaving workshops for young people aged 15-18 years, led by artists from Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Pacific cultural backgrounds. In each workshop, students are taught techniques over the course of the day and are guided to produce a woven object. Limited places are available for these free workshops. Some travel subsidies are available for students’ transport to and from the workshop through an application process. To register your interest and for more information please contact [email protected]. At the end of the series of workshops, participants are invited to return to the IMA with their families to present their work and share cultural traditions in a public community celebration. About this Workshop: This workshop, led by Hannah Gutchen, explores Torres Strait Islander weaving techniques, focusing on put weaving. In Torres Strait Islander dance and…
Find out more »June 2018
IMA: First Thursdays, Naomi Blacklock
Ocean Between Us You’re invited to an evening of meditative breath work led by artist Naomi Blacklock and her mother Charlie Blacklock. Take part in participatory meditation and ritualised body practice, blending the yoga practice of Charlie with Naomi’s sound practice. Both use breathing techniques as a method of grounding and as an expression of agency and sovereignty. Perform Ujjayi or ‘wave of breath’: a breathing technique that involves locating the sound of the upward movement and release of the breath from the body. Afterwards, enjoy ayurvedic biscuits and tea made by Charlie and Naomi’s family members. By bringing the practice of yoga and meditation into the gallery, artist Naomi Blacklock opens up conversations around how these practices have been appropriated in the West as part of a broader discussion of colonisation. The Blacklocks will share their perspectives on navigating these issues within the dynamics of their own family, and in their respective cultural…
Find out more »Before After 以前丶以後
Everything exists in continuity. Before After 以前丶以後 by artist Nikki Lam is part visual memoir, part investigation of our connections to place through gestures. Through the process of collecting, learning and re-performing gestures, new meanings are added through adaptation. Like dreams of the past living through veins and imaginations, what was inherited, what was left, was muscle memories and a cluster of dislocated hopes never to be fulfilled. This is an attempt to portray the remembering of a migrated history. OPENING: Thursday 14 June, 6pm – 8pm EXHIBITION: 15 June – 28 July ARTIST TALK: Saturday 28 July, 3pm – 4pm VENUE: Roslyn Smorgon Gallery COST: Free
Find out more »Masterclass: The Boring Bits – EWF
We’ve brought together professional writers and industry insiders to make all the boring bits fun, taking the hard work out of the grunt work in sustaining a writing career. This masterclass will provide all the useful, practical information you need to know to be able to do what you love, pay the bills, and avoid burnout. 10am Navigating the Freelance Jungle It’s hard out there for a freelancer. How do you maintain a steady income and a healthy wage from your work? How do you balance commercial gigs with creative freedom? From pitching to publications to negotiating with editors, hear from these freelancing pros as they share their tips, tricks and tools of the trade. With Lindy Alexander, Matilda Dixon-Smith and Neha Kale 11am Tax, Income And Money How do you establish yourself as a business? What can you claim on tax? Do you need an arts accountant? From setting up invoices and…
Find out more »Amazing Babes – EWF
The fifth iteration of our festival favourite, a celebration of the babes that make our lives better. This year, we’re making a new venue home, and filling the Northcote Town Hall with wonderful women of writing, performing odes to the babes in their lives that inspire and uplift them. Includes the announcement of the Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction. With Idil Ali, Leah Avene, Kate ten Buuren, Simona Castricum, Shastra Deo, Eugenia Flynn, Soreti Kadir and Manal Younus. Hosted by Namila Benson
Find out more »Reading the Suburbs -EWF
Milk bars, fast cars, the Maccas run, shopping trolleys up the creek, tags and plastic bags, skate parks, ovals, summer sun, slow trains, even slower buses, the walk to school and Aussie Rules, your church, your mosque, your temple, your shopping centre. Readings and performances about the ‘burbs, held in a local backyard. With Eleanor Jackson, Lian Low, CB Mako, Omar Sakr and Sumudu Samarawickrama.Hosted by Khalid Warsame
Find out more »Imaginary Homelands – EWF
“I am a turtle, wherever I go, I carry ‘home’ on my back.” – Gloria Anzaldua. Seven artists reflect on the poetics and politics of place-making. In the second half we invite you onto the stage. Come prepared or improvise —in any genre or style — and tell us: what does home mean to you? With Rhea Bhagat, Kat Clarke, Mindy Gill, Marjon Mossammaparast, Sharifa Tartoussi and Manal Younus. Hosted by Natalie Kon-Yu Presented in partnership with Victoria University
Find out more »Public Conversation: Making Asian Art Public/s
How are contemporary Asian artists and curators of Asian art working in new ways to make art matter to, and resonate with, society today? Join us for a public conversation inviting diverse perspectives on art and its public significance in rapidly changing cultural contexts in contemporary Asia. Public Conversation: Friday 29 June 2018, 1–2.30pm, followed by light refreshments Free, all welcome. Please RSVP by 21 June: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScWLlyJGMDCEBLl0bvUNmWHQ6GCUmsJ9vZFGKalLvNFMzqpIQ/viewform
Find out more »July 2018
TAHA
Palestinian writer-performer Amer Hlehel tells the story of the great poet Taha Muhammed Ali, whose beloved verses document the compelling and heartbreaking experiences of Palestinian refugees with hope and optimism. Based on Adina Hoffman's book My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness, Hlehel skilfully interweaves Taha’s exquisite poetry with his compelling life journey – a journey that sees a humble, engaging man evolve into a renowned Palestinian writer against all the odds. With no props other than a bench and a briefcase, Hlehel delivers a deeply affecting, tour-de-force solo performance. TAHA received critical acclaim in London, Edinburgh and Adelaide festivals and continues to tour internationally. Performed in English. Audience members are invited to stay for a post show Q&A with Amer Hlehel following the performance on Wednesday 11 July.
Find out more »A Twist in the Tale with Mirandi Riwoe
Join The Stella Prize-shortlisted author Mirandi Riwoe for a fascinating workshop on how to incorporate reimagination and adaptation into your writing. Find new creative inspiration through transforming or responding to existing narratives, genres, research and lives.
Find out more »Web Series FRESH!
Web series FRESH! springs from an exciting crop of new Aussie filmmakers, paying homage to market life with one of the most culturally diverse ensembles in Australian storytelling history. After its theatrical premiere at the Melbourne edition of Series Mania, lauded by Variety as a festival that “is to TV drama what the Cannes Film Festival is to film,” the short-form series launches online today, with all six episodes available on YouTube. From creator and writer/producer Nikki Tran and producer Simon Trevorrow, FRESH! is a warm and satirical workplace dramedy that takes us into the joys and pitfalls of multi-culturalism against the backdrop of a Melbourne fresh food market. Set in a world where businesses are still family-run and bargains are bellowed in at least three different languages, the series brings into focus observations on race, workplace politics and family dynamics. FRESH! was filmed at local markets operating across Melbourne,…
Find out more »August 2018
Red Dirt Poetry Festival 2018 — Alice Springs
Welcome to the Red Dirt Poetry Festival for 2018. RDPF is a four day celebration of poetry and spoken word in the heart of Australia. Built on the back of the success of The Dirty Word and Central Australia’s long and rich love affair with poetry, Red Dirt Poetry Festival brings together poets and spoken word artists from all over Australia and overseas. With a range of diverse writers and artists of spoken words, the RDPF provides an opportunity for the artists to explore the notion of constraint, the physical, mental, emotional and socio-political ideas of being contained and the resistance, defiance, acceptance and strength they find in it. You are welcome to this magnificent festival. Bring your poems and your passions, be the fire, digest the confusion, join this world. Tickets available. Pay at the event.
Find out more »Bendigo Writers Festival
With more than 100 events, Bendigo Writers Festival is a big event for a small city, and we are delighted to provide a wide range of ticket options . A Festival pass gives access to almost all the day events running simultaneously across Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There are ticketed events in Ulumbarra Theatre and Strategem Studio at Ulumbarra, as well as a couple of special events in and around the city. Chk out the full program: here:https://www.bendigowritersfestival.com.au/2018program
Find out more »The Slow Canoe Live Journal — Winter 2018
The Slow Canoe is a live journal event in Melbourne, a chapbook press, and this website, which includes the interview series 'Walks with Writers'. At their live journals, they present works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, film, music, photography and graphic pieces, as well as those that exist between forms. They aim to give a platform for all forms of narrative, whatever they look like. As Bella Li, a wonderful Asian Australian often featured in Peril Magazine, the creator of The Slow Canoe, puts it, 'Perhaps, it's not so much "existence between forms" (because you could keep endlessly dividing the pie) as the way in which such projects show how formless and porous forms can be, in the sense of there being acute resonances between, say, non-fiction and poetry, or photography and music.' The Slow Canoe Live Journal -- Winter 2018 is comprised of fiction, poetry, short film, chapbook, photography and…
Find out more »Express Media Tracks: Bendigo
Express Media is delighted to present Tracks a travelling pop-up program for young writers that brings the best of Express Media’s workshops, masterclasses, networking opportunities and special events to communities across Australia. On Saturday August 11, we’re bringing the Tracks program to Bendigo, partnering with Writers Victoria and Bendigo Writers Festival to take the best of Express Media right to your backyard. If you’re aged 14 to 25 and have a love of writing and storytelling, Tracks: Bendigo is an exciting day-long event just for you. 9am to 5pm, Saturday August 11 Bendigo Trades Hall 34-40 View St Bendigo, VIC 3550 The Bendigo Trades Hall is wheelchair accessible with a ramp at the entrance, and accessible bathrooms. BOOK YOUR SPOT NOW Tracks is free for Express Media members to participate in and attend. If you’re not a member already, Tracks: Bendigo costs $25 and includes membership to Express Media (normally $25) and Writers Victoria (normally…
Find out more »Unveiling: Gay Sex for Endtimes
Behold! The Second Coming. Presented by the deviant minds at Renegade Productions, Unveiling:Gay Sex for Endtimes examines the search for ecstasy, utopia and rebellion through self-destruction. It is a contemporary and perverse reading of The Book of Revelation – the thread from which we weave annihilation and redemption. From boot-scooting, to the U.S Navy, a swarm of locusts, and Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, Unveiling focuses on reaching for higher meaning through an escalating series of sex acts and hallucinogenic experiences. Unveiling: Gay Sex for Endtimes is a collaboration from Joe Hooligan Lui, Andrew Sutherland, Jacinta Larcombe, and Michelle Aitken based on what they know best: a fatalistic yet earnest search for meaning in these troubled times. Reach out and touch faith. Contains nudity, eggs, and strobe lighting Recommended for ages 18+ Director & Sound Designer: Joe Lui Producer: Natalie Di Risio Devisers & Performers: Andrew Sutherland, Jacinta Larcombe…
Find out more »September 2018
2018 Deborah Cass Prize
Deborah Cass Prize The Deborah Cass prize is here now with an aim to invite early career writers of migrant background to apply for the 2018 prize. Above all, the prize is in the memory of Deborah Cass. Certainly, the granddaughter of Jewish immigrants, Deborah Cass, became a prize-winning professor of International Law at the London School of Economics. After diagnosis of cancer, Deborah left her academic career. Consequently, she focused on creative writing. She had a number of short fiction pieces published, but was unable to realise her aim to complete a novel. With generous support from family and friends, this prize aims to help someone outside the mainstream find a voice for themselves. The prize The winner will receive a cash prize of $3,000 plus a three-month mentorship with an established writer. There is also the opportunity for publication of the winning excerpt in Mascara Literary Review. On completion,…
Find out more »Please note: Peril provides these details as a courtesy, but we’re not in charge of the events, so please don’t harrass us if the Facebook page is down for a particular event – unless we make that really really clear, in which case you’ll know because we’ll probably be hounding to you come along.