Some thoughts I'd like to rapsodise about - MONA FOMA was awesome to be part of.
The magic Anthony Magen of Helmethead did some ripper visuals for me to bounce off of. Doing three 20 minute concerts in a period of two hours was bizarre but forced me to create something of a beginning, middle and end within a much briefer time-frame than I've done before ... which was an interesting challenge. Mags and I discussed methods briefly beforehand but not having a complete idea of how it would work (and the fact that Anthony's bags had been lost by the airline) kept the whole endeavour on an edge ... and on the beautiful Peacock back wall ... rul noice!
I'd love to thank Brian Ritchie for his blind faith in accepting us for the bill, it was pretty surreal and gracious of the big lug!
Long live Surfer Music!
Other tops things that happened in the festival were -
PURSUIT - Jon Rose, Paul Bryant, Rod Cooper and some other bloke who's name escapes me. Awesome excuse to ride bicycles around the Princes Wharf building in the dark with freakin' fun toys made by Rod and co.
HELMETHEAD - Rod Cooper and Anthony Magen completely captivated the hooligans in the PW1, and FRICK! the screen attached to Rod's Helmet got even BIGGER ... Anthony's squirming maggots and fairy lights were beautiful!!
TIMEART ENSEMBLE - but I missed them ... shit!
MATT WARREN - his Beach Boys installation in Kelly's Garden was really quite beautiful and it was a great headspace to walk into after really loud gigs. The little toy piano in the sand played notes that echoed for minutes with the sound of waves ... ahh.
IHOS: KIMIKISS (Falling asleep) - this was full-on theatre!! twenty minutes of slowly evolving, surreal, eye-battering and ear-carressing Greekness. Incredible ... don't see it twice! You'll have nightmares.
CAT HOPE - two things - ABE SADA, SADA ABE: bass drone from about fifteen Bassists surrounding the audience - I could feel the vibrations in the pit at the bottom of my bowels!
and WOLF AT HARP: Four drummers at once ... quite beautiful and textural piece that brings together four drummers - disciples of differing drumming worlds - swing, indie, classical and technical metal. Cat created a new musical notation that allowed for improvisation and breadth within a vague framework ... the notation was fucken exciting too ... my wife, the graphic-design-obssessed, became thoroughly obssessed with the notation more than the music ... despite also being a drummer.
Onward and upward for MOFO ... funded for the next four years, no less.
__________
A shortened version of "One of several centres" by Alex Kershaw, filmed in Alice Springs in 2007.
The long version (the one in the art galleries) had me in it in one of the segments stacking chairs. The screens and the seating arrangements for the art-piece was done by my old mate Trent Jansen and the sound was done by the wonderful Gail Priest.
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2 comments:
What a lovely blog.
That's a lovely thing to say Mystery package
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