I’ve been immersed in the performing arts for so long that I sometimes forget that not everyone has felt the electrifying sense of community, inspiration, and above all, empowerment that it evokes in me. If you’ve never experienced performance art before, I’ll try to capture the feeling for you in words: watching it is like entering a lapse in time and reality – I often find myself prone to intense stillness and silence, standing and staring with a funny feeling in my stomach. It’s confronting, because it’s so intimate. You are at once detached from your body, observing the artwork unfolding around you, and hyper-aware of your own involvement in it. It’s a special type of connection that only happens when the artwork’s medium is space and bodies (including that of the viewer).
Awe, is how I would describe it.
Hosted at Carriageworks from the 23rd-27th of this month, Performance Space’s upcoming Liveworks Festival is a curation of experimental theatre, dance, music and performance art. The program boasts a multitude of unique experiences to pick from, including (but not limited to) elaborate performances and free panels discussing the intricacies of queerness, family bonds, speculative realities and creativity. Whether you’re in the mood to dance at Joel Bray’s psychedelic party, Brolga: A Queer Koori Wonderland, or to critically examine our late capitalist urge to incessantly discard what we no longer deem as desirable in Su PinWen’s Leftover Market, the event offers something for everyone.
This year’s festival is centred around the experience of intimacy – how moments of connection between people, even fleeting, can be profoundly powerful. This concept is perfectly fitting and feels especially poignant when intimacy is explored through a lens of queerness, as many of the performances on this year’s lineup do. The very nature of performance art opposes the conventional, instead embracing the fluidity of true creative expression – it’s playful, it’s political, and it’s inherently queer.
To discover and support emerging Australian and queer artists is reason enough to check out the festival. Performance Space has made apparent their efforts to make the festival accessible, with Auslan interpretations and touch speakers available for some performances and a ‘Chill Out Zone’ available throughout the event for those needing a quiet and restful space. The cherry on top is that discounted tickets are available for students and First Nations attendees.
The full festival program and ticketing information can be found on Performance Space’s website.