Two sound artists and two dancers create a site-responsive work delving into the intersecting histories of Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West (MLMW). MLMW houses an industrial ruin, a parkland, an art park, a repository of stories and artefacts, and a meeting place along the banks of the Mirrangbamurn (Maribyrnong River). MLMW is the forming of ancient lands by effusive volcanic activity, indigenous custodianship over millennia and the recent colonial, industrial and contemporary history of this place. The four artists will inhabit the site and activate these histories drawing on the museum’s extensive oral history recordings, physical artefacts, and photographic archive. The quartet will also reference part II of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl which contains a gut wrenching, psychedelic, and somehow slightly optimistic view of many of the themes that are captured in MLMW’s multi-layered history: “Real holy laughter in the river! They saw it all! the wild eyes! the holy yell! They bade farewell! They jumped off the roof! to solitude! waving! carrying flowers! Down to the river! into the street!”
Link to live performance: www.facebook.com/share/v/1BcfRynQ9d/
This event was part of MAP Experimentum 2021 www.facebook.com/melakaartandperformancefestival#mapexperimentum2021 #melbournelivingmuseumofthewest #contemporarydance #soundart
Dancers
Jonathan Sinatra www.jonathansinatra.com
Bronwen Kamasz www.bronwenkamasz.weebly.com
Sound Artists
Myfanwy (Min) Hunter www.myfanwyhunter.com
Emma Bathgate www.emmabathgate.com