NEWS
Artists SMUDGE identities together for new exhibit
In partnership with RMIT Design Hub, a new alliance between a choreographer and artist will have them swap cultural identities and artistic responsibilities in a new exhibit, SMUDGE.
BalletLab Founder and Artistic Director Phillip Adams and artist Brook Andrew have embarked upon a radical collaboration, which explores the relationships between research, experimentation and cultural values.
Via a set of rigorous rules set by the artists for each other, an exploration of the known trajectory of Adams and Andrew is smudged and erased, to allow for new creative and cultural possibilities.
The collaboration for SMUDGE says Adams, is actually more of a dare, to rethink the way both artists make their work.
“We said to each other: you be me and I will be you," he said.
“We were keen to explore new territory that stretched our own understanding of breaking our own rules by swapping identities,” Andrew said.
“What does that all mean really, and where does this point of cultural departures between us begin? This is the smudging of a new beginning … and so it goes,” Adams said.
Through this risk taking, SMUDGE engages with themes of the charlatan, the innovator, the intruder and the assassin.
The project includes four performers – Anna Kuroda, Gregory Lorenzutti, Anna Seymour and Lilian Steiner – who will be directed by Andrew in a set created by Adams.
“It is an in-process collaboration that is informed by a set of rules of engagement,” Andrew said.
“If people come to visit every few days they will see that the production will change depending on the process and the objects Phillip brings into the space.”
“What I have thought long and hard about in working as a visual designer on this project is an application of borders in both the literal and metaphysical sense,” Adams said.
“I think it will be interesting to understand that the 'cultural area' of SMUDGE can be interpreted as many centres such as textures, drawings, slogans, conversations and dancers.”
RMIT Design Hub offers an alternative, experimental exhibition and research space for the beginning of SMUDGE and its development phase, Adams said.
“I have been inspired to rethink the way design and art interact by many RMIT Design Hub exhibitions over the past few years and it felt like the right place to try out SMUDGE.”
“I am partial to taking a risk for those that know me, and I think RMIT Design Hub embraces a similar approach, of finding the edge and curiosity around the arts.”
Title: SMUDGE
Date: Ends Friday 29 May
Time: 11am to 2pm, Monday to Friday
Location: Pavilion 1, Level 10 at RMIT Design Hub
Cost: Free entry