Comment and art news
On the way home from work, the melodious sounds of an operatic voice and the strains of string accompaniment filter through the stinking, lumbering traffic. It's a reminder that it is festival time and that we're supposed to stop and smell the art in sunny Brisbane. The voice belongs to Christine Johnston whose contribution to the Brisbane Festival 's Volt program was a series of performances called Peak Hour Apparition in which she is accompanied by cellist, Trent Arkleysmith. it's a rare moment that breaches the stress of peak hour diaspora and breathes joy into the routine of comings and goings.
Like many of the programmed 'events' in Volt, Johnston and Arkleysmith's performance fullfilled the objective of utilising non-traditional performance sites. In many ways, this brief resulted in alternative explorations and experiences of the urban environment and of 'public' art as well as interventions which disrupted, engaged and reinscribed the city and metropolitan existence.
Another performance which fitted this bill was Anne Graham's Chain of Chambers. It manifested as a luminescent 'soft city' nestled in King George Square, against the city's hard edges and surfaces. Graham's work is textured by a sophisticated awareness of public art practices. She constructs 'situations' which seek to subvert the notion of a passive audience as well as interrogate practices of space. In this outdoor installation of tents, the servings of food, films and conversation were intended to dissipate the demarcation between performer and spectator. Instead, it evoked other divisions in our culture and raised several political issues.
The hand-made calico tents, being transient structures, recalled this country's penal and migration history. However, tents also bear the inference of homelessness and echoes... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline