Fremantle’s two Fire Aid benefit concerts have raised more than $650,000 for fire services, local communities and wildlife protection following the devastating bushfires around Australia.
The first Fire Aid concert was held at Fremantle Arts Centre on 31 January featuring John Butler, The Waifs, San Cisco and Stella Donnelly. When the first show sold out in less than an hour a second show was added for 1 February, with Carla Geneve stepping in for Stella Donnelly.
The concept for Fire Aid originated from the bands and their manager Phil Stevens, who said it was a direct reaction to the horrendous images of the fires and stories of people’s loss.
“It sowed the seed for taking action immediately,” Mr Stevens said.
“They were all super keen to offer some help towards the fundraising efforts for the people in need over east. It was also the first time these Fremantle bands were able to come together and share the same stage.
“It was a very emotional time for Dave and Josh from The Waifs because their homes in Moruya and Cobargo had to be evacuated.
“You can imagine the stress they were going through. However they knew that playing these concerts was the most effective way for them to make a difference.”
Mr Stevens said the event was announced within 72 hours of conception.
“The speed of how it came together and the wonderful willingness of all involved was amazing. People gave up their time and skills so generously,” he said.
“We had not expected a second concert, but the huge demand made us have to react very quickly.”
Fremantle Arts Centre Director Jim Cathcart said the sold out shows were an uplifting experience.
“These acclaimed musicians all have a strong association with Fremantle, and it was great to see the WA public coming together out of a passionate concern for the people, animals and bushland affected by these devastating fires,” Mr Cathcart said.
“I’m just really pleased Fremantle Arts Centre was able to support the artists in putting together two incredible shows and to raise so much money for people who really need it.”
All proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to a number of causes including local New South Wales and Victorian fire services, the Wildlife Victoria Fund, and local communities such as Cobargo and Moruya where David and Josh from The Waifs live.
As well as giving their time to perform, the artists also donated merchandise on the night along with Fire Fund t-shirts and tea towels.
Other money raised will go to the Freo Fire Fund, which will direct the money raised to a number of different organisations involved in the bushfire relief effort including Australian Red Cross, Foodbank and the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.
The Fremantle Arts Centre provided free venue hire as well as Fremantle Council donating $10,000 to the Freo Fire Fund.
Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt said it was great to see the concerts bring together the Fremantle community.
“The fires have caused so much destruction right across the country, but the response from the community has been quite extraordinary,” Mayor Pettitt said.
“A fundraiser event like this could perhaps only happen in Fremantle, where you have amazing local musicians and promoters working so closer together, the stunning Fremantle Arts Centre ready to assist and, of course, an amazing community who totally got behind it and sold out two huge concerts.
“I was so impressed it was pulled off with such speed and generosity.
“The City would like to acknowledge and thank the number of local people and businesses that so quickly and generously got on board to make Fire Aid possible.”
Donors
AAA Event Personnel Australia
aaa Production Services
Concert and Corporate Productions
Lounge Backline
MGM
Oztix
Fremantle Arts Centre
City of Fremantle
Gage Roads Brewing
Parallel Production Services
Kennard’s Hire
Event EX
Gage Roads Brewery
Red Hot Designs
John Butler
The Waifs
San Cisco
Stella Donnelly
Carla Geneve
All the band’s crew
DB Publicity
Cate Pepper
Luke Player
Hannah Barker-Pannell
Phil Stevens Management and team
Red Tent Events
It’s All Merch Sellers
MC Bob Gordon
DJs Phil Cooker, Nick Sheppard and Paul Gamblin
Westpac
It’s Not Plastic
We’re very excited to welcome WA artists Alex Desebrock and Tanya Lee to FAC to set up the Every Day Super Hero HQ this January. We caught up with the pair to find out more about this fun, playful family workshop.
Tell us about Every Day Super Hero – what is it?
It’s an antidote to the overwhelm of world problems.
It’s a place where adults and children are equally important.
A chance to play, create, collaborate & do.
A world of hope and bedazzled recycled materials.
This show is a 90 min experience that transforms adults and children into Every Day Super Heroes. We believe that adults and children have inner powers that can help save the world in small and big ways.
Adults select a world problem to work on, and children an inner power. We then step our “recruits” through a series of training stages that prepare them for Every Day Super Hero transformation. And when we say “training stages” they’re not hard or scary – they’re playful games.
Eventually, everyone completes some real world missions around Fremantle Arts Centre. These are small actions that make the world better. From hugging a tree, to learning a new Noongar word, to calling the Mayor and telling him what they’d like to see change.
We made Every Day Super Hero because we wanted to make something important, positive and fun for children. We think this work does this, and that adults have an equally rich time.
Who can take part?
Every Day Super Hero is for children aged 7 to 12 years, and adults. We’re proud to say that adults and children will both enjoy this experience.
You can book an adult & child ticket, a bundle for an adult & 2 children, or just an adult ticket. We need close-to-equal numbers of adults and children so, if you have more children you want to bring – your first mission is to find more adults!
Children and adults work together on their super hero costumes. Photography by Yvonne Doherty
How are you preparing FAC HQ for all the new recruits? What can participants expect?
The HQ is looking A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. We set ourselves the challenge of using recycled and borrowed materials when building the HQ. We talk about the aesthetic being a bit of DIY bedazzle. There are sparkly disco lights, a cubby made out of newspaper, console desks made out of coreflute, a sign-in system of scans & beeps and “latest technology”.*
*By latest technology we mean your imagination.
What do you hope people will take away from Every Day Super Hero?
We’ve done a lot of testing on this work & we find that:
Children are buoyed by the fun and immediacy of the work. They love becoming the agents of change in public space and their equal-ness to adults in the Every Day Super Hero world. Many ‘step-up’ to the experience and feel their voice is strong and valuable.
For adults, the opportunity to collaborate with a child they don’t know is a very special experience. They are often surprised by children’s astute understanding and perspective on important issues. Children also bring out the playfulness in adults and show them the world through their eyes.
As mentioned before, this is meant to be an antidote to our anxiety about the future for the next generation We hope it energises people to keep doing good and know that they aren’t alone.
If you had to sum up the experience in 3 words, what would they be?
Fun! Uplifting! Super-creative-amazingness!
Every Day Super Hero is the creation of WA artists Tanya Lee & Alex Desebrock. Photography by Yvonne Doherty
About the artists
Alex Desebrock is an independent artist based in Perth. Her work spans interactive theatre, live art, installations, online and public interventions. Her practice focuses around empathy, connecting strangers, big questions and the child’s voice.
She is the lady behind Maybe ( ) Together which has presented works across Australia including Sydney Festival, Perth International Arts Festival, Come Out Festival, Awesome Festival, The Arts Centre Melbourne and ArtPlay.
Alex is passionate about creating high quality, insightful arts experiences for children and adults. Her work is described as “gently radical” using games and interventions to connect the ideas and opinions of children with stranger adults. Sharing the creative, brutally honest, playful, amusing, and guilt-inducing moments from future generations has become a long-term investigation, as she believes this is ultimately what the world needs to hear.
Tanya Lee is a WA artist based in Perth. Her cross-disciplinary practice works across sculpture; performance and drawing to glean absurd humour form the idiosyncrasies of everyday life.
Lee fabricates elaborate costumes in which she humorously attempts to engage in daily tasks and routines. These performances exist as both video documentation and often as interactive, live art experiences. Her performances construct incongruous, farcical and even futile narratives that subvert the protocols and politics of every day social environments.
Most recently Tanya has presented the large scale participatory performance piece Landing at swimming pools across Australia. A meditative swim articulating ideas around migration, arrival and offshore detention Landing has now been presented at the Festival of Live Art (FOLA) in Melbourne, Dark MoFo in Hobart and will be shown in both Perth and on the Gold Coast in the near future.
Every Day Super Hero runs Tue 21 Jan – Sat 1 Feb. Book now!
Local artist Sam Bloor has hand painted a series of playful and ambiguous works for The Billboard Project, part of Fremantle Biennale UNDERCURRENT 19. We caught up with Sam to discuss the project and why he loves making work that exists in public space.
Tell us about The Billboard Project – what is it?
The Billboard Project is a series of large scale text-based artworks that will be installed on (or near) the exteriors of some of Fremantle’s most notable cultural places. The project is about creating a series of works that act as an invitation to ‘step inside’ these spaces to encourage visitors to Freo to soak in all of the brilliant arts and culture that the city has to offer. With this work, I’m particularly interested in connecting to the audience outside the gallery.
There’s a deliberate ambiguity to your billboard phrases – what are you hoping people get out of the project?
Warmth, encouragement and a sparked sense of curiosity. The phrases have been intentionally chosen to walk the line between a personal sentiment and a reflection on the spaces they are installed upon. It’s that mix of feeling and thinking that I like in an artwork.
You’re hand painting all of these billboards – why was it important to you to do that?
I come from a sign writing background, so I’m predisposed to a love and appreciation of hand painted lettering in urban environments. I think traces of the human touch in things like signs, decor and furniture emphasise that element of care and consideration, that then exists in that object forever. It’s nice to look a little closer and see that a line isn’t computer printed, to trace the brush marks, and to think about how it was created. Steve Powers (also known as ESPO – an American sign writer and artist) has a great line; “Perfection is standard, mistakes cost extra”.
Sam Bloor, The Billbaord Project (detail), 2019, handpainted billboard
As well as Fremantle Arts Centre, where else can people find your works?
The works will be woven through the city appearing at different cultural sites including; PS Art Space, Old Customs House, Fremantle Library and around the port at Victoria Quay. There will also be a installation at the rockface entry to Fremantle (by the traffic bridge) for two weeks during the Beinnale.
Do you think taking an artist’s work out of the gallery in this way changes people experience/perception of it? Is that part of the project’s impetus?
That’s definitely part of the project. I’m interested in making work that exists in public space. We are already predisposed to reading advertising through billboards and banners, but these ad messages are selling to you – often by telling you about something you’re lacking – like the latest car or phone.
I want to use the works in The Billboard Project to remind people how cultural spaces give rather than take. I want to present a genuine warmth and humanity that the usual sales messaging lacks.
Whether or not there is a perception about the perceived value of art inside vs. outside a gallery – I’m mainly interested in sparking the curiosity of passers-by to explore and engage with our cultural spaces during the Fremantle Biennale.
The intention is for this work to sit alongside, not in competition with, the work inside the galleries which will (hopefully!) further expand the overall experience of the Biennale.
Want to see more of Sam’s work? Visit sambloor.net or follow him on Instagram
Fremantle Biennale runs 1–24 Nov
Immersive, dark and sometimes hopeful, Fremantle Arts Centre will be transformed into a dystopic doomsday den for the exhibition Preppers, opening Friday 15 November.
With global protests, diplomatic unrest and natural disasters reported daily, it seems now more than ever that the plight of humanity is at the forefront of many people’s minds.
Doomsday prepping is a global subculture of people preparing for the collapse of society. The phenomenon is a manifestation of widespread cultural anxieties which permeate modern society. Preppers hoard food and weapons, develop extreme survival skills, and practise violent tactical responses to attack and threat.
Artists Tiyan Baker (NSW), Guy Louden (WA), Loren Kronemyer (USA/TAS), Dan McCabe (WA) and Thomas Yeomans (UK) explore the distinct aesthetic, language and apocalyptic fantasies of the preppers community through a series of sculptures, installations, videos and hanging works in this exhibition.
Mutually fascinated by the prepper lifestyle, the artists have each invested significant time and resources into developing niche survivalist skills. They have built traps, fashioned weapons, created fortified structures and explored the dualistic role the internet plays in distributing the preppers’ manifesto and symbolising its antithesis by connecting people around the world.
Preppers co-curator Loren Kronemyer said, “We are excited to share this show at Fremantle Arts Centre, which brings together a group of diverse artists reckoning with what the themes of prepping, survivalism, and doomsday mean relative to each of our unique perspectives.”
“This show has developed over several years and it’s interesting that these themes seem exponentially more urgent now than when we began,” she said. “This exhibition aims to dissect the narrative of prepping, of who and what gets to survive and what that might look like.”
Fremantle Arts Centre curator Dr Ric Spencer said Preppers is being shown at a particularly timely moment. “The sentiment and uncertainty which has led some to embrace the preppers lifestyle has moved from the fringes and is now more and more pervasive in mainstream consciousness,” he said. “This exhibition will provoke audiences to imagine their own vision of what the future might look like, and examine the power structures of survival.”
The exhibition is the fourth and ultimate instalment of the Preppers project, which has been exhibited in different experimental presentations in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth since 2017.
Artist Biographies
Dan McCabe is a visual artist based in Fremantle and raised in Brisbane. Since graduating from Queensland Collage of Art with Honours in 2012 he has exhibited in solo and group projects across Brisbane, Perth, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne. McCabe has been the recipient of international residencies in Finland and India. Recent projects include a large body of work in spaced 3: north by south east at AGWA in 2018 and a solo exhibition Post Leisure with Moore Contemporary in 2019. McCabe’s practice often considers the complexities of global urbanism and its impact on the natural environment. In his work, concept drives materials and method — he has produced sculptural installations, video, photography and wall based compositions.
Loren Kronemyer is an artist living and working in remote lutruwita (Tasmania), Australia. Her works span interactive and live performance, experimental media art, and large-scale worldbuilding projects aimed at exploring ecological futures and survival skills. As part of duo Pony Express, she is co-creator of projects like Ecosexual Bathhouse, a touring queer sex club for the entire ecosystem. She collaborates frequently with laboratories, including most recently as the first resident at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, and received the first Masters of Biological Arts Degree from SymbioticA Lab at the University of Western Australia. She is a mentor at the Icelandic Academy of Art for their Masters of Performing Arts program, and a PhD candidate at the University Of Tasmania
Guy Louden is a Perth artist and curator. Louden was director of Moana Project Space, a leading artist-run gallery in Perth, and cofounder of Success, a large-scale art space in Fremantle. He has curated exhibitions for the Perth International Art Festival, Moana, and Success. Since 2017, he has also exhibited his own artwork, notably at Bus Projects (Melbourne), Firstdraft (Sydney), Cool Change Contemporary (Perth), and FAC (Fremantle). Louden holds an MA in Art History from the University of Manchester (2013), a Master of Art Curating from the University of Sydney (2018), and a BA from the University of Western Australia (2011).
Tiyan Baker is a Malaysian-Australian artist who practices across video, sound and installation. Baker’s practice engages with communities where contemporary crises around neoliberalism, neo-colonialism, and environmental degradation are staged. Her work draws on field research and documentary techniques. Baker graduated with an Award of Distinction in Fine Arts/Arts from UNSW (2012). She is a recipient of the 2019 Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship, was a finalist in the 65th Blake Prize (2018) and the winner of the Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award (2014). Originally from Darwin, NT, Baker currently lives and works in Sydney.
Thomas Yeomans is a London-based artist making video, digital, and sculptural work. Yeomans received an MA from the Royal College of Art and a BA from Slade School of Art. He has exhibited in solo exhibitions in London and Manchester as well as group shows widely and prominently. His work adopts the methods of new media and often deals in futuristic and apocalyptic themes. Preppers is his first exhibition in Australia.
For all Media Enquiries please contact Liz Walker
Preppers opens 6:30pm Fri 15 Nov
Exhibition runs Sat 16 Nov – Mon 27 Jan
Full Name: Deborah Kelly
Instagram: @Deborahkellyartist
About Deborah
Deborah Kelly is a Melbourne-born, Sydney-based artist whose works have been shown around Australia, and in the Biennales of Singapore, Sydney, Thessaloniki, TarraWarra and Venice.
In 2017 her first international solo exhibition, Venus Envy, was shown at the Kvindemuseet in Denmark. In 2018 her second one-person European show, Life in the Ruins, was held at the Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie in Zurich, curated by Daniel Blochwitz.
Deborah Kelly’s projects across media are concerned with lineages of representation, politics and history in public exchange, and practices of collectivity on small and large scale.
2019 FAC Print Award Finalist Deborah Kelly
Why did you enter the FAC Print Award?
I am obsessed with the printed trace of obsolete and poisonous histories, especially those representing and underpinning the authority of straight white males over all other life forms. I have spent years collecting discarded books of western (men’s) art history, cutting free the trapped female figures, and proposing glorious new destinies for their naked rebellions.
I have been in the FAC Print Award before. I entered because it’s such a conceptually bold and well-regarded award, and of course the prize money would support my impractical life as an artist.
Tell us about your work in this year’s prize.
My work, Venus Envy, is based on Boucher’s porny paintings of the child Marie-Louise O’Murphy, with which she was being pimped out to King Louis XIV of France. Using seven different reproductions of the paintings from a variety of popular volumes of ‘art history’, I’m foregrounding the wild variations in scale, colour fidelity and print quality to destabilise those histories’ claims to authority and to the production of meaning. My collage suggests an entirely different intention for the figure’s pose, and speculates on her ardent, curious autonomy. It’s printed on metal to add permanence and material intensity to my wilful speculation.
What do you think about the state of contemporary Australian printmaking?
Very complex, and packed with brilliant practitioners.
What’s up next for you?
The Wellcome Trust in London has acquired the huge work I instigated for the 2014 Biennale of Sydney, No Human Being Is Illegal (in all our glory). It’s 20 life-sized collage-portraits on which a hundred people worked together as powerful creative collaborators. The Trust has commissioned one more portrait for the suite, so I will be spending a month in London conducting a public workshop-based project.
FAC Print Award runs Fri 20 Sep – Sun 10 Nov
NSW artist Rew Hanks has taken the coveted first prize in this year’s Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award with the work Gone Fishing East of Faskrudfjordur. He wins $16,000 in prize money and the print will be acquired by the City of Fremantle Art Collection.
This year’s judging panel – Lee Kinsella (WA), Anne Ryan (NSW), Mark Stewart (WA) admired the work and said, “Gone Fishing East of Faskrudfjordur stood out for its lyrical rendering of a vast Nordic landscape. This remote and beautiful part of the world seems untouched by modern life. However, on closer inspection tiny human figures infiltrate the scene, reminding us of the fragility of nature and the impact of humanity on the environment. The energy of nature is effectively rendered in the layers of water, land, cloud and sky. The print is extraordinarily sophisticated and well executed, on an ambitious scale that sustains its power over the expanse of the image.”
About the Artist
Rew Hanks has held 27 solo exhibitions and over 178 group exhibitions in Australia and internationally. Nationally he has been awarded 28 print prizes and 12 international print prizes. His works are held in the Australian National Gallery and most state and regional galleries throughout Australia and twelve international galleries/museums. In 1999 he was awarded a Master of Fine Arts from the University of NSW in Sydney and a Print Fellow from the Tamarind Institute at the University of New Mexico in America in 1991.
Rew Hanks, Gone Fishing East of Faskrudfjordur, 2018, linocut, 70 × 200cm
About the Work
While visiting Iceland for three months in early 2017 Hanks was overwhelmed by its diverse landscape. At the end of winter the rugged mountain ranges in Southern Iceland were gently dusted with snow contrasting dramatically against the black volcanic rocks. The contrasting blacks and whites were perfect imagery demanding to be transposed into linocuts. However while examining photographs of this majestic scene he noticed a minute solitary figure in the foreground standing at the waters edge fishing alone and close by was a small boat full of fisherman. Their presence was a shattering reminder of the four huge aluminium smelters already built on this island and the six more planned for the highlands. Even this uniquely beautiful isolated country is seriously under threat.
FAC Print Award runs Fri 20 Sep – Sun 10 Nov |
Find out more about the FAC Print Award
Sunday Music returns in 2019–20 with a stellar line up of local and touring acts. Running 2–4pm every Sunday from October through to March visitors can enjoy free music performances in Fremantle Arts Centre’s picturesque Front Garden.
This year’s program features a diverse selection of local and national music acts including Freo’s Lincoln MacKinnon & The Wrecking Train (WA), the R&B vocal stylings of Jamilla (WA), Lucky Ocean’s Zydecats and QLD bluegrass group The Company. Plus a whole of host of acts spanning genres from electro, rock, bluegrass and soul, to indie pop, ambient and roots.
Fremantle Arts Centre Director Jim Cathcart said, “Sunday Music is synonymous with summer in Fremantle and really represents the Arts Centre at its best. There’s nothing better than getting a group of friends or family together, kicking back on the lawn in our Front Garden and discovering some amazing new acts. This year’s program goes to show how vibrant the local music scene is at the moment – it’s thriving! We’re thrilled to connect so many talented musicians with new audiences.”
Bring a rug, pack a picnic and prepare to spend many lazy afternoons at this free, family-friendly event. Wood-fired pizzas available and our bar will be open too. Some chairs provided.
OCTOBER – DECEMBER LINE UP
6 Oct: Junkadelic Brass Band (WA)
13 Oct: Jamilla (WA) + Feels (WA)
20 Oct: Camarano (WA) + King Ibis (WA)
27 Oct: Rupert Guenther & The Crystal Voyager Band (WA)
3 Nov: Old Blood (WA)
10 Nov: Teischa (WA/LA) + Material World Orchestra’s (WA)
17 Nov: Salary (WA) + The Starlight Hotel Choir (WA)
24 Nov: Natalie Gillespie (WA)
1 Dec: Lincoln MacKinnon & The Wrecking Train (WA)
8 Dec: BAZAAR | NO SUNDAY MUSIC
15 Dec: The Company (QLD) + Andrew Winton (WA)
22 Dec: Zydecats (WA)
29 Dec: Juliana Areias (WA/Brazil)
The finalists have been announced for the 44th Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award, Australia’s richest and most prestigious print prize.
The award is known for celebrating traditional printmaking techniques alongside boundary-pushing works which look towards the future of the medium. This year 56 finalists were selected from 280 entries from emerging and established artists from all over Australia.
Finalists
- Lyn Ashby (VIC)
- Hayley Bahr (WA)
- Rebecca Beardmore (NSW)
- Lorena Blacklock (ACT)
- Matt Brown (WA)
- Peter Burgess (NSW)
- Karen Casey (VIC)
- Susanna Castleden (WA)
- Seong Cho (NSW)
- Antonietta Covino-Beehre (VIC)
- Carolyn Craig (NSW)
- Jo Darvall (WA)
- Raimond de Weerdt (NSW)
- Josephine Duffy (NSW)
- Mark Dustin (VIC)
- Marcia Espinosa (WA)
- Gina Fenton (NSW)
- Beth Ferialdi (WA)
- Eva Fernandez (WA)
- Angela Ferolla (WA)
- David Frazer (VIC)
- Rew Hanks (NSW)
- Garth Henderson (VIC)
- Deanna Hitti (VIC)
- Julie Mia Holmes (NSW)
- Clare Humphries (VIC)
- Alana Hunt (WA)
- Kyoko Imazu (VIC)
- Deborah Kelly (NSW)
- Nadia Kliendanze (NSW)
- Hiroshi Kobayashi (WA)
- Damon Kowarsky (VIC)
- Nigel Laxton (WA)
- Monika Lukowska (WA)
- Elisa Markes-Young (WA)
- Lucille Martin (WA)
- Judith Martinez (NSW)
- Matthew McAlpine (WA)
- Dan McCabe (WA)
- Sarah McConnell (VIC)
- AHC (Andrew) McDonald (WA)
- Clyde McGill (WA)
- Tim Meakins (WA)
- Eunice Napanangka Jack (NT)
- Evan Pank (NSW)
- Jaime Powell (VIC)
- Trevor Richards (WA)
- Brian Robinson (WA)
- Sarah Rodigari (NSW)
- Annika Romeyn (ACT)
- Rachel Salmon-Lomas (WA)
- Gary Shinfield (NSW)
- Alex Spremberg (WA)
- Anne Starling (NSW)
- Andrew Sunley Smith (WA)
- Donny Woolagoodja (WA)
The finalists were selected by this year’s judging panel:
- Anne Ryan – Curator of Australian Prints and Drawings, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- Mark Stewart – Academic and Curator, Murdoch University Art Collection
- Lee Kinsella – Special Projects Curator, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia
The winner will take home $16,000 and their work will be acquired for the City of Fremantle Art Collection, WA’s largest municipal collection. There is also a $6,000 second prize. The winner will be announced at the opening of Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award on Thu 19 Sep.
Get lost in an endless wormhole, board a spaceship of desire, take in sweeping space landscapes and experience a monumental echo at Fremantle Arts Centre when the exhibition Other Suns: Cult Sci-fi Cinema and Art opens on Friday 26 July.
In partnership with Revelation Perth International Film Festival, Other Suns features a line-up of 20 local, national and international artists.
Spanning sculpture, installation, video, drawing and paintings that embrace the gritty and unfamiliar undercurrents of science fiction, the exhibition is perfectly timed to open the same week as the 50th anniversary of the first manned moon landing.
Fremantle Arts Centre Special Projects Curator Erin Coates is excited to bring Other Suns to FAC.
“I am thrilled to be curating this fascinating set of artists brought together under Other Suns for their individual visions of science fiction.
“Their artworks probe the underbelly of the sci-fi genre and look at alternative manifestations of space travel, low-fi film props, morphing human bodies and distant worlds,” Coates said.
Revelation Program Director and Other Suns co-curator Jack Sargeant said,
“The exhibition offers people the opportunity to see all manner of works. From fine art and sculptural, assemblages to moving image the works all engage with science fiction. It is a very exciting exhibition.”
Other Suns will present several new artistic commissions, including Jess Day and Joanne Richardson’s enormous spaceship of desire, the Never Better. Other exhibition highlights include New York-based duo Soda_Jerk’s two channel projection Astro Black. Made as a tribute to Sun Ra’s 1972 album, Astro Black is an ongoing multi-channel video cycle informed by cultural theories of Afrofuturism. WA’s Neil Aldum has created a new sculptural work which looks at the optimism of the 1969 moon landing; and Adelaide artist Roy Ananda engages with fan culture in Vadar’s Loop, an endless stream of Darth Vadar breathing.
Presenting a diversity of perspectives and voices, what unites the works in Other Suns is the way the artists engage with the individual imagination as the key element in the science fiction vision. Far from the dystopic science fiction of blockbuster Hollywood films, Other Suns offers a fresh counterpoint which will engage ardent fans and newcomers alike.
Other Suns Artists
Soda_Jerk (USA)
Claire Evans (USA)
Sam Scoggins (UK)
Neil Aldum (Perth)
Dan Bourke (Perth)
Ian Haig (Melbourne)
Astro Morphs (Perth)
Lisa Sammut (Sydney)
Roy Ananda (Adelaide)
Boyden Woods (Perth)
Shalini Jardin (Sydney)
Oliver Hull (Melbourne)
Matthew Bradley (Adelaide)
Penny Walker-Keefe (Melbourne)
Marne Lucas & Jacob Pander (USA)
Jess Day & Joanne Richardson (Perth)
Curated by: Erin Coates (FAC) & Jack Sargeant (Revelation Perth International Film Festival)
Other Suns is a partnership with Revelation Perth International Film Festival and Fremantle Arts Centre.
Other Suns: Cult Sci-fi Cinema & Art
Opens 6:30pm Friday 26 July | Exhibition runs Saturday 27 July – Saturday 14 September | Free Entry
Media Contact
Liz Walker
08 9432 9565
lizw@fremantle.wa.gov.au
Fremantle Arts Centre has an exciting program of events and exhibitions in the coming months. If you can’t get your hands on a copy of the latest What’s On program, read it online.
Read the Director’s Welcome
In July the City of Fremantle launches its reinvigorated winter arts festival 10 Nights in Port. Taking place from 12 – 21 July, 10 Nights in Port features an incredible program of contemporary music, theatre, visual arts, film and live performance and celebrates our city’s unique character. FAC is delighted to be one of the festival venues, presenting Feet First Collective’s production of Sarah Grochala’s (UK) esteemed play S-27. Book your tickets today.
Our fantastic partnership with the Revelation Perth International Film Festival continues to go from strength to strength. This year, in conjunction with Revelation, we present a group of local, national and international artists who embrace the science fiction imagination in the exhibition Other Suns, opening Friday 26 July. Our galleries will be filled with cutting edge works which explore science fiction’s less mainstream underbellies.
Due to its success during recent exhibitions, Friday Story Time is set to become a regular weekly event. Designed to introduce children to the galleries from a young age in a fun and engaging way, Friday Story Time will feature stories, rhymes and activities themed around our exhibitions.
The winter months certainly don’t see the FAC program slowing down. We look forward to welcoming you soon.
Jim Cathcart
Director, Fremantle Arts Centre
