Ten years of experimental, emerging and contemporary art practices from the ‘Underbelly Arts Festival’ will be celebrated with 21 ambitious new projects from 116 artists developed in an ‘art lab’ – valuable studio time which ticket holders can preview. Director Roslyn Helper says this space was critical and “a reaction to unaffordable real estate and the silo-ing of radical practice in Sydney.”
Ivey Wawn, Adventure Dances, 2017. Photograph: Kate Disher-Quill
Among many works the multi-arts showcase includes Pony Express with Ian Sinclair and Loren Kronemyer whose choreography plans include a kayak, seagulls and hot chips to focus our attention to environmental apocalypse, and Amrita Hepi in collaboration with Prue Stent and Honey Long who debut a work incorporating dance and a soft, membranous structure to shelter and embrace their audience. Several of the promised pieces are participatory including the roving Merch Stand by Sydney artists Connie Anthes and Rebecca Gallo and Complaint Department from musician Angela Garrick and artist writer Yarran Gatsby. It’s a diverse festival but a focus does fall on the body, as Helper said “the body is political. As today’s Australian artists come to terms with our fractured cultural heritages, there is a sense that we are carrying multiple histories, multiple selves, and therefore, multiple possibilities.’”
On at the National Art School from 7 to 8 October ‘Underbelly Arts Festival’ aims to expose the “messiness and labour of what it takes to make art and pushes against our culture of perfection,” says Helper, adding “We say yes to artists.”
Gwen Taualai, Tweets from the Underground, 2017. Courtesy the artist and Underbelly Arts Festival, Sydney
