SOUND TO LIGHT-Crossing Borders

By Thomas Connelly

Last night I Went to the opening night of Sound to Light - Crossing Borders (STL). As well as the exhibition, which runs until June 23 at the Salamanca Arts Centre, I saw some audio/visual performances.

Image courtesy of www.soundtolight.net

STL is described as a dynamic, playful, chaotic, experimental project. A social art project that seeks to transcend boundaries between disciplines, but more importantly - and something that can only be done at this time in history - seeks to transcend physical location. This could not have been done before the invention of high-speed networking. Like the ancient shamans who could be in two places at once, nowadays artists are able to perform bi-location. Optical fibre being part of the infrastructure of modern shamanistic practice the name of the exhibit takes on a special meaning.

Waterwalkers

by Patrick Sutczak

At the still point of the turning world, Neither flesh nor fleshless;

Neither from nor toward; at the still point, there the dance is,

But neither arrest nor movement, And do not call it fixity,

Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,

Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point

There would be dance, and there is no dance.

T.S. Eliot, BN II: 16-21

It is important to read that beautiful piece from T.S. Eliot’s epic Four Quartets in order to appreciate the deeper emotional and ontological associations with Darryl Rogers' Waterwalkers currently exhibiting at Sawtooth ARI in Launceston.

A brief but carefully worded blurb attached to the corridor on the way into the exhibition gives us a clue that Roger’s work is rich with complex ideas featuring time, no-time, quantum theory and matter fused with Eliot’s exquisite poetry.

Vandemonian Lags

New Songs from the Prison without Walls

Theatre Royal Hobart

by Gai Anderson

There is so much to like about this show. It's rich entertainment on so many levels, and the sold out crowd was lapping it up at its premiere at the first DARK MOFO Festival in Hobart on Friday night.

Image courtesy of MOFO programme

The talented and prolific Thomas brothers, Steve of Roar Film in Hobart and Mick, of Weddings Parties Anything fame, have outdone themselves in bringing us this dramatized song cycle of eighteen powerful Tasmanian tales. It is based on real stories from Founders and Survivors Storylines, a comprehensive multi-media website created by Steve Thomas. The website tells the story of the making of Australia based on the world heritage listed convict records of Tasmania. Everyone should check it out. It is beautiful, mind-blowing in scope and versions of the songs are there to listen to.

The tales Mick has chosen to turn into song take a particular tack. It explores a largely unknown aspect of the early colony history, where the convict stain was so great that Victoria passed a law forbidding these Vandemonian Lags to run away from their dark past in Tasmania to the promise of a new life even if they had been freed. And yet, as Australia goes to WW1 not 50 years later for king and country, more than 50% of those soldiers are the direct descendants of convicts.