Performance Space Live Dreams : Reclaim

PRESENTED BY PERFORMANCE SPACE AND CARRIAGEWORKS

Bringing artists and audiences together in new, dynamic and responsive ways, Live Dreams is a series of curated performance events across three nights; DESTROY, RECLAIM, REVEL.

This innovative platform allows the artists to present ideas- and works-in-progress, so you can see first hand into the creative process, getting a glimpse into current developments in experimental art, and engage in a conversation about their next steps.

Following the raved-about first season at Liveworks 2020, Performance Space and Carriageworks are thrilled to present LIVE DREAMS May 2021. Taking place both in physical space and online, come and get a glimpse at the future of experimental art from across the Asia Pacific.

RECLAIM
Works that reconstruct spaces and ideas that have been lost, dismantled or stolen, or that propose what should exist instead.

LIVE DREAMS: RECLAIM ARTISTS 

Jamaica Moana
Shana O’Brien
James Hazel
AñA Wojak & Cloudbeard
Too Close to the Sun
Elysa Wendi and Rhiannon Newton

From the Performance Space website

Jamaica Moana’s work reclaiming Maori language and James Hazel’s work speaking from a working class perspective on class were both works that really resonated with me. Jamaica Moana’s performance speaks to culture, language, the rich history of Maori language and tradition and the attempt by colonisers to strip language from older generations. Jamaica is the embodiment of the strength of these generations to keep their language alive. The ocean as a backdrop, Jamaica’s movement and vocal work was incredibly powerful, can’t wait to see it in its final form.

James Hazel’s work is a perspective I feel is necessary for the arts in general or perhaps Australia as a whole. When it comes to art and cultural practice in Australia, how often is class addressed as a subject matter? How often is art and cultural practice spoken to from the perspective of the working class? How much of it speaks, connects to or is even accessible to the working class?

Here is an article James wrote on ‘why classical music and the high arts are so inhospitable to people from the working-class in Australia’. The big C word

This information from the ABS is interesting covering the statistics of gallery visitors and a more broader detailed study by the MCM - Social and demographic characteristics of cultural attendees 2006 gives an insight into who visits galleries and cultural events. Interestingly even when events are free, they can have a similar demographic attending. Although statics are always just that, not answers. More discussions and deeper investigation are needed.