SOMETHING ELSE (Eastside 89.7FM)

ASTRID LORANGE is Sydney based poet, performer, researcher and academic whose book ‘How Reading is Written’ (2015) explores the legacy of Gertrude Stein and challenges the settled conventions of language. Astrid believes that language – both in writing and reading – should be open to experimentation; always kept fresh and innovative. Language, in other words, should be a constant discovery. On 27 February 2015, Ira Ferris interviewed Astrid on Eastside Radio 89.7FM. 

For more about this episode see: https://artiris.wordpress.com/2015/03/07/queering-the-language-with-astrid-lorange/

Interview with poet and researcher Astrid Lorange: QUEERING THE LANGUAGE (Feb 2015)

Internationally acclaimed curator, Zvonimir Dobrovic was in Sydney as guest of Performance Space and 2015 Mardi Gras festival. On Friday 27 February, he joined Ira Ferris on Eastside Radio 89.7FM to talk about his practice and the new, extended meaning of queer art.

Zvonimir is known for his unconventional approach to curating queer. His vision of queer art widens the common association of queer with the LGBT related content and includes all art that is subversive, all art that questions normativity and conventionality. The art, in other words, that is a disruption to business-as-usual, to normative assumptions that lead to marginalisation and discrimination of any kind.

In this interview, Zvonimir reflects on socio-political relevance of queer art and explains why he believes that art (and non-didactic art in particular) has a power to broaden the per-existing limiting and marginalising narratives, more effectively than other initiatives. 

He also explains why it is important to keep queer art indexical rather then iconic, where iconic is seen as repetitive and formulaic while indexical points to something new and unexpected, something that we have not yet thought of. The indexical art is an art of discovery. Art that is not indexical stops being queer.

For more about this interview see:
https://artiris.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/challenging-the-notion-of-queer-art-with-internationally-acclaimed-curator-zvonimir-dobrovic/

Interview with curator Zvonimir Dobrovic: CHALLENGING THE NOTION OF QUEER ART (Feb 2015)

Interview with Australian contemporary dancer and choreographer JAMES WELSBY whose work HEX explores the legacy and impact of the 80s AIDS crisis through the lens of the generation that was born in its wake. Combining contemporary dance with queer club performance, HEX provides an experience of both celebration and reflection; it is a tribute to those who have been lost, but also a celebration of the community they shaped, and which continues to grow. 

HEX is an allegorical piece that acknowledges and unearths the inherited grief and fear of post-AIDS generation; a fear that has become a sort of subconscious oppressor – the one that takes control over the body and manifests itself in heavy, constrained, inhibited, silenced, subdued, passionless, even apathetic form. 

Almost ritualistically HEX brings this lifeless body and fear into the spotlight and onto the stage only to burn them into the ashes and allow for the new, liberated body to (re)emerge. 

With nostalgia HEX looks back onto the pre-AIDS era when joy, passion and exuberance took the stage (literally the stage of the late 70s Saturday Night Fever disco) and invites for their triumphant return.

Interview with dancer and choreographer James Walsby: HEX (Feb 2015)

Cait Harris is Sydney and LA based comedian, writer, and performer. On Thursday 5 February she joined Ira Ferris on Eastside Radio 89.7FM to talk about her upcoming gig at the Giant Dwarf, her work-practice, style, influences, and “overactive imagination”.

Cait spoke about her inspiration-sources, how her writing changed over time, the importance of risk-taking, the value of cohesiveness and structure in comedy, how she deals with ‘demanding’ audience and pressure of performing live, whether comedy is her copping mechanism or “a way of making sense of things”, and more….

“I have adrenals of the size of the navel orange.” ~ Cait Harris

Cait’s stories can be found in the ebook The Sturgeon General Presents Cait Harris with Momentum Publishing.

Interview with comedian and writer Cait Harris: MY OVERACTIVE IMAGINATION (Feb 2015)

To coincide with the 40th anniversary of International Women’s Day, the University of Sydney Art Gallery has put together an exhibition “Girls at The Tin Sheds: Sydney Feminist Posters 1975–1990″ featuring works from the women artists and poster-makers who worked at the Tin Sheds, a hothouse for social and political debates.

Dazzling and provocative, these posters tackle some of the most pressing issues of the time – feminism, Aboriginal rights, anti-nuclear testing, etc. – the themes that, unfortunately, seem as fresh and as relevant today as they were back then.

Senior Curator of the Art Gallery, Ann Stephen talks about the origin of these works and the era of their production.

Interview with curator Ann Stephen: SYDNEY FEMINIST POSTERS (Feb, 2015)

Recorded on the occasion of DEAR SYLVIA exhibition, a group photomedia exhibition inspired by life of American poet Sylvia Plath.  

The Australian Centre for Photography (ACP)exhibition was curated by Claire Monneraye and featured works of nine female international artists who examine the representation of the female body and the female condition in contemporary society – whether this society is a developed, Western world (i.e. France, UK, Australia, Netherlands) or a country such as Romania, Ukraine, Palestine, South America, and Israel where not only female but human rights in general are under constant and extreme threat.

Through variety of photographic styles and genres, these nine female photomedia artist depict female body as both fragile and suffocated, as well as a powerful and vibrant agent of revolutionary change. In doing so they portray the complexity of Sylvia Plath’s own condition as unconventionally passionate women, a spirit eager to fly high and free in a society where freedom, joy and superfluous love was discouraged, perhaps even ridiculed.

On Thursday 5 February, Ira Ferris spoke to Claire Monneraye, the exhibition’s curator and Marlous van der Sloot, a Dutch photographer whose body of work features in the exhibition and examines the ways photography can be used to restore physicality to our overly rational minds; to encourage return to senses in what could be seen as a “touch starved” society. Marlous images re-establish connection between animal and human creating distortions that prompt us to re-learn to see.

“So we shall walk barefoot on walnut shells
of withered worlds, and stamp out puny hells
and heavens till the spirits squeak
surrender: to build our bed as high as jack’s
bold beanstalk; lie and love till sharp scythe hacks
away our rationed days and weeks.” ~ Sylvia Plath

Interview with curator Claire Monneraye & photographer Marlous van der Sloot (Feb 2015)

2013 year’s Venice Biennale winner, Tino Seghal is showing his work ‘This is so contemporary’ at the Art Gallery of NSW. Julia and Ira spoke about Seghal and his work to curator Emma Pike from the Kaldor Public Art Projects.

Seghal's work is cross-disciplinary, physical and choreographic often described as “living sculptures”, “live art” and (by Seghal himself) as “constructed situations”.

For more info see this page: https://artiris.wordpress.com/2014/02/05/its-time-for-tino-seghals-encounter/#more-420

Eastside Radio 89.7fm

Interview with curator Emma Pike: TINO SEGHAL, THIS IS SO CONTEMPORARY (Jan 2014)

Sydney-based performance artist Frances Barrett discusses the long-durational performance art: the strategies employed in physical and mental preparation for the endurance pieces, potential ethical concerns involved, questions of time and altered state of consciousness this genre of performance art elicits, and much more. 

Is the intention behind the long-durational performance to put the audience in an uncomfortable position? Click play to find out. 

This show was inspired by the visit to Australia of the renowned New York based artist Tehching Hsieh, who is considered a “master” of the durational performance genre.

More info:
https://artiris.wordpress.com/2014/04/26/on-endurance-art-with-frances-barrett-2/

Interview with performance artist Frances Barrett: ENDURANCE ART (April 2014)

Michelle St Anne is a founder and Artistic Director of The Living Room Theatre, a Sydney based performing company engaged in production of multidisciplinary and “sensory oriented” work.

Here she speaks about why she likes non-linear and “illogical” theatre; how she uses various sensory stimulation (including smell) to  indulge imagination and enter the subconscious of people; why confusing the audience is important; and how interdisciplinary collaboration enriches her practice and brings variety of textures to each new work.

“I love confusing people; I think it’s really important because then you get them frustrated and the mind starts racing.”

Eastside-89.7FM

Interview with performance artist Michelle St Anne: WHY CONFUSION IS IMPORTANT (May 2014)

Here we speak about the Performance Space curated 'Sonic Social', a program of participatory sound works that occur site-specifically throughout the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Our guests are sound artist / curator, Gail Priest and performance / multimedia artist Lauren Brincat.

Lauren Brincat speaks about ‘NO PERFORMANCE TODAY’, a participatory performance piece that involves a police marching band and moves between the bustling public space of MCA’s forecourt and the interior of MCA foyer. It tests the boundaries of what is perceived as and allowed into the grand category of ‘Performance Art’ and Art in general exploring group dynamics and creating a situation for social interplay. This performance interrupts the forthright spectacle we commonly experience with marching bands and works between the polar opposites such as individual-mass, structure-dissolution, and inside-outside exploring how sound effects our behavior and whether the arbitrary created polar opposites can be disseminated through tension.

Eastside Radio 89.7FM

Interview with sound artists Gail Priest and Lauren Brincat: SONIC SOCIAL (June 2014)

Curator of 2014 Primavera, Sydney-based artist Mikala Dwyer joined me in the studio to talk curating Primavera (an annual exhibition for emerging Australian artists) and Australian emerging art scene.

How do we define emerging?

Why she sees herself more as a host than a curator proper?

How did she go about selecting 13 artists out of more than 100 she met whilst travelling around the country?

Are there some current or emerging trends the young Australian artists are preoccupied with or are exploring?

How is the Northern Territory art scene different from Sydney and Melbourne one?

These and more in the interview with Mikala.

Interview with curator Mikala Dwyer: "EMERGING" ARTIST (August 2014)

Macushla Robinson, assistant curator of contemporary international art at the Art Gallery of NSW, talks about Sol LeWitt, conceptual art pioneer whose 40 years of practice is currently showing at the Art Gallery of NSW. 

In late 60s Sol LeWitt wrote famous Paragraphs and Sentences on Conceptual Art and forged a new way of thinking about art practice, where idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work and the execution is only a perfunctory affair. 

More info: https://artiris.wordpress.com/2014/03/21/talking-sol-lewitt/#more-574

Interview with curator Macushla Robinson: TALKING CONCEPTUAL ART PIONEER SOL LEWITT (March 2014)

When we think of Pop Art we usually think of it as being a male dominated movement. Names such as Warhol, Lichtenstein, or Hamilton immediately spring to mind while it is almost impossible to recall a single female artist. But back in the days (1960s) pop art was not all about the blokes; female shared the art scene and the success with their male peers grappling with sexuality and consumer culture as much as their male counterparts. What has happened since and why have they fallen off the art historical map?

We speak to curator Maura Reilly and art historian Catriona Moore to shine the light back on them and expand the preconditioned understanding of what falls into the pop art movement.

Maura Reilly is a New York and Sydney-based curator, arts writer, and educator. In 2007, together with Linda Nochlin, she co-curated critically acclaimed Global Feminisms exhibition, a major international exhibition of feminist contemporary art. Maura is also a Founding Curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, the very first exhibition and public programing space in a U.S. museum devoted exclusively to feminist art. Her most recent publication Curatorial Activism: Toward an Ethics of Curating will be available in 2015.

Catriona Moore is art historian and the University of Sydney lecturer specialised in modern, postmodern and contemporary art with particular interest in feminist art and writing. In 2013, Catriona co-founded Contemporary Art & Feminism project steered by academics and curators with a long-standing commitment to the making, documentation, analysis and promotion of art practice and art writing informed by feminism.

Interview art historians Maura Reilly & Catriona Moore: DESTABILIZING THE POP ART CANON (Dec '14)

Sydney based audio-visual artist, Mary Mainsbridge from the Deprogram talks about her new work ‘Bodyscapes’ showing at PACT as part of the 2014 Sydney Fringe Festival.

Why she is interested in interaction between movement and sound? Is body a resonating wire? What happens when we use movement detection technology to generate sounds and visuals?

Interview with audio-visual artist Mary Mainsbridge: MOVEMENT-GENERATED BODYSCAPES (September 2014)

Rhetorical Chorus is a work by Australian artist Agatha Gothe-Snape, inspired by her chance encounter with legendary conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner. 

Specially commissioned for New York’s Performa Biennial (2015), Rhetorical Chorus brings together a choir, PowerPoint projection, spoken text and choreography to subtly unravel the myths and methods of the 20th Century male artist. The Sydney performance includes participation of the renowned American vocalist and musician Joan La Barbara.

Composer Megan Clune is in conversation with Artremis Projects' Ira Ferris (on Eastside Radio 89.7FM) to talk about the work and how it has changed from its 2015 premier to 19 October 2017 when it is premiering at Sydney's Carriageworks as part of the Performance Space's Liveworks festival.

Eastside Radio

Interview with composer Megan Clune on Rhetorical Chorus (19 Oct 2017)

What is 'composed theatre'? How can we avoid conventional narrative structure? Why is engagement of all the senses important? And what impact do spaces have on our bodies and our psyche? 

Find out in our conversation with founder and director of the Living Room Theatre, Michelle St Anne whose latest production 'A Requiem for Anastasia' explores how does heat register in our bodies and our imagination.

Ira and Michelle chat on Eastside Radio 89.7FM (19 October 2017) and are joined by Michelle's collaborator, sound artist Alexandra Spence who is imagining what the heat sounds like.

Interview: Michelle St Anne & Alexandra Spence (Living Room Theatre)(19 Oct 2017)

We speak to designer and social advocate Shuang West about the approach to architecture that puts communities and creativity in front of commercial drives. 

We touch upon theories of spatial intelligence, slow architecture, and sidewalk ballet, and discuss why Japanese architect seem to be doing it right. 

Passionate about the creative and social conscious approach to architecture, Shuang was recently involved in #WeLiveHere campaign that brought light – both metaphorically and literally – to the public housing and redevelopment plans in Waterloo. In this interview she shares some insights with us.

She also talks about her Project Archonic and the coming AGENCY 2017 Australasian Student Architecture Congress which will host conversations around agency with an aim of empowering young people and offering alternatives to current models.

This interview was originally aired on Eastside Radio, on 9 November 2017: http://eastsidefm.org/

Other relevant webpages:
http://www.welivehere2017.com.au/
https://www.agency2017.net/
http://projectarchonic.com/

Snippets of music by Jlin (playing Sydney Festival on 19 Jan 2018), Ametsub (https://soundcloud.com/ametsub), and Friglob (https://soundcloud.com/friglob).

Interview with designer and social advocate Shuang West (9 Nov 2017)

Interview with Australian electronic sound artist, writer and researcher Gail Priest originally aired on Eastside Radio 89.7FM.

Ira and Gail talk about Gail's recently released album Heraclitus in Iceland recorded during her 2016 art residency in Northern Iceland. The album is based around various field recordings mixed with vocalisations and instrumental improvisation, and can be found on gailpriest.net.

They also speak about Gail's project SonoLexic recently premiered at Experimenta Makes Sense triennial in Melbourne in which Gail looks at relationship between sound and language - how do we speak about what we hear and, in turn, how do we sonically imagine someone else's description of sound.

MUSIC PLAYED:
- Friglob, 'Gravity' (excerpt for intro)
- Gail Priest, Home Moan from Heraclitus in Iceland
- Gail Priest, Scraps for Sirens and Harpies from Heraclitus in Iceland
- Gail Priest, Particle Flux from Heraclitus in Iceland
- Gail Priest, Toxin Tales from Heraclitus in Iceland (shortened for outro)

Gail's album is available for purchase via bandcamp, etc. More info on gailpriest.net

Interview with experimental sound artist Gail Priest

Eastside Radio interview with musician / music producer / artist, Jack Prest (aka Future Love Hangover) ahead of the Sincere Input exhibition and the release of his latest studio album.

We talk about the creative approach to releasing music, the purpose built websites for dedicated listening, why he goes around wearing massive pink rectangular on his back, and more....  

Find out more here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2258250361069005/

Follow via instagram here:
https://www.instagram.com/futurelovehangover/

Interview with Jack Prest (Future Love Hangover) about Sincere Input

Back in December 2014, comedian Cait Harris and performance artist Ivan Cheng recorded their works for the x-mas show on Eastside Radio 89.7fm.

Cait Harris is a Sydney based performer and writer of plays, films and short stories. Her stories can be found in the ebook The Sturgeon General Recommends Cait Harris with Momentum Publishing and she can be seen performing on ABC 2’s new series Storyclub in January 2015. Every so often Cait can also be seen performing at the comedy venue Giant Dwarf on Cleveland Street, Redfern. In the comedy skit recorded for our show, Cait plays a radio presenter who after numerous unsuccessful relationships falls in love with a cockatoo.

Ivan Cheng is an Australian artist whose practice focuses on the damage in interpreting notation. As well as collaborative projects, he has shown conceptual performance work in Europe, North America, and Australia. Having studied at the Royal Academy of Music and Sydney Conservatorium of Music, he is developing scores which relate to formalism and history across cultural form, interested in the temporal act of reading and sight-reading. For our show, Ivan performs the text titled Duksy River, Disky River, Dusky Rivet. The text-score is followed by an experimental version of Silent Night composed by Ivan in collaboration with Polish-American sound artist Derek Piotr as the first track of a hypothetical Christmas album. For more about Ivan and his future work see ivancheng.com


MUSIC TRACKS played during the show:
1) Nina Simon, I Wish I Knew (How It Would Feel To Be Free) from ‘Live in Montreux 1976′ album
2) Tape Five, A Cool Cat In Town (feat. Brenda Boykin) from ‘Tonight Josephine!’ album
3) Louis Prima, When You’re Smiling / the Sheik of Araby from ‘All Time Greatest Hits’ album
4) Camille, Gospel With No Lord from ‘Music Hole’ album
5) Ivan Cheng and Derek Piotr, Silent Night
6)Jun Miyake, Lillies of the Valley from ‘Pina Soundtrack (Wim Wenders Film)’
7) Asian Dub Foundation, Commited to Life from ‘Community Music’ album
8) Lauryn Hill, To Zion from ‘The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill’ album
9) On The Stoop, The Butt Naked Blues, from ‘On The Stoop’ album

IMAGE: Ivan Cheng, EVEN!, a second stage of ‘epoche-lacan-orbits’ performance series (2014)

Eastside Radio X-mas with Cait Harris and Ivan Cheng

PODCAST-CONVERSATIONS with artists and art theorists, from visual to performing arts, discussing conceptual frameworks and philosophical outlooks. Also some SOUND-COLLAGES, assembled together on variety of themes, such as: sleep, silence, intuition, collaboration, failure, and more. 

Available via iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/artemis-projects/id1462300886

PRODUCER & HOST: Ira Ferris (https://www.artemisprojects.com.au/projects-ira-ferris)

SOMETHING ELSE (Eastside 89.7FM)

Artemis Projects