Step out of the time shallows and into the deep-water memory of Boonwurrung Country.

Experiencing this artwork -
Listen on your personal device with headphones in a quiet place.

About this work -
Developed in collaboration with Boonwurrung Elder N’arwee’t Carolyn Briggs, Watershed is an essay and audio recording that delves into the deep history of Melbourne’s waterways.

This is not the first time this land has faced a climate crisis, and Watershed is an illuminating exploration of the resilience of Country and the meaning of change. From continental drift to the natural flooding of Nairm/Port Phillip Bay, explore the deep time perspective of Indigenous climate memory.

Boonwurrung words and history from ‘The Journey Cycles of the Boonwurrung’ by N’arwee’t Carolyn Briggs. Permission to share and discuss Boonwurrung cultural heritage granted by N’arwee’t Carolyn Briggs.

Artistic Credits -
Audio performed by Cass Lynch and N’arweet Carolyn Briggs
Writer – Cass Lynch
Water Story Custodian and Guiding Boonwurrung Elder – N’arwee’t Carolyn Briggs
Sound Design – Theo McMahon
Voice-over recording – Mei Swan Lim

Commissioned by Arts House for Refuge 2021 

Supported by – 
Arts House is a key program of the City of Melbourne, and supported by the Australia Council for the Arts.

Image - 
By Sarah Rowbottam

Watershed by Cass Lynch

Arts House’s new Disability-led residency and commissioning program focuses on experimental projects presented at North Melbourne Town Hall.

The Warehouse Residency centres and celebrates D/deaf, Disabled, neurodiverse and chronically ill artists, curators, collectives and their collaborating allies. 

EOIs for the 2022 program close Thursday 14 October, 5pm.
For more information visit www.artshouse.com.au

The Warehouse Residency EOI Call Out

An aural and visual excursion into both the musical fugue and the psychological ‘fugue state’, While You Sleep by Sal Cooper & Kate Neal unites string quartet, piano, electronics, video and animation in a surreal counterpoint of music, movement and image where nothing is quite as it seems.

Showing at Arts House as part of Mere Mortals. 7 - 11 Nov 2018.

https://www.artshouse.com.au/events/while-you-sleep/

While You Sleep strings excerpt

Arts House is Melbourne’s home for contemporary performance.

With a year-round program of dance, theatre, music, sound, new technologies and community projects, Arts House is one of the major forces shaping Melbourne’s cultural and social landscape. We cultivate diverse new audiences for independent artists’ ambitious new work, and we build relationships at both local and international levels.

This is a house where change happens. From the crisis of extinction to the rapid transformations of technology, we know that the futures of humanity and art are entwined. We want to be hopeful.

As part of Melbourne’s cultural landscape, Arts House expresses the deep forces that shape that terrain. Our programming pays respect to Traditional Owners and the land on which our work takes place, and reflects Australia’s ongoing history of migration and displacement.

Arts House also seeks to ask questions about power: who has the power to speak, and what is the power of listening? We explore new ways of distributing curatorial power, and commit to an artistic vision that is transparent and connected.