Flesh & Diamonds showed at Gertrude Contemporary from 24 June to 27 August 2023. Angelita Biscotti's review of the exhibition is the fourth piece in 2023 for Gertrude – Performance Review.
Flesh and Diamonds, Lilian Steiner, by Angelita Biscotti on Performance Review
Steiner’s is a different take on what dance documentation and archiving can be and calls into question whether the default documentation systems of photography and video are effective at preserving a form whose beauty and power lie in its ephemerality. The work interrogates the premise that liveness can be captured, condensed and re-presented in a manner faithful to what was witnessed by those present. A video or photo of a moment in a sea of moments that flow into and from each other, are videos and photos of something that is not quite the thing. According to critic Peggy Phelan, “performance’s only life is in the present. Performance cannot be saved, recorded, documented, or otherwise participate in the circulation of representations of representations: once it does so, it becomes something other than performance. To the degree that performance attempts to enter the economy of reproduction it betrays and lessens the promise of its own ontology.”3
The Anguilla Pursuit showed at Gertrude Glasshouse from 10 March to 15 April 2023. Hamish McIntosh’s review of the exhibition is the third piece in 2023 for Gertrude – Performance Review.
The Anguilla Pursuit, Amrita Hepi by Hamish McIntosh on Performance Review
As beautiful as it can be, water is an imperfect medium. It can both sparkle and be contaminated by the detritus of the everyday, like leaves, oil and bacteria. It can be pleasurable and tainted, a sustainer of life and a catalyst for death. It can be, as in the Western imagination, an organ for empire that washes over the subject, or, as in Amrita Hepi’s The Anguilla Pursuit (2023), a deeply connected site of Indigenous resistance.
“24.01.23 - 25.01.23”, Gabriella Imrichova is the next edition of Gertrude – Performance Review. For this issue, Helen Grogan writes about Gabriella Imrichova’s 24 and 25 January durational performances presented as part of Contact High 2023.
Two public performances, each four hours long, took place on Tuesday 24 January and Wednesday 25 January. This text draws from both, as well as a closed ‘learning’ session on the afternoon of Saturday 21 January.
Read “24.01.23 - 25.01.23”, Gabriella Imrichova, by Helen Grogan on Performance Review
Drunken Mind, Heavy Heart by Olivia Bennett on Performance Review
Piloted in 2022, Contact High is a three-year partnership between Gertrude and Performance Review exploring the transference that occurs between performers and audiences in the gallery.
Each year during the month of January, a group of Naarm-based artists are given full access to Gertrude Glasshouse as a space in which to develop, rehearse and workshop new or existing performance works, before showing them to the public.
In January 2023, Contact High’s participating artists were Sophie Gargan, Gabriella Imrichova, Diego Ramírez and Kenneth Suico. These artists presented work on 18, 24 and 25 January.
Olivia Bennett writes in response to Sophie Gargan, Diego Ramírez and Kenneth Suico’s 18 January performances as part of Gertrude – Performance Review.
Georgia Banks in conversation is the fourth in the 2022 series of articles published by Performance Review in conjunction with Gertrude.
Georgia Banks in conversation by Ari Tampubolon on Performance Review
Ari Tampubolon's interview with Georgia Banks took place late in 2022 and is the fourth and final piece from the 2022 edition of Gertrude – Performance Review, Performance Review’s ongoing critical response to the performance elements of Gertrude’s artistic program.
Banks is a performance artist whose works begin with an invitation and a provocation. She was a Gertrude Studio Artist from 2019 – 2022. Banks exhibited Remains to be Seen at Gertrude Glasshouse 23 April - 22 May 2021. DataBaes is showing at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia til 20 August 2023 as part of Melbourne Now.
Read the full interview on Performance Review.
Sitting at the fuzzy periphery is the third in the series of articles published by Performance Review in conjunction with Gertrude in 2022.
Sitting at the fuzzy periphery by Katie Paine on Performance Review
Sitting at the fuzzy periphery is a response to the 26 May 2022 performances associated with Sam George and Lisa Radford's exhibition Veronica Franco v Instagram at Gertrude Glasshouse (27 May - 25 June 2022), authored by Katie Paine.
Read the full response on Performance Review.
Swimming in the edgeless sea by Claire Summers on Performance Review
Written in response to Octopus 22: Baroquetopus (Humanimal entanglements and tentacular spectaculars), curated by Tessa Laird, Swimming in the edgeless sea is authored by Claire Summers and reflects on performances held at Gertrude Contemporary on Saturday 14 May 2022:
Lisa Salvo, Shaun Fogarty, Emily Bennett, Tina Stefanou and Joseph Franklin, Planetary Commons, 2022, presented as part of Octopus 22: Baroquetopus (Humanimal entanglements and tentacular spectaculars), Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne.
Lichen Kelp, Dylan Martorell and Jason Hood, Kelping, 2022, presented as part of Octopus 22: Baroquetopus (Humanimal entanglements and tentacular spectaculars), Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne.
6 Days by daniel ward on Performance Review
Conceived as a poetic response to Contact High, 6 Days is authored by daniel ward (no more poetry).
Contact High (2022) was a Performance Review takeover of Gertrude Glasshouse. Over the course of three weeks, six Naarm based artists rehearsed, workshopped and developed new or existing performance works in the gallery. This culminated in the public presentation of these works across two performance nights on 20 and 27 January 2022.
6 Days conceptualises each of the six Contact High performances as a day. The poems appear in order of performances. Read the full response on Performance Review.
