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Alumni for BACKFLIP at VCA

Humour has a unique ability to simultaneously disrupt and entertain. Seeking to challenging the ongoing stereotype of feminism as dry, dull and humourless, Kickstarters I’m Trying to Kiss You and 2012 NWF alumna Atlanta Eke perform for the closing night of BACKFLIP: Feminism and Humour in Contemporary Art. Presented by the VCA, the exhibition affirms laughter as a potent tool for feminist artists across generations, geographies and political contexts.

Following on from last year’s lecture by the Guerrilla Girls, BACKFLIP presents a range of strategies and approaches from slapstick to satire, detouring through irony and black humour.

Closing Night Celebration: Thursday 23 May, 6-8pm

Exhibition Dates: Friday 26 April – 25 May

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Menagerie at MTC NEON

MTC have launched their brand spanking new NEON Festival of Independent Theatre inviting five of Melbourne’s top independent companies to stage their work, their way.

The first of these productions is Menagerie, presented by the Daniel Schlusser Ensemble (Daniel mentored Mutation Theatre for NWF 2012) and produced by our very own Marketing & Development Manager Nicole. Menagerie is a new production based on the life and work of one of the giants of the American stage, Tennessee Williams. Meet the circus of Williams’ decrepit swelter: caged animals, wild at heart with the American Dream – capitalism and hedonism – oozing through the seams of their imaginative worlds.

Running alongside the five productions is NEON EXTRA, a diverse program of free events ranging from in-depth forums, to workshops, networking and mentoring opportunities for independent theatre makers.

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Danae Valenza at Gertrude

Current JUMPster Danae Valenza presents alongside six other artists for Everyday Rebellions, a new exhibition at Gertrude Contemporary. Investigating the inherent rebellion in their chosen media, the artists highlight the agitated, activated and constantly moving nature of all things: Frozen ice will melt despite our urgings, light sensitive paper will always colour under daylight, and copper sulfide will taint with its decolourising stain. Only when we attempt to restrain or alter the errant energy in our materials do we become aware of its true character.

Opening Friday 10 May 6 – 8pm

Gallery Hours:
Tues – Fri 11 – 5.30pm
Sat 11 – 4.30pm

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Alumni at BUS Projects

2012 NWF alumni Danae Valenza and Marcin Wojcik join a group of Melbourne artists for SOLUTIONS, a new exhibition at Bus Projects. Taking shared creativity as their MO, the artists make use of open methods and technologies to create reactionary and instructional pieces – a series of DIY art solutions. Incorporating video, sound, installation and performance, the works place restrictions or subtle guidelines on the exhibition space producing actions and reactions between bodies, objects  and space.

Opening Wednesday 1 May 6-8pm

Gallery Hours: Tues – Sat 12 – 6pm

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Esther Stewart at Utopian Slumps

This weekend, Kickstart Artist Esther Stewart opens her new exhibition Makin’ Plans  at Utopian Slumps. Stewart’s latest body of work contrasts simple shapes and colours, shifting and repositioning them in order to produce optical effects and clashes within the layout. Her paintings engage with their environment, mimicking the lines of constructed architectural space and echoing the visual language used in the mapping and planning of such spaces. Using only flat surfaces, an illusion of space is created.

Opening Saturday 4 May, 4 – 6pm.

Gallery Hours: Wed – Sat 12 – 6pm

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Goodbye CSIRAC At SmartBar

Festival alumna Zoe Meagher plugs in at Melbourne Museum’s May Smartbar, Retro Futurism, remounting her 2012 festival work, Goodbye, CSIRAC. Past and future technologies collide as Zoe leads a retro-scifi tour into the  guts of the Museum, uncovering the true story of CSIRAC, “Australia’s first computer”. As lights blink and paper tape whirrs, the forgotten history of female computer operators just might summon the mysterious Ghost of Computers Past…A love letter to 1960s computing and sci-fi, Goodbye, CSIRAC commemorates the things – and people – we forget when technologies become obsolete.

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Oscar Perry at Westspace

Zui Quan is a category of techniques, forms and fighting philosophy that appear to imitate drunkard’s movements. The postures are created using the momentum and weight of the body, generally through staggering with a certain type of fluidity in the movements. It is considered to be among the most difficult wushu styles to learn due to the need for powerful joints and fingers. While in fiction practitioners of Zui Quan are often portrayed as being actually intoxicated, the techniques are highly acrobatic and require a great degree of balance and coordination. You can give it a go yourself, with or without a drink in you, at Kickstarter Oscar Perry’s exhibition Home Honey I’m High, at Westpace.

Opening Thursday 18 April 6 – 8pm

Artist Talk: Thursday 9 May 5.30 – 6.30pm

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