Arts House Listening Program

(papier-mache glitter brain): I had an idea. I couldn’t good word, or word good. My laughing says everything. Placed on a white plinth sits a papier mache brain shaped sculpture. The brain is roughly the size of a microwave. It is covered in white paper with black words. The layers of ripped up pieces of paper have the draft didactic text of the Sublime Stim exhibition printed onto them. Some words are clear like ‘warrior, do, ableism, swan, what’. The majority of words are so layered that we see only the ends and beginnings but not them in entirety. The paper has different and varying fonts - some cursive, some tightly condensed, and some handwritten. On the top to one side of the brain is a strip of glittery colour. It is in the shape of a long tear drop or paisley. The strip is made of soft oranges and pinks. On the fringes of it are streaks of gold paint, and amongst patches of all these colours lie tiny glittery beads.

(Mermaid deer mask painting): Don’t look at my mystical mermaid deer winged body. I’m totally a regular norm-core human, that masks real good. An A4 painting on thin plywood. A night-sky landscape of a black background with white specks of different sizes. In the bottom right half of the painting are two mythical looking creatures who appear to be the same species. They have light green mermaid tails on their bottom halves. Their top halves of deer torsos, front legs and faces are pink and red. On their backs are light blue feathery wings. They are facing one another. The one on the left has a raised right leg, a sense of purposeful movement towards the other. The one on the right has its body facing away, with its neck turned to face its companion. On its face sits a cream coloured mask the shape of a human face.

(Film): Culture expressed through gesture, sensations all over, and the way the world understands itself: we don’t want to put anything in here that doesn’t make it better. A 20 minute film, played on loop, is projected on a large 3 by 4 metre wide screen which has been hung in front of a black curtain. The film presents diverse people sitting or standing in relaxed postures or stimming, all in front of a hand painted blue and orange abstract sky. At times the camera captures close-ups of their faces, torsos, in and out of focus. While the people discuss their lived experience of autism, they often express their stimming as they describe it, such as: eating various types of food, skin stroking, hair twirling, arm flailing, painting, palms pressing into one another, skin being pushed and manipulated, lips sucked, and fingers tapping. There are further glimpses of these physical details recorded through a macro lens, conveying extreme close up imagery of fingers, eyes, skin, hair, and other fragments of t

(blob painting): sometimes I like it when my executive functions drop. I can like being over stimulated, sometimes it’s funny and confusing. I can get sound to touch synesthesia; it can tickle me in weird places, like my organs. A human-like creature painted on gray linen canvas. The creature fills two thirds of the canvas. The creature is an entanglement of human-like body parts, entwined with more obscurely shaped parts. It seems the creature is folding in on itself protectively. The outstretched tentacle-like hands are maroon in tinge. The rest of the body has varying shades of pinky reds and oranges. While the creature has human-like hands, and suggestions of shoulder, elbows, arms, and legs, there is no head or face, nor eyes. The way the layers of the body come together makes it look as though three separate entities have formed into one.

Arts House’s 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 close Thursday 20 October 2022, 5pm AEST https://www.artshouse.com.au/artist-opportunities/the-warehouse-residency/

Expressions of Interest (EOI) are currently open for CultureLAB. CultureLAB is a creative development program that supports independent artists, collectives, and small-medium organisations to generate new work. CultureLAB is one of the pathways through which Arts House commissions work for our presentation seasons. EOI’s close: Thursday 20 October 2022, 5pm AEST Find out more here https://www.artshouse.com.au/artist-opportunities/culturelab/

You’re listening to a recording of “Talking In the Time of Refuge”, a conversation held at Arts House on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation Saturday 19 March 2022. Refuge has been one of Arts House’s most significant undertakings – a multi-year project bringing together a range of people to explore how collaboration with community is critical for how we prepare for climate emergency. In this conversation you’ll hear from Elders, artists, emergency services and researchers as they think through insights gathered over the last six years’ work. Speakers: Jodie McVernon, Professor and Director of Doherty Epidemiology Steve Cameron, Manager – Community and Volunteer Development Emergency Management Victoria Faye Bendrups, SES Controller David Pledger, Author/Editor In the Time of Refuge Dr Jen Rae, Latai Taumoepeau, and Lorna Hannan, Refuge Artists More information visit: https://www.artshouse.com.au/events/talking-in-the-time-of-refuge/

An in-depth chat about where it all began. FAMILI brings together 15 artists whose bloodlines hail from Pasifika, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, weaving together some of the most essential queer and Bla(c)k voices across Australia. To experience ‘We Take Back Our Mother Tongues’ by FAMILI at Arts House on Fri 6 & Sat 7 May, 2022 visit https://www.artshouse.com.au/events/famili-we-take-back-our-mother-tongues/ Recorded, Produced and Edited by Guy Louis Faletolu Story by Ripley Kavara

Arts X Science Residency EOI Call Out by Arts House Listening Program

CultureLAB EOI Call Out by Arts House Listening Program

Makeshift Publics EOI Call Out by Arts House Listening Program

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

Vaka 10: Pilgrimage (4:35) Audio excerpt of Rev Dr Jione Havea - Tongan Methodist Church - WCC 2016 Concept and Fāiva: Latai Taumoepeau Composition and Sound: Nina Buchanan

Fonua OUTRO: Stop | Start (0:05) Concept and Fāiva: Latai Taumoepeau Composition and Sound : Nina Buchanan

Fonua INTRO: Begin|Go by Arts House Listening Program

Vaka 4: Legend of the coconut (2:38) From the book Po Fananga - Folk Tales of Tonga by Tupou Posesi Fanua Read in Tongan by Sis’uno Helu, Read in English by Tempest Fale’aka Taumoepeau Concept and Faiva: Latai Taumoepeau Composition and Sound: Nina Buchanan

Vaka 9 Folau: The Arrival (2:36) Sound Selector/Mixer Lucreccia Quintanilla Concept and Fāiva: Latai Taumoepeau Composition and Sound: Nina Buchanan

Vaka 8: Longest Journey (4:40) Stiff Gins with SistaNative Written by: Kaleen Briggs, Nardi Simpson and Seini SistaNative Taumoepeau "Courtesy & © the artists" Unpublished, demo recording at ABC Studios, Ultimo/Sydney. Languages sung: Tongan & English

Vaka 7: Promise (0:41) Concept and Fāiva: Latai Taumoepeau Composition and Sound : Nina Buchanan

Vaka 6: Two Volcanoes (3:56) Sound Selector/Mixer Lucreccia Quintanilla Concept and Fāiva: Latai Taumoepeau Composition and Sound : Nina Buchanan