It has been the fortnight of small things. Even longer. It has been weeks since I was in a big theatre, or a big gallery. Probably October. Even then it was the small space of the big theatre. It was a small show in the big festival. And as the year gets more celebratory and big and crazy, I care less to put myself in a big space, and more shy of spectacle. But how powerful the small works can be. How rousing is intimacy. How engaging and absolutely natural. The interaction between the humans of the audience and the space are part of the theatre, the exhibit. Some examples? Today I went to a photographic exhibition by Mara Ripani- 'Girl Portrait'- in her loungeroom. Yes, my daughter was one of the subjects in Mara's beautiful works. But the work of Mara extends into her garden, her cooking, her invitation into her home where film crews have visited (her garden has featured in gardening Australia). It is more about life than art. It is about welcome. And the diverse and surprising elements which surfaced in the photos of the girls that formed this exhibition are a testimony to Mara's invitation to be natural in it's wildest sense.
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Another example, Pigeon Hole- a theatre installation (pictured above), in the narrow laneway of Union Lane, which runs between Bourke st and Little Collins. I had the pleasure of spending the day with brilliant performer/creators Jodee Mundy and Dan Goronszy, on Thursday, before Pigeon Hole opened on Friday. Ah, to see a piece of theatre the audience can walk around. Set in a tiny box like set which contains the performers, trying to go about their daily business without disrupting each other, but inevitably doing just that. The piece reflects on sharing small spaces, on urban environments, on the pressure of not having our feet on the ground, and the tiny dwelling set within the towering walls of the city laneway reflected also on power imbalance, on wealth, and on homelessness, just by virtue of being within such a dominating frame.
And one more thought about small things, in the light of Dame Elizabeth Murdoch's passing last week. What a generous woman she was, an absolute inspiration. Yet generosity can not be measured just by the amount of money, time or energy someone gives. Because everyone has different capacities to give at any given moment. There are many who give of themselves in their fullest capacity, yet sometimes that capacity may not be so large for any number of reasons. Perhaps one of Dame Elizabeth's greatest generosities was her willingness to go against the social strata, to break convention, in order to follow her vision. And so here's to the memory of Elizabeth, and the many others who also dedicate themselves to giving, in sometimes small and sometimes visionary ways.
Another example, Pigeon Hole- a theatre installation (pictured above), in the narrow laneway of Union Lane, which runs between Bourke st and Little Collins. I had the pleasure of spending the day with brilliant performer/creators Jodee Mundy and Dan Goronszy, on Thursday, before Pigeon Hole opened on Friday. Ah, to see a piece of theatre the audience can walk around. Set in a tiny box like set which contains the performers, trying to go about their daily business without disrupting each other, but inevitably doing just that. The piece reflects on sharing small spaces, on urban environments, on the pressure of not having our feet on the ground, and the tiny dwelling set within the towering walls of the city laneway reflected also on power imbalance, on wealth, and on homelessness, just by virtue of being within such a dominating frame.
And one more thought about small things, in the light of Dame Elizabeth Murdoch's passing last week. What a generous woman she was, an absolute inspiration. Yet generosity can not be measured just by the amount of money, time or energy someone gives. Because everyone has different capacities to give at any given moment. There are many who give of themselves in their fullest capacity, yet sometimes that capacity may not be so large for any number of reasons. Perhaps one of Dame Elizabeth's greatest generosities was her willingness to go against the social strata, to break convention, in order to follow her vision. And so here's to the memory of Elizabeth, and the many others who also dedicate themselves to giving, in sometimes small and sometimes visionary ways.
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