Festivals taking art to new locales

It has been many years since the arts were considered the exclusive domain of galleries, theatres and concert halls, with Perth’s summer festival circuit a great example of this spatial evolution.

In their myriad, colourful forms, Perth’s art installations and performances are now available to the public in warehouses, heritage buildings and by the ocean, for example.

Fremantle Biennale’s major work, Moombaki, by Ilona McGuire was a drone show performed over the Swan River.

At Fringe World Festival, WA Museum Boola Bardip presented audiences with a performance in its 200-person elevator, in a show called Goods Lift.

Sculpture by the Sea is due to kick off in March for its 18th year, bringing art to the sands of Cottesloe Beach.

At Perth Festival, people can see live music at the European Foods Warehouse in Northbridge or visit an art installation built into hotel rooms at The Alex Hotel.

Rachel Claudio performed her show Sounds of Sunset at South Mole in Fremantle in the first week of festival programming.

Using her experience working on the soundtracks of films including Taken, Ms Claudio created different soundscapes each night to match the sunset.

She said performing outside invited openness to the audience and offered a different experience.

“The informality of it, the absence of preconceptions, the absence of rules and templates,” Ms Claudio told Business News.

After putting his touring on hold, multidisciplinary artist Regan Matthews, whose stage name is Ta-ku, wanted to do something different for his Perth Festival debut.

“Our dream was to go into a place that already had existing character,” Mr Matthews told Business News.

Mr Matthews teamed up with property developer Adrian Fini and his son and architect Alessio Fini, who donated use of the Lawson Apartments building in the CBD for his installation Songs to Experience.

The historic 1930s building was once home to the Karrakatta Club, Australia’s oldest womens’ club. “We could have easily found a warehouse in Osborne Park or Welshpool and put up fake walls and do it there, but I think what’s special about Lawson Apartments is there’s already that history in the Karrakatta Club as a ladies’ club where people would go and frequent and socialise, have business meetings or whatnot,” Mr Matthews said.

A different song from Mr Matthews’ upcoming debut album is played in each room of the heritage-listed building.

Alessio Fini said once he knew Perth Festival was seeking venues for performances, he wanted to be part of it.

“We knew Perth Festival was in transition; they were looking to move to more offsite venues to have more unique locations, particularly for their contemporary music programming,” Mr Fini told Business News.

“The question went out and we racked our brains for sites we knew of or had access to, and this was one of them.”

He said the idea of taking festivals outside into interesting urban structures and unused spaces was a worldwide phenomenon.

“It also allows people to reinterpret their city, to fall in love with it again and see it in new ways, and to understand there is opportunity everywhere,” Mr Fini said.

“From an urban point of view, anything can be turned into something beautiful.

“Our club has never ever been conceived to be what it will be in Ta-ku’s show.

“It has never been designed for that, but it will work to do that so compellingly.”

Adrian and Alessio Fini are planning on turning the building into a club for young creatives, which is due to open later this year.

Renovations will start on the building after Ta-ku’s show is finished on March 6.

Songs to Experience is showing at Lawson Apartments. Photo: Dan Grant

Among those behind the push to be more experimental with performance venues at the festival is Tom Supple.

Mr Supple recently joined the Perth Festival team as artistic associate director in contemporary music, having worked as senior music curator for Hobart’s Dark Mofo festival since it started in 2013.

Mr Supple said he was interested in the concept, professionally and personally.

“Being able to inject culture through this vehicle of festivals into the nooks and crannies of cities is a really useful way of reminding people how important cultural life is in the broader context of a city,” he said.

“Festivals have this great ability to shine attention on things through grouping events or activities in a short space of time, it gives them greater awareness or visibility so using that as [an] awareness vehicle, particularly in a place like Perth, is littered with opportunities.”

Originally from Melbourne, Mr Supple said there were exciting opportunities to experiment with space in Perth, given it was less developed than other cities.

“That’s the thing I find really exciting about Perth,” Mr Supple told Business News.

“The central city is a bit of a ghost town in some ways; there is this really visible void, which for me is there for the taking and ready to be filled.”

He said while using alternative venues could require obtaining permission from local councils and building owners, it did bring greater freedom to artists’ work.

“You don’t have to work around incumbent ticketing systems and suppliers and operators,” Mr Supple said.

“It gives you true flexibility to be artist-led and be driven by the creative ideas, as opposed to having to wedge yourself in against competing forces.”

The festival team hoped the upgrades made to sites around the city, including a warehouse in Northbridge, meant they would be available for other arts events year-round.

Bringing art into public spaces has a wide appeal outside of festivals.

Mr Supple said he was talking to developers in Melbourne about how they could use art to make workplaces more desirable and get people back into the office.

“[I]n a post-COVID world, thinking about the amenity in office buildings and office environments, and what role culture plays [in] increasing amenity and making them engaging so people actually want to come to the office, is an interesting question,” Mr Supple said.

He said there was potential for mediums such as installation work, visual art, performance and community spaces to be used as drawcards.