Lauren Brincat at MOFO

Lauren Brincat premieres new work at MOFO, for MONA and the 2010 Next Wave Festival.

As we’ve mentioned Next Wave has been working with Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) on a specially commissioned new work by Sydney artist Lauren Brincat. Last Wednesday night Lauren’s new work, Shine on You Crazy Diamond, premiered at MOFO in Hobart and, by all accounts from Next Wave staff on the ground there, it was a huge hit.

An audience of over 300 witnessed an exhilarating collaborative performance by Lauren Brincat and percussionist Bree van Reyk at the launch of PW1, the MONA FOMA festival hub, on Wednesday night. Here the performers assembled a circle of 25 different sized and shaped drum cymbals, suspended from the soaring warehouse roof. As Lauren moved around the circle gently lifting individual cymbals from their suspended metal hooks, Bree played the instruments and recorded each drum roll on a loop pedal. What resulted was a richly layered and textured sound that reverberated throughout the cavernous warehouse space, captivating audiences with its powerfully ritualistic undertones.

The ten-minute performance was staged directly in front of Lauren’s work Shine on You Crazy Diamond. In the companion text for the work, Will French writes:

“In this performance, DVD projection and installation, Lauren attempts valiantly to harness the power of the sun, reflecting the energy and warmth back towards the viewer. This double-act of reflection is performed using a crash cymbal from a drum kit. The artist uses the cymbal to obscure her face and in the process metamorphoses into a mythical symbol for the sun itself. As she harnesses the sun’s rays, the solar glow of the cymbal against the backdrop of the drought-stricken landscape highlights a harsh reality. Standing atop a water tank in a paddock, the ‘sunburnt country’ becomes an integral part of the performance. In a manner reminiscent of a traditional Australian landscape painting, the stillness in the shot highlights the subtle colour changes of the landscape as the sun sets.”

Lauren will re-mount Shine On You Crazy Diamond in Melbourne in May for the 2010 Next Wave Festival.

Photographic documentation of a previous work by Lauren, Drum Riser, can be seen now in Melbourne at the corner of La Trobe and Queen Streets on the spectacular MONA/Next Wave billboard.

LINKS
Lauren Brincat
MONA
MOFO
2010 Next Wave Festival

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Next Wave thanks MONA, in particular Curator Nicole Durling, for her unwavering support of Lauren’s project.