I have been involved in three Next Wave Festivals under many guises. So when the organisation asked me to co-ordinate a project in Mildura called Sweet Work, it seemed like a natural progression.
In asking people to be part of these workshops we are asking them to link with each other to create dialogue between the City and the Mildura/Wentworth region. We are interested in the type of work that can happen quickly which can be done with few resources, that doesn’t need to wait for funding or the right circumstances. Art that is urgent and needed. This type of creation is in the spirit of SITI company’s (US)composition workshops, national interdisciplinary laboratory Time Place Space (AU) and Daghdha Dance Company (IE). Sweet Work challenges young and emerging Mildura/Wentworth based artists to connect with local and Melbourne based artists whom have a connection with Next Wave Festival.
Smaller is better.
Gone now is the idea that more means more, that bigger is better. In a world of shrinking financial fortunes and miniaturisation of technology small is the new sexy. How big is your footprint? We dream of ants but in reality we are dinosaurs. How big is this country? Do we need more people – we are giving mothers bonuses for their babies. In our rural towns crushed by rising prices and disappearing markets, should we still pay money for them to grow – or let the ebb and flow happen around us? Does Mildura want the region to grow and have more people in it? Would it not be better to have less and do it better? What is it to be small? To be one person in the vastness. Where do you go? Do you go inside your house and watch foxtel? What is the feeling of vastness? How often in our lives do we feel that any more? To go against the vastness of the place to look at the intimate, the tiny,
As Marcus Westbury says on his blog about art-making in these financial times; ‘Small scale production – which works best when there is a very high ratio of initiative and labour to expenses and overheads – benefits immensely from the rapidly falling costs.’
Also as the debacle that happened at this years ‘Laneway Festival’ it was clear that bigger can be worse, so much worse. A boutique festival experience that happened in one of Melbourne’s iconic laneways was turned into a citywide affair and suffered massively from the greed of that decision. I know we all need to get ahead, I know we want to capitalise on the success of things, but at what damage to the brand or the experience of the audience? What would happen if someone dared to stay small, only release 300 tickets and keep it in the same Laneway. If you want more, then do it over consecutive weekends – dont make the event bigger.
The workshops are the focus of Sweet Work, however there will be an opportunity to show work created in the workshops at the Mildura Wentworth Arts Festival on the 8th of March at a concert event at the Perry Sandhills. For more info go to the Next Wave website.
