Disappearing Acts
Kelly Ryall and myself both work as freelance artists in a wide range of performance contexts, but our collaborations together have been in composing sound and visuals for theatrical works.
Disappearing Acts is a process based artwork which investigates what theatre can be without the structure of narrative and also without the hierarchy of form that the spoken word creates.
The first development of this work happened a in 2009 in Melbourne at the Storeroom where we used video, sound, smoke, lighting, objects and bunny suits to uncover what remains when you subtract a performer from the theatrical mix.
For the Scratch Series of the World Theatre Festival 2012, we asked Brisbane to submit their own impressions of their home city. Brisbane is a city in flux, moving away from its dark past of corruption and gerrymandered politics and into a new era that looks to capture the title of ‘cultural capital’ from Melbourne. We wondered if things truly have changed there; are people happy to stay? or will they follow the well worn path of exiles to cooler climes and pools with more fish in them?
Those that submitted material to the World Theatre Festival website and in person were able to see their submissions in the mix of material that was collected from Brisbane.
We are looking to explore other cities as part of future iterations of this work.
Disappearing Acts Brisbane 2012
Lead Artist/Sound – Kelly Ryall
Artist/Video – Martyn Coutts
Design Consultant – Remo
Presented as part of the Scratch Series, World Theatre Festival 2012.
