A performance on the Elephant.

The three nights of performance are now over.  Three sold out shows of experimental/cross-disciplinary/non-mainstream art.  The performances were spread over three rooms and the Musical Elephant performance was in one of the two smaller rooms.  The two small rooms were therefore quite packed, making filming of the performances difficult.  However, we had a run through on the final night to allow the performers from the other rooms to see the works. Kristian Larsen captured the essence of our performance on video, with Jeff Henderson is standing in for Phil Dadson.

My work, Wili Pai Sa Sunge (something a little, it is of work) juxtaposes images from an earlier adventure travelling through Africa and my current explorations with music and sculptural objects.  The linear narrative of the african trip images provides a backdop for music played on the Elephant body, the Kundi and Marimba.

The work plays with scale.  The audience is intended to feel a certain dissonance as their focus moves between the components of the work, the trip slides, the sizeable Elephant in the room, and the music which combines ancient tradition in the form of Kundi tunes, with free improvisation which is a  modern form essentially ephemeral in nature.   My African trip was a conventionally large adventure:  my current adventures artistic expression are, to me, adventures of equal standing.