This Saturday at The Substation, pull up a bean bag amongst the enveloping, octophonic (eight-channelled) sound of Sonorous VIII. Presented in partnership with MESS, this concert debuts new, spellbinding works from Monica Lim and Naretha Williams.
Inspired by working with dancers, Monica’s '5 Movements' uses live keyboard input and computer vision hand gestural controls to choreograph sound in 3-dimensions. This work uses no prerecorded elements and one MESS instrument - the classic Doepfer A-100. In transforming sound simply through movement, Monica reminds us that sound not only operates through time, but also space, challenging our ears to visualise its trajectory.
Naretha’s piece is not just a performance; it's a journey through time, space, and the vast realms of electronic sound, all guided by the harmonious symphony of two of the most revered synthesizers in music history: the Moog Voyager and the Oberheim OB-X8 analog synthesizer. Naretha intricately weaves the rich, enveloping tones of these iconic instruments, drawing listeners into otherworldly dimensions of sound.
📆 Saturday 4 November, 6pm & 9pm
🎫 $20–$35
📍 The Substation
📸 / Photography by Keelan O'Hehir
Save the date! The Substation Art Sale, our end of year fundraising exhibition, opens on Thursday 16 November.
Designed to support our broad community of artists and raise funds for our year-round commissioning program, The Substation Art Sale will feature over 30 works for sale from emerging and established artists, including painting, sculpture, photography, video, weaving, ceramics, prints, neons, in-person art dates, dramaturgy sessions, and more.
Join us for the exhibition opening at The Substation Galleries on Thursday 16 November from 7pm, and be amongst the first to peruse the works on offer, which will also be available to purchase online.
Acquire your next contemporary artwork at The Substation Art Sale!
Participating artists announced soon.
Subscribe to our newsletter for updates: http://eepurl.com/mu-AH
The Substation Art Sale is sponsored by Hop Nation
While DJs shake the dancefloor at Brolga: A Queer Koori Wonderland this Saturday at The Substation, some of Naarm's best Queer performers will be staging their finest works across the building – pop up style!
There'll be daring and unorthodox methods for artist and audience encounters from experimental artist Luke George, spectacles of camouflage and masks within egalitarian choreographies of drag from acclaimed cabaret performer Bendy Ben, dynamic and vibrant conceptual performance from proud Meriam drag artist Cerulean, chaotic and cathartic scenes of the pop cultural and political from Dandrogyny, and humorous rituals about sex, history, trauma and healing from Wiradjuri dance maker and Queer AF party creator Joel Bray.
Limited tickets available on the door. Buy yours now before they're gone!
📆 Sat 7 October 2023, 9pm–3am, it's a party come any time!
📍The Substation
🎫 $15-$35
Brolga: A Queer Koori Wonderland is curated by @joelbraydance and presented by The Substation and @melbfringe with support from @hobsonsbaycc @creativecityhobsonsbay
@ceruleanuwu @lukeandgeorge @bendy_ben @dandrogyny @joelbraydance
🎨 / Creatives in the West have been busy cooking up some immersive props, staging and interactive materials to be featured in our upcoming program, Brolga: A Queer Koori Wonderland. Across a series of seven workshops produced by Joel Bray Dance at Woods Street Arts Space, local artists have collaborated to construct some feather-rustling pieces for party-goers to adorn themselves at this interactive art bonanza.
On Saturday 7 October, come and dance, create and decorate spaces or just chill out and explore the subterranean galleries and darker spaces of The Substation. Brolga: A Queer Koori Wonderland is a safe space to celebrate and be yourself in any way.
🔗 Find out more and get tickets: https://thesubstation.org.au/program/brolga-a-queer-koori-wonderland
📆 DATE
Saturday 7 October 2023, 9pm-3am
🎫 ADMISSION
$35 General Admission
$25 Concession
$25 HBCC Residents
$15 First Nations/BlakTix
Brolga: A Queer Koori Wonderland is presented by The Substation and Melbourne Fringe, and produced by Joel Bray Dance, as part of the Fringe Festival.
Creative City Hobsons Bay Hobsons Bay City Council
🔎 / Spotlight on THE RABBLE: the daringly fantastic creators behind WAKE, one of our upcoming program as part of Melbourne Fringe.
Kate Davis and Emma Valente formed THE RABBLE in 2006, driven by a desire to make work that wasn’t being produced in Australia: visually ambitious, political, feminist and formally experimental.
THE RABBLE exists as a reaction to a conservatism that dominates our stages, and aims to radically re-imagine theatrical experiences and repopulate familiar stories with female voices and aesthetics. Their previous works have powerfully impacted audiences, and WAKE is set to be no exception.
Showing across 6 nights from 10-19 October at the Italian Social Club Altona, WAKE asks audiences to consider the difficult and taboo discussions around ageing, exploring the ever-increasing hostility towards women’s bodies, particularly for older people. Created with an ensemble of eight older women from Melbourne's West, this experimental work is part party, part surreal vaudeville show, part conversation and part town hall meeting.
In an age of dislocation, WAKE is a work of solidarity.
Witness the next instalment in THE RABBLE’s radical catalogue of work. Tickets on sale now. https://thesubstation.org.au/program/wake
📆 10-12 & 17-19 October, 7pm
📍Italian Social Club Altona
🎫 $35 General Admission / $25 Concession/HBCC Residents / $15 First Nations/BlakTix
WAKE is presented by The Substation, Melbourne Fringe and THE RABBLE, and produced by Performing Lines VIC.
📹 / THE RABBLE works: Orlando (2012, 2014, 2015); JOAN (2017); LONE (2018); UNWOMAN (2019)
📣 / Limited tickets still available to see Joe Rainey and Amby Downs live at The Substation. Witness First Nations sound transcend international borders on Saturday 23 September.
Joe Rainey grew up at Red Lake Ojibwe in Minneapolis, a city with one of the largest and proudest Native American populations in the US. Joined on stage by producer Andrew Border, Joe powerfully transforms traditional Pow Wow song, live mixing his soul-tugging vocals with samples, distortion and drums.
Supporting Joe on the night is Naarm based artist Tahlia Palmer, AKA Amby Downs. Tahlia’s musical pseudonym takes the same name as the Queensland station on which her Murri ancestors worked in servitude. She brings rich place-based sound works to the stage, works that confront the conditions which create, perpetuate and disguise intergenerational trauma.
🔗 Buy tickets: https://thesubstation.org.au/program/room-40-joe-rainey
Curated by Room40
📆 DATE
Saturday 23 September 2023, 7:30pm (doors from 6:30pm)
🎫 ADMISSION
$20 General Admission – 1st Release
$35 General Admission
$25 Concession
$20 First Nations
Credits
Audio: no chants by Joel Rainey, produced by Andrew Broder
Video: directed by Isaac Gale
@rainmanmnx33 @tahl_palm @andrewbroder
👀/ In March of this year The Substation exhibited a distinct and diverse collection of dance on film/
REALREEL brought together a nation-wide selection of artists, that centre the body on screen with a focus on experimental, contemporary performance making and varied, Australian choreographic voices/ works by Jo Lloyd and Melanie Lane/
Marbee Williams (Boonwurrung and Wiradjuri) welcoming us to Boonwurrung land back in April. All those in the room were offered the space to connect to our mother earth and our ties to our ancestors.
📹 / footage by Damien Raggatt
⏳ / Immerse yourself in stunning soundscapes at Sonorous VII with Katerina Stathis and Jonnine Nokes. A handful of tickets remain for the 9PM performance this Saturday night.
📆 DATE & TIME
Saturday 29 July, 6pm & 9pm
6PM session sold out - limited tickets still available for the 9PM session, book yours now, link in bio 🔗
🎫 ADMISSION
$35 General Admission
$25 Concession
$25 MESS Members
$25 Hobsons Bay Residents
$20 First Nations
This footage is taken from 'A Fleeting Chorus,' a performance captured in December 2022 by Katerina Stathis's performance collective STATHIS//DAVEY//KIM.
📹 / filmed by Cobie Odjer.
👀/ Do you know about our Room40 series curated by Lawrence English?
This footage was taken from the David Grubbs and co live performance, hosted by The Substation in March earlier this year.
We've just announced a new Room40 performance, not to be missed: Join us on the 23rd of September for Joe Rainey feat. Amby Downs. Pow Wow singer Joe Rainey, has repositioned his Pow Wow musical heritage and in doing so refocuses the ways in which the music operates. He has unlocked a new rhythmical language that incorporates electronics, samples and processing to reveal an entirely new sonic dialogue which expands outward from the Pow Wow tradition. Rainey is joined by Amby Downs, the musical pseudonym of interdisciplinary artist Tahlia Palmer, who creates predominantly place-based sound works, creatively engaging with the processing of trauma to further decolonise mind, spirit and body.
🔗 You can secure your tickets to Joe Rainy and Amby Downs via the following link:
https://thesubstation.org.au/program/room-40-joe-rainey
📹 / footage by Damien Raggatt
⏳ / Want to pull up a bean bag and get lost in the limitless world of electronic sound? There's only one week left until Sonorous VII with Katerina Stathis and Jonnine Nokes. Tickets selling fast - get yours now!
Video featured here is of Jonnine Nokes performing under one of their musical pseudonyms Horse Pills.
📆 DATE & TIME
Saturday 29 July, 6pm & 9pm
6PM session sold out - limited tickets still available for the 9PM session, book yours now: https://thesubstation.org.au/program/sonorous-vii
🎫 ADMISSION
$35 General Admission
$25 Concession
$25 MESS Members
$25 Hobsons Bay Residents
$20 First Nations
Video by Yunis.
MESS Ltd
NEXT WEEK: The Substation and Melbourne Fringe are thrilled to present some of the most intriguing experimental art in Taiwan right now.
As part of Fringe Focus Taiwan, 'Machine Folklore – 機器民談' by Taiwan's leading art collectives 寂寞軟體2050 and NAXS FUTURE are here for 2 nights only!
Using music, imagery, and light design, explore the future of digital culture, aesthetics and the metaverse in a hypnotic performance.
Machine Folklore by Software2050 and NAXS FUTURE
14 & 15 October 2022 at 8pm
2 shows only 🎟 / Link in bio
Class Act by Aphids is SOLD OUT on closing night! Final tickets available for tonight’s show at 8pm. Claim them here: https://thesubstation.org.au/program/class-act
More about the performance:
“I think Australia both loves and hates the idea of the bogan,” says lead performer, Mish Grigor.
“That’s one of the stories we tell.
“I’m sort of a bogan.”
Incorporating dance elements from Alice Dickson and directed by Zoey Dawson, Class Act is a re-imagining of the classic musical My Fair Lady and a deconstruction of the makeover trope.
Sound ON for a sneak peak of dubstep banger, Bogan Dreaming, by Nina Buchanan.
📸: Photography by Theresa Harrison and Anna Nalpantidis / Edited by Isabella Oliveria
Class Act by Aphids premiers tomorrow at 8pm!
With only 5 shows and most of the high tea tickets already sold, you don’t want to miss out on what Aphids are dishing up.
Menu reveal: it includes Arnott’s Monte Carlo with rose Turkish fairy floss, Chicken Crimpies with lumpfish caviar and Coles “Glamingtons” with organic pink pataya dragonfruit dust.
Book your tickets to Class Act today and claim 25% back through the Victorian Dining and Entertainment Program (we love a di$count!)
CLASS ACT
27 September - 1 October 2022 at 8pm
Tickets selling fast 🎟
https://thesubstation.org.au/program/class-act
📸: Anna Nalpantidis
THIS OCTOBER: Glimpse into the future of digital culture and virtual technology at 'Machine Folklore – 機器民談' – a hypnotic audio-visual work by 寂寞軟體2050 and NAXS FUTURE.
In this immersive audio-visual performance, artificial intelligence meets virtual consciousness.
Using music, imagery, and light design, this performance takes audiences on a journey through nature sounds and beyond.
Together, we see humanity through non-human A.I. eyes.
MACHINE FOLKLORE – 機器民談
14 – 15 October 2022 at 8pm
Tickets on sale now 🎟
https://thesubstation.org.au/program/machine-folklore
Bombastic and unexpected, Class Act by Aphids premiers Tuesday 27 September 2022 at The Substation!
In Class Act, working class unfortunate Mish Grigor tells the story of a grotesque world of class and social mobility straight from her dirty mouth.
Don't miss out on this new performance from 27 September – 1 October 2022 at 8pm.
5 shows only
High tea tix selling fast
Book today
https://thesubstation.org.au/program/class-act
THIS WEEK: The world premiere of 'My Self in That Moment' by Chamber Made from 27–30 July.
Director Tamara Saulwick will debut her new hybrid performance work for an ensemble of 49 tablets and a solo vocalist, exploring the fragmented and distributed self in the digital age.
This work has been developed in partnership with The Substation and Experimenta.
⚠️ PLEASE READ ⚠️
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Tina Stefanou will not be performing on Wednesday 27 July and Thursday 28 July.
Performances will still go ahead and Jessica Aszodi will be performing both the 7pm and 9pm 'My Self in That Moment' shows.
DATES & TIMES
27–30 July, Wed–Sat, 7pm and 9pm each night
Duration: 50 minutes for each performance.
Tickets on sale now 🎟
https://thesubstation.org.au/program/my-self-in-that-moment
How much of who we are shrinks when we're being watched? Performer Tina Stefanou interrogates our digital archives in 'My Self in That Moment'–a new hybrid work by Chamber Made.
In this live performance work for distributed voice and body, Tina begs the question:
"How much agency do I have of a past self that’s been funnelled through machines? How much of that is me?
Well, I don’t know. I don’t know that.”
MY SELF IN THAT MOMENT
27–30 July Wed–Sat, 7pm and 9pm each night.
Duration: 50 minutes for each performance.
Tickets on sale 🎟
https://thesubstation.org.au/program/my-self-in-that-moment
"My Self in That Moment is a polyphonic piece – there is one live voice amongst a polyphony of pre-recorded voices spread across the speakers with the 49 devices.
Audiences experience this work through a series of digital tablets that are networked to function as a visual and sonic ensemble."
My Self in That Moment by Chamber Made will take hybrid experimentation to a new level.
MY SELF IN THAT MOMENT
27–30 July Wed–Sat, 7pm and 9pm each night.
Duration: 50 minutes for each performance.
Tickets on sale 🎟
https://thesubstation.org.au/program/my-self-in-that-moment
NEXT WEEK: The world premiere of My Self in That Moment by Chamber Made from 27–30 July.
Three vocalists, Jessica Aszodi, Alice Hui-Sheng Chang and Tina Stefanou, reflect on what it means to be digitally captured and archived.
Tina explains that a right-wing French media company took a soundbite of her voice, “For over four years, my voice was used as the introduction for a video news channel. I had no idea they were using it. It was very strange.”
Head down to The Substation and watch as Chamber Made interrogates our digital personas.
MY SELF IN THAT MOMENT
27–30 July Wed–Sat, 7pm and 9pm each night.
Duration: 50 minutes for each performance.
Tickets on sale 🎟
https://thesubstation.org.au/program/my-self-in-that-moment
"I really wanted to create something that was energising for the audience and to create a space for musicians to connect with each other."
Jess is a guitarist, vocalist and composer. Based in Canberra, her composition and songwriting spans instrumental jazz, rock, indie pop and experimental music.
Join us for the world premiere of Market St Commissions where Jess will debut her newest composition with some of Australia's finest improvisers.
MARKET ST COMMISSIONS
15 July 2022
Tickets on sale now 🎟
https://thesubstation.org.au/program/market-st-commissions
NEXT WEEK: The world premiere of Market St Commissions by Australian Art Orchestra!
Join us as three prolific composers—Carolyn Schofield (aka Fia Fiell), Joseph O’Connor and Jess Green—perform their new works with a cutting-edge large ensemble of Australia’s finest improvisers.
MARKET ST COMMISSIONS
15 July 2022
Tickets on sale now 🎟
https://thesubstation.org.au/program/market-st-commissions
Artists include:
Carolyn Schofield / @fiafiell
Jess Green / @greensbeansjazz
Joseph O'Connor / @jocsounds
Australian Art Orchestra / @australianartorchestra
"The nature of my body is somehow trapped in that very strange, splayed image that's created."
Vocalist and performer, Jessica Aszodi, contemplates how Peter Knight's composition of sound is constructed to the point where her voice is sometimes unrecognisable.
It is here that 'My Self in That Moment' reflects on the voice and body and what it means to be digitally captured and archived.
MY SELF IN THAT MOMENT
27–30 July Wed–Sat, 7pm and 9pm each night.
Duration: 50 minutes for each performance.
Performers: 7pm shows performed by Jessica Aszodi and 9pm shows performed by Tina Stefanou.
Tickets on sale now 🎟
https://thesubstation.org.au/program/my-self-in-that-moment
🎥: Jessica Aszodi / Video by Pier Carthew
"When I'm singing in the middle of 49 padlets, I feel like I'm listening through multiple levels of my body in relationship to the tech..." — Tina Stefanou
My Self in That Moment by Chamber Made poses questions around identity, agency, ownership and the myriad systems that lay beneath the distribution of data.
MY SELF IN THAT MOMENT
27–30 July Wed–Sat, 7pm and 9pm each night
Duration: 50 minutes for each performance.
Performers: 7pm shows performed by Jessica Aszodi and 9pm shows performed by Tina Stefanou
🎥: Tina Stefanou / Video by Pier Carthew
Tickets on sale now 🎟
https://thesubstation.org.au/program/my-self-in-that-moment
Vietnamese-Australian electronic/synth musician, Carolyn Schofield (aka Fia Fiell), will complete the trinity of composers for Market St Commissions by Australian Art Orchestra.
Carolyn combines her profound practical and theoretical knowledge as a pianist/composer with a modern and perceptive ear for stretching out the orbit of millennial electronic music constructs.
See the world premiere of Market St Commissions on Friday 15 July at The Substation.
Tickets on sale now 🎟
https://thesubstation.org.au/program/market-st-commissions
Breaking new ground for Australian Art Orchestra is Melbourne based pianist and composer, Joseph O'Connor.
Engaging with improvised, notated and experimental practices, Joseph's work currently explores a delicate harmonic sensibility that unfolds slowly in asymmetrical cycles.
See the world premiere of Market St Commissions on Friday July 15th at The Substation.
Tickets on sale now 🎟
https://thesubstation.org.au/program/market-st-commissions
1 ensemble, 3 composers: The world premiere of Market St Commissions by Australian Art Orchestra!
Join us as three prolific composers—Carolyn Schofield (aka Fia Fiell), Joseph O’Connor and Jess Green—perform their new works with a cutting-edge large ensemble of Australia’s finest improvisers.
MARKET ST COMMISSIONS
15 July 2022
Tickets on sale now 🎟
https://thesubstation.org.au/program/market-st-commissions
This evening bear witness to the grand Piano Burning by Annea Lockwood. 🔥
See the grand instrument consumed by fire today at 5PM in Birrarung Marr. Free to attend! https://thesubstation.org.au/program/piano-transplants
Presented by The Substation and Rising Melbourne. Curated by Lawrence English (Room40).
Come down this Saturday for the final day of 'A World Vision' – a large-scale video installation by visual artist, Phuong Ngo.
Located in the main space, the whimsical track of 'Feed the Birds' from Disney's 1964 classic 'Mary Poppins' can be heard over archival footage of Vietnamese children scurrying for coins thrown by opulent French women.
Phuong then underscores the obvious racial nature of colonialism and weds it to modern philanthropy rooted in Christianity and capitalism.
In turn, our own history of charity is questioned.
To see the large-scale installation, please visit https://thesubstation.org.au/program/a-world-vision
📸: Video Clip from ‘A World Vision’ (2022) by Phuong Ngo
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