My Monster: The Human-Animal Hybrid is an exhibition at RMIT Gallery that looks at our relationships and perceptions of the non-humans who are among us. Curated by Evelyn Tsitas, the exhibition is divided into five different and curious sections: xenos (foreigner / stranger), mythos (stories / narratives), tokos (childbirth / reproduction), eros (erotic love) and kosmos (the world).
A highlight of the exhibition is in mythos, with Moira Finucane and David Verhagen’s Fur Can’t Fly (The Mourning of the Fur). This is beautifully conceived immersive, multi sensory installation that tells of a transformative journey in the mountains of Brazil. The evocative score by Shinjuku Thief and the soothing yet commanding voice of Finucane aid you through your journey. The specially designed vibrating chair and the lighting design by Thomas Dahlrnburg and Verhagen are simply stunning. With your eyes closed, every movement of the chair and sliver of light slipping into your vision makes you believe you are living this uplifting tale.
Once upon a time there was an alien called Natalie. Or Nat to his friends. Nat informs us that it's this thing that these alien creatures do where they shorten names for their friends as a term of affection and we wouldn't understand because we are human. And so we enter the whimsical storytelling world of Stuart Bowden with his new show When Our Molecules Meet Again* Let’s Hope They Remember What to Do *Probably in Space.
We follow Nat as he arrives on Earth and hear the alien's observations on the nature of humans and their peculiar behaviours and way of thinking. This leads Nat to begin questioning his own thoughts on life, death and everything in between, particularly after meeting up with his alien nemesis Sammy. There's a playful nature to Nat's personality but it's also laced with melancholy and loneliness that's demonstrated through some singing and music.
There's an overarching theme in When Our Molecules Meet... of not sweating over the little stuff and accepting what happens in life. Bowden further emphasises this idea by having Nat reading his own story to us off a script. Despite this being his own personal account of what happened, there are numerous moments when Nat loses his place and anxiously tries to locate where he's up to or his looping pedals and sound don't work quite the way they should so he goes back and re-does the line.
No matter how prepared we are for something or how confident we feel, there's always the possibility that it won't go according to plan and how we react to it is what shapes who we become. Nat's deadpan reactions to the earlier mentioned difficulties in the show become his most endearing quality.
Performed as part of the Melbourne Festival, Peeping Tom return to Australia with 32 Rue Vandenbranden, which explores the isolation and loneliness that a group of people feel through the company's trademark fusion of dance, physical theatre and music.
The stage design, which is how the Belgian company begins developing a new creation, perfectly encapsulates the emotional state of its inhabitants. High on a mountain-top, underneath an endless sky, sit three rickety caravans. The ground is covered in snow and there is an immediate sense of remoteness and desolation. The emotive sound composition by Juan Carlos Tolosa and Glenn Vervliet strongly adds to the feelings that the characters are experiencing, while mezzo-soprano Eurudike De Beul's musical moments in the show are an aural delight for the audience.
