Voices of Veterans

Photography | Brian Rope

VOICES OF VETERANS | MICHAEL ARMSTRONG

National Press Club Building, | Until 19 June 2022 - by appointment only – bookings to view the exhibition or to experience insights with the artist can be made at https://voicesofveterans.com.au/events

Molasses! A viscous substance primarily used to sweeten and flavour foods. A major constituent of fine commercial brown sugar. And a primary ingredient used to distil rum.

I’ve eaten food containing molasses, seen photographs of it, even found a photography business with the word molasses in its name. Never before have I seen portraits of people covered with molasses with its thick, sticky consistency. Glue-like, tacky, treacly, and slimy might also be used to describe this substance.

Voices of Veterans, created by artist and veteran Michael Armstrong, is a collection of photographic works that visually represent individual experiences of living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). So is this an exhibition of artworks or is it simply about supporting a Veterans’ cause?

The exhibits are most definitely photo artworks and very fine ones indeed. But the exhibition is also part of an important project. Every sale contributes to the Voices of Veterans Fund, supporting veteran health and directly funding grassroots arts programs in Australian veteran communities. And it is always great to see art being used to highlight important issues.

So why use molasses, covering large expanses of the subjects’ bodies with it? Armstrong says "Molasses behaves in a manner that mirrors many of the symptoms of PTSD. Its weight and dark enveloping form, it's staining and sticky qualities mark everything it touches. The manner in which it mirrors qualities of light and dark around it. My models naturally resonated with the experience of working with molasses and found the medium profoundly evocative".

There are both monochrome and colour images - dark and brooding portraits, some where facial expressions are not easy to interpret, others where the molasses reminded me of bleeding wounds.

 

Mike Armstrong #3, 2022

Mike Armstrong #1, 2022

A very powerful one features a hand hanging down alongside part of a torso, richly coloured molasses clinging to it yet also dripping. Indeed all the images featuring hands stand out.

 

Mike Armstrong #5, 2022

A PTSD survivor himself, Armstrong was motivated by personal experience. Each veteran subject in the exhibition has a story, and their stories are told, expressed, felt and heard through his use of a challenging and rewarding creative process with molasses as a metaphor. The works show both sides of lived experience - the dark emotions of challenging moments and the light feelings of healing, release and hope.

Subjects’ own words are shared alongside artworks. One speaks of “the feeling of being dragged down into the thick, welcoming abyss until you are choking and drowning. Being able to barely keep your head up enough to catch a breath.”

So, the choice of molasses is enormously successful. The resultant images almost force you to study them. They are at once poignant and haunting, dark and evocative, graphic and expressive. They will bring strong memories or feelings to the minds of people who have family or friends who have suffered the effects of PTSD. They will remind others of different, yet also traumatic, experiences.

 

Mike Armstrong #2, 2022

Mike Armstrong #6, 2022

Mike Armstrong #4, 2022

Indeed, the created artworks have resonated with veterans deeply. When posted on Armstrong’s social media they reached a broad audience, creating high levels of engagement and many conversations. This sparked the need to create widespread awareness - and the project was born.

The exhibition will tour Australia raising awareness of the individual experiences of veterans living with PTSD, and veteran art-based workshops will support the creation and growth of healthy communities. Community events will be offered during the Canberra exhibition, including trauma-informed movement classes with health practitioners and veteran art workshops with Armstrong.

There is a gallery of the artworks online at https://voicesofveterans.com.au/art-gallery.

This review is also on the author's blog here.

  

TERRA FIRMA

 QL2 Dance

Choreographers:

Melanie Lane,

Cadi McCarthy, and

Synergy Styles (Stephen and Lila Gow)

The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre to 28 May.

 

Reviewed by Len Power 26 May 2022

 

The world is constantly changing and it’s hard to keep up with the demands it makes on us.  Work, relationships, environment, health - to name just a few - constantly surprise us and we all form our own unique views about it all.  QL2 Dance’s triple bill, ‘Terra Firma’, presents an exploration of the way we perceive this changing world from three perspectives.

The dancing ensemble is made up of 25 dancers aged 13 to 23.  The talent and skill of these dancers is breath-taking and in all three dances they have collaborated with their choreographers to produce the finished works.  The choreography in all three works is demanding but the dancers handle every challenge with discipline and accuracy while still allowing the love of dance to shine through in their performances.

The first work on the bill, ‘Metal Park’, was by Melanie Lane, a professional choreographer and performer based between Melbourne and Canberra.  Her work explored the relationship between body, objects and our built environment and how we have become a part of the material world we inhabit.

The work was notable for its overall visual beauty, the incisive changing patterns of the groups of dancers and the clever use of white poles to delineate spaces.  A middle section of lines of dancers moving with a common purpose was reminiscent of the down-trodden workers in Fritz Lang’s silent movie, ‘Metropolis’.  It was startlingly effective.

The second work, ‘Shifting Ground’, was by Cadi McCarthy, who has been actively engaged in dance as a professional dancer, choreographer, educator and director since 1996.  Her work looked at our emotional response to the changes that are happening in the world politically, environmentally and socially.

A moody work with a hint of threatening undercurrents, it was edgy and dark.  The use of lighting and music was especially effective in bringing out the meaning behind the work.  The sense of emotional loss at the conclusion of the work was achieved very well.

The final work, ‘Tides of Time’ was choreographed by Lilah Gow with Stephen Gow of Synergy Styles, who state that their focus is a holistic approach to movement and creating works.  Their use of film in this work, especially at the start was imaginative and highly effective.

The past, the present and the future and how we live and make decisions within this subconscious framework was the subject of their work.  There was a heightened sense of reality throughout this dreamlike, shadowy world which ultimately led to a sense of welcome optimism in spite of the difficulties we face.

Each of the works was given highly atmospheric lighting by Mark Dyson.  Composers, Adam Ventoura, Christopher Clark and Zackari Watt provided strongly dramatic music that reinforced the action onstage.

This was a fine evening of dance that displayed the superb talents of everyone involved.

Photos by Lorna Sim Photography

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/.

 

When Canberra first heard the compact disc

by Tony Magee

Greek composer Vangelis has died

WITH the death announced on May 17 of Greek composer Vangelis, memories came flooding back to me of the launch in Canberra of the Compact Disc digital audio format in December 1982.

How many CD titles were available at that time? Just two! Billy Joel “52nd Street” and the “Chariots of Fire” movie soundtrack by Vangelis, for which he won the Academy Award for best original score in 1981, the main theme being performed by Liberace at the Oscars ceremony the following year.

My boss, owner and founder of Kent Hi-Fi Canberra, Rudi Langeveld, sensing that CD was going to take the world by storm and wanting to be fully prepared as a retailer, flew to Japan for the Tokyo launch a few months earlier in October.

Sony co-founder and president Akio Morita had secured the services of the famous Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan as his star musical guest.

With Karajan’s weight behind this new audio concept - digital audio combined with laser technology - Sony hoped to secure consumer confidence amongst the world’s music listening public, which they did.

Herbert von Karajan (centre) and Sony president Akio Morita, playing with the Philips prototype player (left)
and Sony prototype player (right) in Salzburg in 1981.

Rudi brought back to Canberra a 110 volt Japanese model Sony player, plus the Vangelis and Billy Joel discs. 

We then commenced after-hours demonstrations in the shop from December 1982, six months before the actual Australian release.

On opening night, aged 22, I boldly walked out in front of the amassed crowd and said “Good evening ladies and gentlemen, this is Compact Disc!’

I held up the shiny new disc, all glittering and sparkling under the lights. People gasped.

Then I pressed the open button on the front of the Sony CDP-101 - the world’s first CD player - and the drawer slid out.

Hundreds of people surged forward.

As “Chariots of Fire” burst forth, we were able to switch between both the CD and the LP record equivalent, so that guests could hear what ever audio differences they were able to perceive. In some cases, it was more definitely a case of the differences they wanted to perceive.

CD was regarded with some considerable scepticism by the audio elite.

Shrieks of delight would ensue from CD supporters, amazed by the new technology and sound, contrasted by howls of derision from some other quarters.

These after-hours demonstrations for the general public continued through January and February of 1983.

Then in May, Rudi teamed up with Ross Gengos, owner of Abels Music Canberra, who had just received his first shipment of the Philips player, the CD-200.

Together, they hired Recital Room 3 (now the Larry Sitsky Recital Room) at the Canberra School of Music and put on a show.

People could wander in and out over a weekend period and hear the new CD players, through a range of different loudspeakers, amplifiers and cabling.

It was also an opportunity for Ross to demonstrate a new range of loudspeakers from Audiosphere, manufactured in a small factory at Gundaroo by locals Michael Brown and David Jones.

Using hollow concrete spheres of various sizes as the acoustic enclosure, the Audiosphere speakers were highly successful and there are many still in use today.

The factory later moved to Gunning where it still is, and still under the directorship of Michael Brown, now under the brand name, Sophera.

World's first CD player! Sony CDP-101, launched in Tokyo, October 1982, Australia June 1983

As for the original Sony CD player? Well, I still have one, which I purchased brand new in 1984 while a student. 

Its 16 bit, single DAC technology seems a bit primitive by today’s standards.

Tonight however, I shall haul it out of retirement, dig out my copy of the “Chariots of Fire” soundtrack and remember with fondness and admiration the incredible compositional talent that was Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou (1943 - 2022).

First published in Canberra City News online edition, May 25, 2022.

SCHUBERT UND SCHILLER

Koen Van Stade, tenor

Neal Peres Da Costa, fortepiano

Art Song Canberra

Wesley Music Centre, Forrest 22 May

 

Reviewed by Len Power

 

The evolution of musical instruments and singing techniques over the centuries is an interesting field for research.  It can be quite exciting to hear music played on early instruments and discover how vocal techniques have changed.

In their concert for Art Song Canberra, “Schubert and Schiller”, tenor Koen Van Stade and pianist, Neal Peres Da Costa, took the audience on a journey into the now unfamiliar world of 19^th century singing.

Neal Peres Da Costa played a fortepiano, a replica grand piano from Franz Schubert’s time of the early 19^th century.  It has a smaller keyboard compared to a modern piano and produces a distinctively softer, but very clear sound.

Koen Van Stade

Koen Van Stade sang a number of Schubert songs from the period.  He began with three “Wanderer” songs set to texts by different poets.  They were superbly sung with great vocal control and feeling and it was immediately noticeable that he was using some unfamiliar vocal techniques.

Between songs he explained the techniques he was using and their historical significance.  It added another dimension to this fascinating concert.

Audience members showed great interest in the fortepiano, inspecting it up close during the interval.  Noting the audience interest, Neal Peres Da Costa gave a talk about the fortepiano and demonstrated its differences to the modern piano.

Neal Peres Da Costa

He then gave a sublime performance of Schubert’s “Impromptu No. 3”, a work familiar to audiences and a good choice to show the different sound made by the fortepiano.

The main vocal part of the concert was the singing of two songs by Schubert set to epic poems by Friedrich von Schiller – “Die Bürgschaft” (The Pledge) and “Der Taucher” (The Diver).  Both Van Stade and Da Costa gave thrilling performances of these highly dramatic and complex works.

Peter Chandler, speaking to the audience for Art Sound Canberra, quipped that the works were “a bit more exciting than your average lieder”.  He was right and the whole concert was also an unexpected and very pleasing immersion into 19^th century music and singing.

 

This review was first published in the Canberra CityNews digital edition of 23 May.

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/.

THE WORLD OF MUSICALS in Concert.

 

 Produced by Michael Durkan – Co Produced by Ciaran Olohan – Musical Direction by Claire Crehan – Choreography by Pippa Holliday – Audio by David Fitzgerald – lighting by Andrew Moore – Wardrobe supervision by Miranda Ryan.

Canberra Theatre 22^nd May 2022.

Reviewed by Bill Stephens.

Towards the end of an extensive tour of N.S.W and prior to touring Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria before moving on to New Zealand, “The World of Musicals” presented its only ACT performance to an enthusiastic capacity audience in the Canberra Theatre.

Offering an equally fast-moving musical tour through the hit-songs of no fewer than 23 popular musicals, and performed by an ensemble cast of 12 hard- working British performers, six women and six men, the show featured choreographed ensemble items, together with solos, duets, trios and quartets which follow each other in rapid succession, most enhanced by projected screen images and colourful lighting design.

Performing to good quality pre-recorded backing tracks, the show was at its best with the well-sung, excellently arranged vocal ensemble numbers, particularly the opening Bohemian Rhapsody from “We Will Rock You”, Where Eagles Fly from “On Eagles Wing” and a particularly moving rendition of I Still Call Australia Home from “The Boy From Oz”.

Other highlights included a lovely rendition of What I Did For Love from “A Chorus Line”, a cheeky presentation of Mein Herr from “Cabaret”, both items performed by members of the ladies ensemble, and a tightly choreographed medley of songs from “Jersey Boys” performed by four of the male ensemble.

While the recorded backing tracks worked fine for the ensemble numbers, they tended to expose the soloists as excellent ensemble singers but not really up to the demands of the big solo numbers, so that when deprived by the arrangements of very little room for individual nuance, tended to compensate with over-dramatic, contrived emoting. One exception however, and the vocal highlight of the night, was Jack Trinder’s passionate rendition of Maria from “West Side Story”, which drew an enthusiastic response from the audience.

A major disappointment with this show however was the costuming which appeared to have been assembled from various sources with little attention to fit or appropriateness. It is an area which took the gloss off an otherwise well-presented show and one which hopefully will be given more attention for future return visits promised by the amiable host and co-producer, Ciaran Olohan.   

   

     This review also posted in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au

THREE TALL WOMEN by Edward Albee

Directed by Sophie Benassi – Set and costume design by Sophie Benassi - Movement direction by Ylaria Rogers - Lighting designed by Stephen Still – Sound designed by Neville Pye

Presented by Chaika Theatre Company – ACT Hub 4^th to 21^st May 2022

Performance on 18^th May reviewed by Bill Stephens.

Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize winning play “Three Tall Women” proved an auspicious choice by Chaika Theatre Company to stake its claim for attention among Canberra’s burgeoning theatre companies.  

Written in 1990 the play won Albee his third Pulitzer Prize and was hailed by commentators at the time as a return to form by the playwright after a period in which it was feared his creative powers had begun to wane. Also noted at the time were the similarities of events in the play that reflected Albee’s own life experience of leaving home as an 18 year-old to escape the disapproval of his conservative adoptive parents who disapproved of his sexuality.

“Three Tall Women” revolves around a wealthy, cantankerous 92 year-old woman, (Karen Vickery).  In the first act this woman is being attended by a kindly, bemused 52 year-old carer, (Lainie Hart) and being questioned by a 26 year-old women, (Natasha Vickery) who has been sent by the woman’s lawyers to clear up some perceived  irregularities in her accounts.

 The elderly woman dominates the conversation with sometimes confusing recollections of the events in her life, while also demanding attention from the others to painfully arrange herself in her chair, walk her unsteadily to the toilet, or re-arrange her in her chair when she returns. The first act ends when the woman has a stroke mid-conversation.

The ages of the women are important because in the second act it becomes obvious that the women now represent the woman at different stages of her life. Behind them, through a gauze curtain, can be seen an inert figure in a bed, representing the woman either dying or already dead. During the course of this act a young man (Blue Hyslop), presumably her estranged son, enters and sits wordlessly by her bedside, while the three women continue to discuss their lives seeking to define “the happiest moment”.

Karen Vickery - Lainie Hart - Natasha Vickery in "Three Tall Women" 

Sophie Benassi has produced a handsome, thoughtful production, casting three of the city’s most accomplished actresses, clothing them in elegant costumes and surrounding them with carefully chosen décor to reflect the wealth of the central protagonist. Benassi’s direction is clear and appropriate through-out and despite the wordiness of the play, she never allows the action to become static.

As the oldest of the three women, Karen Vickery commands the stage with a finely-observed performance that is a continuous joy to watch.  However she by no means steals the show as Lainie Hart and Natasha Vickery match and compliment her every moment throughout the play.

Indeed one of the chief delights of this production is watching the wordless interplay and body language between the three actresses as they deliver and respond to Albee’s acerbic, often confronting, dialogue.

With this production of “Three Tall Women”, Chaika Theatre Company has set a high benchmark for future productions at the ACT Hub.

                                                    Photos by Jane Duong.

   This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au 

JANE EYRE

 

Nelle Lee as Jane Eyre

Directed by Michael Futcher for Shake & Stir Theatre Co - .Adapted by Nelle Lee and Nick Skubj -Designed by Josh McIntosh – Composed by Sarah McLeod - Additional Music and Sound Design by Guy Webster - Lighting Design by Jason Glenwright.

Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse 17^th – 21^st May.

Opening night performance reviewed by Bill Stephens

Shake & Stir Theatre Company has perfected the art of presenting gothic drama. This lively production of the Charlotte Bronte’s epic novel, here, cleverly co-adapted by Nelle Lee and Nick Skubj to compress the action into a little over two hours of the spine-tingling melodrama, for which Josh McIntosh has provided a towering setting complete with strange,  shadowy characters inhabiting creepy rooms, dangerous staircases, terrifying storms and even a spectacular fire.

Most impressive of all however is the fact that all the myriad of characters in this story are depicted, rather brilliantly, by just four actors Nelle Lee, Julian Garner, Jodie le Vesconte and Sarah McLeod.

Not having read the novel, and without the benefit of a printed program as a guide, the actors accomplished this feat so remarkably that is difficult to be definite about which actor portrayed which role, but as the only male in the quartet perhaps it’s safe to say that Julian Garner played the object of Jane Eyre’s passion, Mr. Rochester, as well as the loathsome preacher Mr. Brocklehurst, and the spiteful young bully, John Reed.

Jodie le Vesconte played Jane’s cruel aunt, Sarah Reed, as well as a number of other characters, while Sarah McLeod played a series of grotesques including a heavily tattooed pianist who throughout played and sang marvellous atmospheric songs (composed by McLeod) as well as Mr. Rochester’s mad first wife, locked away in the attic of Thornfield Hall and conveniently incinerated when Thornfield spectacularly burns to the ground.

 

Julian Garner and Nelle Lee in "Jane Eyre"

Photo: Dylan Evans

Captivating, Nelle Lee gives a fascinatingly nuanced performance as Jane Eyre, commencing the play as a 10 year-old, and finally as a mature adult, who having survived the cruelties inflicted on her by just about everyone she meets in her journey, finally gets her happy ending. That is, if you accept that having to look after the blind, badly disfigured Mr. Rochester for the rest of his life is a happy ending.

It says much for the power of the presentation, the clarity of the adaptation and the brilliance of Michael Futcher’s direction, that I soon gave up trying to identify which actor was playing which role and gave in to the twists and turns of the story, finding myself slightly shocked when only four actors took the stage at the end to acknowledge the enthusiastic applause of the appreciative audience.

It is fast becoming the norm for companies to provide digital programs for patrons to download before coming to the theatre. In this case I didn’t see anyone in the audience holding one. What a pity then that the majority of the audience at this performance, and indeed those at following performances, will probably never know the names of the four brilliant actors they had been watching, or the equally brilliant creatives responsible for the remarkable theatrical experience they had just enjoyed.

 

This review also appears in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au