Performance Space is thrilled to reveal the accessible program for the 2018 Liveworks Festival of Experimental Art. Running 18 to 28 October at Carriageworks, Performance Space will present an inspiring program of innovative new work by acclaimed artists from Australia and the Asia Pacific. Audiences will see what’s next in contemporary art and experience some of the most groundbreaking artists of our time as they reimagine our culture and push boundaries.

Performance Space CEO and Artistic Director Jeff Khan is committed to making Liveworks Festival accessible for the entire community. “This year, Performance Space has curated an amazing series of events that makes Liveworks accessible through all the senses, enabling wide and diverse audiences to participate in our program in a multitude of ways. We welcome audiences of all kinds to come and experience what’s next in the arts with a program including auslan interpretation, audio description, tactile and kinesthetic tours.”

Auslan-interpreted performance

Auslan interpretation provided by Auslan Stage Left.

Working With Children | Nicola Gunn
20 October, 7 pm

Imagine a woman who works with children, but has a secret she’s incredibly ashamed of. Now imagine a man who works with children, but says and does things in private he wouldn’t want made public. Created by internationally-acclaimed performance artist Nicola Gunn (Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster, Liveworks 2016), Working With Children explores the moral and ethical minefield of working with children, and the moral ambiguities it raises. This trailblazing new performance is filled with Gunn’s distinctive humour and unflinching social commentary.

This work was commissioned and originally produced by Melbourne Theatre Company and supported by CAMPO.

Audio described works

Audio description provided by Imogen Yang.

Uncanny Valley Girl | Angela Goh
Preview performance
17 October, 6 pm

Performance Space is honoured to present the Sydney premiere of Uncanny Valley Girl by trailblazing local artist Angela Goh. Merging live performance, text and a razor-sharp soundtrack by Melbourne-based producer CORIN, Uncanny Valley Girl explores our dread of the fembot; a hybrid of women and machine, as though our ultimate fear is not only the rise of the machine, but the rising up of the female body.

High Performance Packing Tape | Branch Nebula
25 October, 7 pm

In High Performance Packing Tape, celebrated Australian company Branch Nebula employ ready-made materials – stationery and disposable hardware items – to place performer Lee Wilson in a series of mind-bending planes and predicaments. Co-Presented by Performance Space and Branch Nebula, this world premiere sees safety and well-being de-prioritised in new and liberating ways. High Performance Packing Tape faces fear, self-preservation and risk management to create enthralling new possibilities for physical performance.

Circles of Fire: The Amphitheatre | John A Douglas
26 October, 8 pm

Circles of Fire: The Amphitheatre is a new work by Sydney’s own John A Douglas. Inspired by the artist’s experience of a life-saving kidney transplant, John’s work brings together video installation, virtual reality, medical procedures and live performance to invite us inside his own physical experience, witnessing the wonder and terror of the medicalised human body.

Tactile and kinaesthetic tours

These tours offer a range of opportunities to learn more about the music, and works and the artists.

Uncanny Valley Girl | Angela Goh (kinesthetic tour for blind or low vision patrons led by Imogen Yang)
17 October, 5 pm

Performance Space is honoured to present the Sydney premiere of Uncanny Valley Girl by trailblazing local artist Angela Goh. Merging live performance, text and a razor-sharp soundtrack by Melbourne-based producer CORIN, Uncanny Valley Girl explores our dread of the fembot; a hybrid of women and machine, as though our ultimate fear is not only the rise of the machine, but the rising up of the female body.

An audio description of the above work at 6:00 pm will follow the tour.

Sweating The Foundations | 110% (tactile tour led by Kica Saar)
27 October, 3 pm

Drawing on Carriageworks’ industrial history, 110% rezones the precinct’s public space as a site of active art vocation. Unfolding throughout Liveworks 2018, this parasitic performance installation creates porous and leaky architectural forms that receive ongoing support and attention from highly disciplined workers. Come and wander through the wetness as 110% sweats the foundations of minimal sculpture and reimagines the practice of collaborative labour.

Wheelchair accessible works

Everything in Liveworks is wheelchair accessible with the exception of Rest Area, which is a site-specific work. If you have mobility requirements and would like to experience Rest Area, please contact our team to discuss your access requirements. If you would like to book accessible seating to one of the works in the festival please contact our team at least 24 hours before on access@performancespace.com.au.

How about tickets to Liveworks Festival?

For tickets to the above and others at Liveworks Festival, please visit the Performance Space website.

A word about Performance Space

Performance Space is the crucible for risk-taking artists. Performance Space has consistently identified, nurtured and presented new directions in contemporary practice. The organisation champions risk, experimentation, and new modes of creative expression. Performance Space continues to evolve and renew to meet the needs of the independent sector and explore new models for developing and presenting the most critical and important new work.

A word about Liveworks Festival of Experimental Art

Since the first annual Liveworks Festival of Experimental Art in 2015, it has become the event at which to discover what’s next in contemporary art. The award-winning festival presents inspiring programs of innovative work by acclaimed Australian and Asia Pacific artists.

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Image: Angela Goh in Uncanny Valley Girl by Bryony Jackson

This page was first published on 5 October 2018.