Adhocracy 2015 program highlights

Adhocracy at Vitalstatistix will search for missing friends, reconnect with old acquaintances, explore new interpretations of famous texts and allow young Australian artists the space and time to grow new work. Adhocracy takes over the Port Adelaide precinct on the Queen’s Birthday long weekend (Saturday, June 6 to Monday, June 8) and will be staged largely at the Waterside Workers’ Federation Hall. Vintage Now in its sixth year, Adhocracy is Vitals’ annual celebration of innovative new performance work created by Australian artists. Eight works spanning visual art, performance, installation and audio pieces will be presented, with the full program available for viewing here and here. To complement this calendar of wonders, Adhocracy will be hosting Daily News & Muse (4pm each day): sessions where artists and cultural leaders will discuss the Adhocracy works and the greater state of Australian arts. Speakers selected include Steve Eland, Director, Australian Experimental Art Foundation; Karilyn Brown, Chief Executive Officer, Performing Lines; Laura Kroetsch, Director, Adelaide Writers’ Week.

ADHOCRACY 2015 PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Crawl Me Blood

Key to Adhocracy’s 2015 program is an experimental reimagination of Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea. This project, Crawl Me Blood, is the outcome of the Adhocracy Residency. The residency allows guest (non-South Australian) artists to collaborate with locals on an ambitious performance project. Crawl Me Blood takes inspiration from the break-out medium that relaunched Wide Sargasso Sea into public consciousness in 2004: the radio. The new project will culminate in a radio docu-drama, but will also include live artwork and a sound installation. Presented over three nights, the work-in-progress will be a philosophical corner stone of the 2015 Adhocracy. Audiences will be asked to examine ideas of “longing for paradise”, racism and colonialism.

Louise at The Corner Store

As well as this multi-media super-work, another highly experimental piece will be performed: Louise at The Corner Store. Definitely a unique experience, the piece developed from a chance meeting between the artist (Emma Beech) and a stranger named Louise at Melbourne’s The Corner Store five years ago. When clearing old phone numbers from her mobile, Beech came across Louise’s. With her artistic practice concerned with the goodwill of strangers, Beech reached out to Louise. The stranger from the cafe has agreed to meet again at Adhocracy. Their reconnection will form the premise of the two-part Louise at The Corner Storeperformance. In the first staging (June 6, 3pm), the pair will engage in conversation and hopefully recapture what snared each other’s attention at that first meeting. The second staging (June 8, 3pm) will be a performance based on the experience.

Jarrod Duffy Is Not Dead

Another very personal piece comes from NSW collective Applespiel. Jarrod Duffy Is Not Dead deals with the Applespiel’s own real tragi-mystery: “Jarrod Duffy was the ninth member of Applespiel, who studied with the group at the University of Wollongong. In October 2010, two weeks before performing an Honours show, he disappeared, leaving behind the furniture at his hous and no explanation. Phone, email, Facebook all yielded no results. Jarrod Duffy Is Not Dead is the story of that disappearance and Applespiel’s hunt to find their missing friend.” For fans of Serial, ~mysteries~ and #ethicsintheatricalarts. These three very varied works are the tip of the iceberg: Adhocracy promises a whole weekend of eye-opening, bamboozling theatre and art. From 3pm each day of the long weekend, make Port Adelaide your home and dive head-first into the emerging world of Australia’s next wave artists.

Adhocracy takes place at Vitalstatistix and various Port Adelaide venues after 3pm from Saturday, June 6 to Monday, June 8. Program vitalstatistix.com.au