Dots+Loops’ wickedly wonderous week at Brisbane Powerhouse
Dots+Loops complete their first decade of post-genre arts with a wickedly wonderous week at Brisbane Powerhouse Following their 10th birthday spectacular REWIND in March of this year, presented as part of ΩHM Festival, Dots+Loops return to Brisbane Powerhouse for a week-long residency.
The week begins with MEDITATIONS on Sunday 1 December, an immersive event led by Grammy- Award-winning flautist Tim Munro.
Bringing together over thirty musicians, this free event sees the cavernous heart of Brisbane Powerhouse transformed into an all-encompassing musical experience for audiences to explore, centred around a performance of Four Meditations For Orchestra by influential experimental artist Pauline Oliveros.
Tim Munro.
Pauline Oliveros is an American original. Coming of age in the turbulent 1970s, Oliveros turned within, and made meditative music that healed her. And now, 50 years later, it still has the power to heal.
There is no better place to bring Oliveros’s Meditations to life than Brisbane Powerhouse. A hulking great industrial cathedral, players scattered through the large space, giving voice to this primal music. Listeners are free to create their own experience of the piece, walking, sitting, lying down.
The climax of the week, on Saturday 7 December, is the fourth iteration of Dots+Loops’ flagship festival, NONSTOP. Spread across both ground-floor spaces at Brisbane Powerhouse, the Underground Theatre
and Fairfax Studio, the festival’s marathon 6-hour lineup features artists from across Australia pushing at the boundaries of their art.
Helen Svoboda:
Australia is an isolated country. Dots+Loops play an extremely important part in connecting its communities and cities, and fostering individuality and uniqueness of practice. who features in both NONSTOP and MEDITATIONS, and mentors in Dots+Loops’ emerging artists Fellowship Program.
Every artist has a story to tell, and programs that encourage experimentation and exploration help to grow the richness of our scenes in this way. As an artist living across multiple styles and influences, the Fellowship Program and NONSTOP are the perfect spaces to explore and experience sound as a foundation of activity. This opportunity is exciting and important as it has the potential to connect us all across our different disciplines, dismantling the genre boxes that so often divide us.
From folk-influenced contemporary classical to jazz-metal big band, NONSTOP has something for all adventurous eyes and ears. The festival features multiple new commissions, including “Circadian”, a new
30-minute contemporary dance work created by dancer/choreographer Lonii Garnons-Williams and violinist Kyla Matsuura-Miller, and two electroacoustic multimedia pieces by Dots+Loops Composition
Fellows Samuel Carrick and Leila Harris for guitarist Libby Myers, whose set features special guest MJ O’Neill. Dots+Loops Performance Fellows also feature, appearing alongside Alexandra Gorton, Frankie Dyson Reilly and Helen Svoboda.
In a special collaboration with our First Nations partner Cre8tive Nations, Sue Ray and POJI are joined by string quartet Ensemble Cherubim for a performance spanning soul and RnB to country, blues and roots.
Local bands Life On Earth, Valtozash, and Miami Washing Machine round out the festival’s lineup. Beyond the on-stage performances, pop-up performances ranging from spoken word to drag, physical theatre to traditional Japanese Butoh are scattered throughout the night, curated by Magandjin’s premiere self-described “Drag Gremlin” GoGo Bumhole.
GoGo Bumhole:
We have such incredible talent in this city, especially in experimental performance art, which I’m really eager to see staged at Brisbane Powerhouse for people to possibly experience for the first time!” It is essential to keep platforming artists that don’t fit into a mainstream context, as well as provide audiences an exciting curtation of a day/night that will expose them to local artists that they can continue to love and support into the future. Without spaces like this, some times these artists can become invisible to the broader arts landscape, when we know they are essential and often inspire the very artists we know and love.
Both events feature Dots+Loops 2024 Fellows, who along with the Dots+Loops team will spend the week in-residence at Brisbane Powerhouse, the culmination of their Fellowship Program.
In addition to various workshops and seminars, throughout the residency the Fellows collaboratively create their performances for NONSTOP alongside their mentors Alexandra Gorton, Frankie Dyson Reilly, Helen Svoboda, and Libby Myers if you’re in the local area, keep an eye out for other pop-up performances throughout the week!
Composition Fellow Samuel Carrick:
The Fellowship Program has been an invaluable experience in developing my practice thanksto the breadth of knowledge the mentors have been able to provide.
I’ve never done anything like this work before, but it’sthe type of work I’ve wanted to do for ages- I’m so grateful for the support this opportunity has provided and can’t wait to share it! Previous NONSTOPs have been some of the most interesting and unique shows I’ve seen in the Meanjin/Brisbane music scene, I’m so honoured to be a part of it.
Dots+Loops exists for all members of the community, and their shows are explicitly safe spaces. Accessible seating options are available for wheelchair users and disabled patrons.
For more information click HERE
