Friday Nights at Metro Arts

A fantastic initiative at the Metro Arts called Friday Nights was had on July 5 as artists and residents opened the doors to welcome beverage toting guests in for a gander at the churning wheels of creation at 109 Edward Street.

The main event for my evening was Takeover#3: Rumpus by visual artist and performance maker Ahmarnya Price who was showcasing her performance-art-piece-in-progress.  Price takes her followers for a walk on the wild-side, to the height of the civilised world where we explore the safety and wisdom of childhood and the dangerous ignorance of the grown-up universe. At first, a little suspicious of the audience participation requirement, a glimmer of hope shone through with Price’s easy-going personality as we descended into the ‘cosy’ basement space to play. She used a variety of mediums and performance styles to regale her story to the captivated room. Rumpus turned out to be quite engaging with lurking meaning beneath a trail of whimsy and absurdity and experiencing the finished product and seeing how or if it changes is something to look forward to.

A brief and positive post-Rumpus chat followed before we surfaced again into reality and ground floor Metro which had decidedly increased in population since we’d gone exploring. Up to level three and The Howling Unknown – an exhibition of sculpture and works by Dord Burrough and the open studios of William Platz and Nancy Stilianos (Stilianos was found surrounded by candy coloured cotton piles). Level four was given over to Emergency Crash Landing – an interactive ‘choose your own adventure’ piece by The Deconverters and Boxcopy Slide Night by Alice Lang. But possibly the strangest part of the evening was the receipt of a saucy letter from an admirer across the room – a member of The Vertebras perhaps referencing Envelope which is coming up in this year’s Independents series.

I only managed to nibble at the surface of this month’s Friday Nights art banquet; regrettably I missed the panel discussion on the Role of the Artist in the Globalised World as it clashed with my Rumpus adventure but the good news is that August is coming and with August will come another Friday Nights. The beauty of this Metro Arts initiative is that you can absorb a little or a lot of what’s on offer and walk away feeling refreshed and excited about what’s going on at the Metro Arts Centre – the perfect way to end a stressful work week.

Stay tuned at www.metroarts.com.au for information about August 2, the next night for Friday Nights at Metro Arts.