After Hours: Untying knots in the sky

Breathing with muscle and singing with blood flow, Untying knots in the sky arises through vocalisation, breathwork, meditation practice and the artists’ relationship. As Barry and Jadu attend to the vital bodily rhythms between them, the boundary between inner experience and outward expression begins to dissolve. Responding to growing division and political turbulence, the artists offer the practice of listening, and attending to diverging patterns while remaining in connection. Untying knots in the sky is an invitation to witness what happens through the steady, insistent act of breathing together. 

This performance is part of a new Potter After Hours experience. After Hours is a new monthly event series inviting you to experience the gallery differently. As the doors stay open late, performances, conversations and creative encounters unfold across the spaces, offering new ways to connect with the ideas, artists and communities around the Potter.

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Our first of After Hours unfolds this April, with another to happen later in May. Please see details of each upcoming iteration below:

April After Hours
April’s edition features the world premiere of Untying knots in the sky, an intimate sound performance commissioned for A velvet ant, a flower and a bird. Archie Barry and Aarti Jadu turn two stethoscopes into instruments, amplifying their heart rates as live accompaniment to their singing voices. This cyclic duet approaches the kind of synchronicity which cannot be forced, only felt. The result is something rarely witnessed: a negotiation between two bodies listening their way toward one another. 

The April program will also feature Floor Talk: The Shape of Us with Associate Curator Shanysa McConville. It will bring together a selection of works that have entered the University of Melbourne Art Collection and the Indigenous Art and Culture Collection over the past five years. 

May After Hours
May's iteration sees another Untying knots in the sky return to the gallery. This time however, Archie Barry and Aarti Jadu turn two stethoscopes into instruments, amplifying their heart rates as live accompaniment to their singing voices. This cyclic duet approaches the kind of synchronicity which cannot be forced, only felt. The result is something rarely witnessed: a negotiation between two bodies listening their way toward one another. 

This evening will also feature a floor talk with Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison with Pippa Milne. Focusing on a new work by the artists, dedicated to the velvet ants of Australia and commissioned specially for this exhibition.