ALIENS OF EXTRAORDINARY ABILITY

Curated by Luke George

Date: Sat 25 March, 8pm - 1am
Location: Temperance Hall, 199 Napier St South Melbourne
Curator: Luke George
Artists: Alexander Powers, Andrew Treloar, Govind Pillai, Joel Bray, Luigi Vescio, MaggZ, Rosalind Crisp, Sarah Aiken, Stev Zar, Tony Yap
Production Manager and Lighting Designer: Jordi Edwards
Technical Operator and Production: Meri Leeworthy

ALIENS OF EXTRAORDINARY ABILITY is a one night happening and terrestrial encounter that’s a little bit extra, where performance and art get intimate on the dancefloor.

Curated by Temperance Hall’s Artistic Associate Luke George for FRAME: a biennial of dance, this whole venue takeover includes an epic line-up of some Naarm’s most electric artists working in the fields of dance, sound, visual installation and costume design, intersecting with revered party priestess of Naarm, DJ Stev Zar live-mixing an empowering set of genre blending beats to charge your body and soul.

ALIENS is inspired by Luke’s time living in Brooklyn, New York City between 2010-2017, and his collaborations and participation in the many grass-roots and community/artist-led performance events organised, enacted and attended by expansive and diverse artists and queers of New York.

ALIENS OF EXTRAORDINARY ABILITY takes its title from the bizarre name of the artist-visa required for a creative to enter, reside and work in the USA. These happenings intend to reclaim “othering” and transform such through an art gathering which celebrates the electric, inclusive and spontaneous energy of Melbourne’s incredible alternative queer party scene.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Luke George (he/they) is a multidisciplinary artist creating work that spans performance, installation, craft and curation. Luke was born in lutruwita/Tasmania and resides on Wurundjeri Country in Naarm/Melbourne. Informed by queer politics and spaces, Luke’s works explore risk and intimacy and employ daring and at times, unorthodox methods, to create further possibilities for artist and audience to encounter each other. Luke’s work takes him across Australia, Asia, Europe and North America, with notable presentations at the Venice Biennale, National Galleries of Victoria and Singapore, RISING, Dance Massive, Liveworks Festival, Rencontres chorégraphiques de Seine-Saint-Denis, Time Based Art Festival and many more. Luke was a 2019 Australia Council for the Arts Fellowship recipient, in 2020 appointed inaugural Artistic Associate of Temperance Hall and in 2022 was bequeathed a Chloe Monroe Fellowship.

For more info please visit the Temperance Hall website here.

ACCESS AND SAFETY

Please do not attend Temperance Hall if you are feeling unwell or have tested positive to COVID-19.
Bathrooms are for all-genders and wheelchair accessible. Temperance Hall's Upstairs Studio is only accessible via a stairwell.

If you have any specific accessibility needs or any queries regarding the event, please contact Temperance Hall Program Producer, Anna McDermott program@temperancehall.com.au

Image Design: Shaun Manyweathers

Temperance Hall acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land in which we dance and create, the Bunurong Boon Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation, and pay our respect to Elders both past and present and, through them, to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.