An Extended Sound Performance at Fish Lane Town Square: Dean Ansell Presents The Riḡorabana, The Balawaia

Fish Lane Arts Precinct, in partnership with Outer Space, is proud to present a captivating new sound performance by multidisciplinary artist Dean Ansell, unfolding in the heart of the Town Square.

This live activation extends Ansell’s current exhibition The Riḡorabana, The Balawaia, on view at Outer Space from April 25 to May 25. Through this performance, Ansell (@dean.ansell⁠) collaborates with Yvette Ofa Agapow (@yvettethed0ll) & Connor Andree-Evarts (@fleshchrist666) bringing sonic and embodied elements of the exhibition into the public realm, creating a powerful spatial and sensory experience that deepens the themes explored in the gallery.⁠

Of Melanesian (Riḡorabana, Balawaia, Papua Niugini), Maltese, and Anglo-Celtic descent, and based in Meanjin, Ansell weaves his diverse heritage into immersive sonic landscapes. His practice, rooted in installation, soundscape, and embodied performance, re-imagines Melanesian mythologies and rituals, invoking a space of reverence, memory, and transformation.

Connor Andree-Evarts is a multidisciplinary digital artist based in Magandjin. His practice bridges the physical and virtual, exploiting technological processes which expose the underlying contrast between the fidelity of computers and reality. Employing digital research methods and sonic exploration, his work delves into the dynamics of human-computer relationships, drawing parallels between the constructs of computer and physical objects.

Yvette Ofa Agapow is a Magandjin-based experimental musician working at the intersection of noise, ambient, drone music and acoustic vocal and percussion improvisation. Combining these musical tendencies with an intentional approach to presentation and performance, she interrogates her personal relationship to pain, catharsis and feminine subjectivity.

Harnessing his body as an instrument in dialogue with the urban environment, Ansell’s performance, with joined collaborators, Ofa Agapow and Andree-Evarts offer a poetic exploration of cultural continuity and displacement. Audiences are invited to experience this powerful expression of diasporic identity and ancestral resonance, unfolding live in the open-air setting of Fish Lane Town Square.

Read more about exhibition The Riḡorabana, The Balawaia here

Performance Times:
Two 15-minute performances:
• 2:00pm – 2:15pm
• 2:45pm – 3:00pm

Location: Fish Lane Town Square, Meanjin (Brisbane)

Audience Advisory:
Audiences are advised that this exhibition includes sound, vibration, and low lighting, and mentions deceased persons. Please consider wearing ear plugs if you have sensory sensitivities, allowing you to experience the work for longer periods of time.

Image Credit: Courtesy of Dean Ansell. Photographer Isabella Rose