CREATION
Deborah Kelly, Lex Lindsay, Kit Spencer & Saria Green - CREATION: Curated Commission
4:00pm-6:00pm Saturday 13 April – Open Dress Rehearsal followed by Q&A
Main Hall, Petersham Town Hall

CREATION is an artwork in the form of a queer insurrectionary science fiction climate change religion. It is interdisciplinary, evolving and ceremonial. CREATION is expressed across visual arts, music, literature, choreography, performance, and most especially through sustained collaboration.

Over two days, CREATION will fill Petersham Town Hall with the sacred practice of this burgeoning faith... chanting, singing, dancing and parading in resplendent costumes and regalia generated in community workshops. A queer & allied community choir of over 50 inner-westies will gather their collective energies to sing a new world into being.

The performance includes the world premiere, in English and Bundjalung, of our new song, Urgently and Gently, a collaboration between composer Lex Lindsay and multi-disciplinary Bundjalung-Kannakan artist Juundaal Strang-Yettica. This centrepiece of the full concert presentation will be accompanied by large scale projections of new experimental animations.

CREATION’s treasury of collaborating artists includes choir captain Kit Spencer, choreographer Saria Green, soloists Andrew Bukenya, Zaya Barroso, Malaika Mfalme, Tash Rusterholz and Melanie Jah, guest composer Karen Cummings, cellist Mary Rapp, percussionist Byron Mark, animator Helen Bucknall and producer Su Goldfish. Costumes by James L King, Silvano Giordano, Eddie Bosnich, Helen Duckworth, David Cuenca, Deborah Kelly, Kit Spencer, Poppy Tegel, and a host of local participants.

About the artists

Deborah Kelly, Instigator - Deborah is a Melbourne-born, Sydney-based artist of mixed settler ancestry. Her works have been shown around Australia and elsewhere. For a decade she has been working with groups of strangers in cities around the world to make experiential collaborations emphasising process, community and aesthetic intensity. Kelly’s works are concerned with lineages of representation, politics and history in public exchange, and practices of collectivity both epic and intimate.

Lex Lindsay, Composer - Lex is a writer, composer and performance artist with a 20-year career as a creative producer, curator and strategy advisor to arts organisations. He has composed music for theatre, dance and film productions and is regularly contributor of music and collage to Deborah Kelly’s collaborative projects.

Kit Spencer, Performer & Choir Captain - Kit is a musician, artist and teacher, whose work focuses on music making as experimentation, performance-oriented practice, and accessibility.

Saria Green - Saria is a queer Tanzanian multidisciplinary performer, living and creating on Gadigal land. Saria started singing and dancing from two years old, and found her way to the stage in choirs, musical theatre, and spoken word poetry. Saria believes strongly in the power of performance for protest, healing and storytelling. Outside of her creative endeavours, Saria is a Clinical Psychologies and psychology teacher.