Finite Eyes

Finite Eyes
When: 24 January 6:30-9pm
Where: Brunswick Mechanics Institute

6:30pm Doors Open with refreshments
7-8:30pm Event
8:30-9pm Post event refreshments

An evening of sound and moving image by anorak and Ora Clementi
In collaboration with Debris Facility and Melody Woodnutt
Featuring work by Basma al-Sharif, Tolia Astakhishvili & James Richards, Charles Bernstein, Marguerite Duras, and Dani ReStack

Finite Eyes, brings together live performance, pre-recorded sound, and moving image for an evening to explore the emotive pull and mobilizing force of utopian visions. 

For the Australian premiere of this program, experimental music duo Ora Clementi and curatorial collective anorak invite two new artistic collaborators, Debris Facility and Melody Woodnutt, to adapt it for the stage.

The programme puts an emphasis on interpretation, the function of memory, and sound within both listener and performer, merging curatorial and compositional techniques. A bespoke staging forms the environment for three new musical sets which are put in dialogue with film and sound works by other artists, reflecting on how seemingly empirical information is manipulated and transformed through the interplay of speech, voiceover, and moving image.

Teetering on the boundary where the ephemeral realm of the imaginary converges with situated experiences, Finite Eyes raises questions about how utopian visions are informed by collective fantasies that in turn shape perceptions, memories, and imagined futures.

BIOS

Ora Clementi is the duo of Canadian sound artist crys cole and Australian composer/performer James Rushford. Distinct, disorienting, and highly performative, their work examines voice and vocal mirroring through preconscious speech processes and the codified abstraction of found texts, supported by a vast battery of handmade instruments, electronics, and hyper-color processing.  

anorak is a curatorial collective and independent art space in Berlin, run by Lukas Ludwig and Johanna Markert. anorak offers a space for sincere and mutual exchange enabling artists to produce, present, and critically discuss their work. Shaped by long-term collaborations with artists and cultural institutions, they develop unique presentation formats with a focus on artists’ moving image, sound, and performance. www.anorakanorak.com

The Debris Facility has been providing para-corporate operations to the sector through installation, a/v, design, performance, discourse, wear, events and administration. They process and oscillate between value and waste, signal and noise, subject and object, micro and macro. They have produced over 200 public works over almost a decade.

Melody Woodnutt works primarily within the expanded field of 16mm analogue moving image film. Artworks take form as large scale immersive installations, expanded cinema, short 16mm films, or printed photographic film stills. Melody's films are often made from an alchemical feminist position as default (alongside bio-art's concept of “witches in labs”). 

CREDITS

• Composition and music by Ora Clementi (James Rushford & crys cole)
• Curation and concept by anorak (Lukas Ludwig & Johanna Markert)
• Lighting and Staging Debris Facility
• Projections Melody Woodnutt
• Featuring work by Basma al-Sharif, Tolia Astakhishvili & James Richards, Charles Bernstein, Ora Clementi, Marguerite Duras, and Dani ReStack
• Supported by Creative Australia (Arts Projects For Individuals and Groups)
• Commissioned by anorak. Presentations at anorak, Berlin; Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart in 2023.