Monday, November 17, 2008

Le Petit Mort



..."Was it good for you?"...a post-coital "self-fucking" question posed to Honours Performance Research Project Le Petit Mort examiner and Associate Professor Mark Minchinton at Victoria University and Foundation Director, Moondani Balluk Indigenous Academic Unit. This "Nads" photograph by musician Leo Mullins of The Small Knives and formerly of Craig's 2 litre DOLBY also depicts all-round rennaissance man Thomas Battersby and his friend Nino's feet.



...i want to tell you something...it will save you a lot of time...but then again...what the fuck would i know...



...this is a sad fucking story...it is not a metaphor...godamnn it..this is real...



...so...in the beginning...god comes up to me...and says...i have invented...a new game...



...me...being the serpent and all...i just looked at him...and kind of laughed...and thought to my self...who the fuck is this...



...live always in my presence...and be perfect...



...for i name you father...to a host of nations...



...i shall make you exceedingly fruitful...and you shall live on...generation...after generation...after generation after generation...



...for your part...this is how we...you...shall keep my covenant between myself and you...circumcise yourselves...every male among you...



...god...i have a question...how shall i "circumcise" myself...



...i don't know...use a sharp stone or something...you fucking work it out...i am busy you know...



...don't make me come down there...

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Beyond Butoh Festival 2007









In 2007 following ROARAWAR FEARTATA COLLECTIVE'S performance of Artaud's radioplay for the Fringe Festival, Craig was invited by 2008 Australia Council Dance Fellowship Recipient Tony Yap to perform a segment with himself and Yumi Uminaire in their curated Beyond Butoh Festival at Fitzroy Town Hall's Reading Room. Consolidating the relationship forged together in Mildura for Jill Orr's The Crossing, Tony gave direction to Craig's vision of a techno-scientific Jesus Christ. This post-modern and apocalyptic, Gothic-like gargoyle figure is inspired by Heironymous Bosch as captured in a photographic memory by Eelin Cheah whom Craig does not have the words nor adjectives for! Thank you and Janette Hoe!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Craig performs as The Missionary for Jill Orr's The Crossing at the 2007 Mildura Arts Festival.









Craig was invited by eminent artist Jill Orr to perform as 'The Missionary' for The Crossing at the Mildura Arts Festival 2007. Although not a ROARAWAR FEARTATA COLLECTIVE performance, this performance was informed by intensive conversations with Jill about our respective practices. All the tribulations of religiosity and Christian iconography - as utilised for imperialist purposes - complimented Craig's own personal research projects and practice by numerous readings of the Christian Holy Bible and the work of Missionary'as such as the Finlayson's whom i was provided precious personal family resources by Sarah Derum. The performing of the missonary allowed me to examine pre-occupations with a 'god' and insights garnered by religious fervour and its altruisms whilst being shadowed by a mis-understood indigenous presence.

Mildura being a hub of cultural diversity played host to the poetic, ritual performance on the vitiated Murray River and its aptly symbolically man-made Lock Island. A dialogue formed an enduring network between the participants from the New South Wales TAFE, Koorie Unit, the Victorian College of Koorie Education Unit, singers, musicians, sound and multi-media personnel and - not to say the least - amongst the contigent of Melbourne performers and the people of Mildura.

Artaud's To Have Done And Put An End To The Judgement Of God












In 2007, Craig was invited to perform something at the behest of venue Bar Open's Lucy Tehan for the Melbourne Fringe Festival Program. ROARAWAR FEARTATA COLLECTIVE on this occasion consisted of Craig and Back to Back Theatre's Sarah Mainwaring (performing as a siamese twin shadow to Artaud's delirium) , PACT Theatre's Australian Council 2006 Young Emerging Performer Grant Recipient and 2007 VCA Animateuring Graduate Georgina Read (as Ceremonial Comment), 2007 Melbourne City Council Young Emerging Artist Grant Recipient and 2007 VCA Animatuering Graduate Brigid Jackson (as Antigone), Benjamin Cittadini (as Phantom-Sado-Masochistic-Director-god ) and North Atlantic Audio's Leif Svennsson as live musical accompaniment (www.myspace.com/northatlanticaudio) to a performance of French artist Antonin Artaud's radioplay "To Have Done And Put An End To The Judgement of God".

...THE imPOSSIBLE SHAME OF IT ALL...(heresies of the self)...







2008 VCA Master of Fine Arts Graduate Ieuan Wineman invited ROARAWAR FEARTATA COLLECTIVE to do "something" at what is most definetly called the "CARNi". A mnemonic rumination of the site conceived of a performance not to be seen by an audience. Alas, memory is flawed. Remembrance envisioned a sight-line behind the stage. A gap beyond with transgressive actions. We wait to confess in plush animal suits with metal chairs and 'sealed' concrete floor. Shameful and shamefilled acts from the banal and trivial to those that SHOULD remain personal factions. Like a performance of Pina Baush's Cafe Muller, miscommunication ensues lost in translations.