Susannah & Padma Performing at Navigate Arts in Tanja
Photos by Tara Chiu/Daisy Hill Photography
Project Alchemy (https://rebustheatre.com/projectalchemy/) , led by Canberra-based company Rebus Theatre, enables practising artists from regions directly impacted by the Black Summer Bushfires to come together in two artist retreats to share skills, rebuild their practice and return to their own communities to lead community projects employing the arts to help repair, reconnect and celebrate their community. As part of this project, I have participated in two all-in residencies, a special regional dance weekend in Bega, as well as performed at the Festival of Daring Possibilities: Radical Hope in the Garden at Navigate Art in Tanja, NSW. The performance pictured above was a collaboration with my partner, musician and composer Padma Newsome. I am also undertaking a series of artist interviews from the Alchemy cohort. During the course of my (PhD) research process, I have developed a semi-structured interview/conversation process that seeks to uncover our knowledge as artists about the contexts of our practices in relationship to place as well as disruption/continuity over the lifetime of a practice. The interview is designed to produce information that is useful in a research context, but because of its conversational and communicative nature, it may also be valuable as something used simply for reflection on and in promotion of the artist’s work.