Virtual Theatres
Victoria University Senior Lecturer John Downie will this month curate ‘Virtual Theatres’, a series of installations by
staff and students in the Film and Theatre programmes.
To be exhibited at the Adam Art Gallery, the original installation works will demonstrate current research experiments
with performance and audiovisual technologies.
“While we still think we know what we are talking about when we use the terms 'theatre' and 'film', everyday digital
technologies now enhance a performer's expressive range within space and time quite beyond character-based
representation, as well as expanding the spectator's own sense of being present at a performance,” says Mr Downie.
Installations include:
‘Metamorphosal’ – using three flat screens to explore ideas about indoctrination, cure and obedience;
‘Terminal’ – invoking the sensations and metaphysics of the modern airport by a mixture of objects and projection;
‘He is still alive and speaks to himself rationally’ – a meditative take on the Asian ‘Monkey’ fable, employing three
different projection spaces and compelling sound;
‘Epistrophe’ –making play with the repetitions of the everyday that continue to inhabit antiquated furniture and
screens;
‘Bound’ – placing real stones, within which can be seen the figure of her own father, grappling with some of the story
elements of the Prometheus myth;
‘Styx’ – exhibited in honour of the artist’s pet snake, in the gallery’s lift; and
‘My Space’ – a provocation about identity, ownership and the transference of the intangible.
What: ‘THEA323 Presents: Virtual Theatres’
When: 4-8pm daily; Wednesday 15 to Friday 17 October, and 11am-5pm Saturday 18 October
Where: Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington, Gate 3, Kelburn Parade
ends