Theatre, installation
Twenty-four year old Michael epitomizes the term ‘prolonged adolescence’. Aimlessly wandering the streets, he stumbles across the tent of his runaway friend, Brett, perched at the arse-end of a disused car park in the centre of Melbourne.
‘Brett’s the kind of guy who, if there was some sort of apocalypse, no electricity, no food, no water and everyone had to think about survival (upward inflection), he’d know what to do.’
Hand built by the artists out of scrap metal and old, oil-stained truck canvas, The Tent sits at the crossroads of installation art, puppetry, video and performance. Led by Michael, an audience of 20 is invited to step inside an exploration of self-sufficiency and friendship—sorting through the remnants of two men’s attempts to sidestep a pasteurised, homogenised society.
Come in, get warm, Brett should be back soon.
Artist/s:
Matthew Prest (Project Director, Performer), Clare Britton (Co-devisor, Puppet and Set Design), Daniel Egger (Conceptual and Technical Consultant), Eddie Sharp (Performer and Co-devisor)
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About the artist/s:
Matthew Prest is an artist working in contemporary performance and theatre, primarily as a performer and devisor of work. He holds a BFA in Sculpture, Performance and Installation from COFA, UNSW, where he explored installation and performance art.
He has six years of experience working as a performer and devisor of contemporary performance in Sydney. Early in 2008 he performed and co-devised Whale Chorus, directed by Janie Gibson. Later in 2008, he will continue as a performer in the creative development of The Riot Act by Karen Therese.
The Tent, his first work as director, brings together his interests in installation, performance and storytelling.
Daniel Egger is a conceptual and relational artist, whose multi-disciplined practice draws on aspects of photography, sculpture, ceramics, installation, drawing, video and performance. Working in the context of contemporary visual arts practice, Daniel’s work explores experiences of the self and is aesthetically functional.
Daniel has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture, Performance, Installation from the College of Fine Arts, UNSW and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Art History from University of Sydney. Prior to this he studied Avionics, and was an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer with QANTAS for a number of years. He also holds a TAFE certificate III in electrical wiring.
He is currently a full-time house dad.
Clare Britton is an artist preoccupied with designing, constructing and performing visual theatre. Clare holds a scaffolding ticket and an advanced rigging ticket.
In 2002, with a vision for creating intimate, spectacular theatre works, Clare co-founded the visual theatre company My Darling Patricia. The company has so far produced three works (Kissing The Mirror, 2003; Dear Pat, 2004; and Politely Savage, 2005).
In 2006, Clare completed an eight-week master class in Puppetry and Visual Theatre run by Philippe Genty and Mary Underwood at the VCA. In 2007, she collaborated with eight multi-disciplined artists on Volta, a site-specific performance directed by Joey Ruigrok at Carriageworks. She is currently working on a new My Darling Patricia work, titled The Night Garden, which will premiere in late 2008.
Eddie Sharp completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts at COFA, UNSW, in 2005 majoring in Performance and Video Art. In 2004 he founded the performance group Drama Club. The group performed and curated over 15 performance events throughout 2004 at venues such as The Metro, Town Hall and The Hopetoun.
Eddie was a member of the 2005 imPACT ensemble, performing in their show Before The Lights Go Out at The Sydney Opera House. In 2005 he directed, co-wrote and performed in the stage show WONKA! A live cinema remix, which performed two sell out seasons in Sydney and at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2006. He is currently working on Dance to the Max, a remixing of the Mad Max trilogy, to premiere in early 2008.
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More information:
This project was developed through Next Wave Kickstart.
