Events & Exhibitions

Max Dingle and Natalie McDonagh are working with artist, Grace Burzese, to present this exhibition spanning 3 decades of her career and associated catalogue to the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery. Grace Burzese works in the fields of painting, drawing, sculpture and ceramics. Her process based art making is inspired by the exploration and play of colour, materials and form. Abstraction for Grace allows for an open identification with how one relates to being. In the questioning of self, feelings and perceptions are reduced to colour, mark and form – a language and sensibility which does not identify with known or understood imagery, but rather how something is sensed and embodied. “My paintings reference a continuum of layering of the paint and structure, as well as the felt experience. Recognising time abiding and past, the physical present and the anticipation of ongoing movement.” Image: Lines of Violet, 1997. Acrylic on linen 59x58cm.

Session 1 includes special performances at 2:30PM What Lies Beyond: Processional poem in words & sound / duration 10 mins, performed at intervals. 3PM Yak Woman Oracle: Live audience / duration 30 mins PLUS Interactive installations in place every session: What Lies Beyond; The Sanctum; Resurrecting Romance; The Emotional Body; Planted Here; ghost trees. You will also find Roving Players to activate in Artist – Action – Reaction, and the Little Shop of Stuff. For audiences 16+ years.

There is something strange surfacing in the Shoalhaven … This is a rare opportunity to experience one of Dingle and McDonagh’s unorthodox arts events. Magical mixes conjured from: visual arts; sculpture; photography; installation; textiles; costume; performance; a mezzo-soprano voice; a classically trained saxophonist; poetry and the unpredictable marvels that happen when all the artists and performers are in residence. Immerse yourself in all sorts of strange and enchanting stuff and discover what the body knows (but may have forgotten). Dingle & McDonagh are delighted to be joined by Barbara Dawson, Deb Grahame, Megan Kovalik, Greer Taylor, Annette Tesoriero, Ini Veerkamp. Admission free. For audiences 16+ years. Image: Natalie McDonagh. Bit Queer in the Head, 2022. Paper collage, found images and text.

Session 2 includes special performance at 5PM Yak Woman Oracle: Live audience / duration 30 mins PLUS Interactive installations in place every session: What Lies Beyond; The Sanctum; Resurrecting Romance; The Emotional Body; Planted Here; ghost trees. You will also find Roving Players to activate in Artist – Action – Reaction, and the Little Shop of Stuff. For audiences 16+ years.

Session 3 includes special performance at 6:30PM Memory of Mouth: Sets the scene for the event / duration 40-45 mins with drinks & nibbles after PLUS Interactive installations in place every session: What Lies Beyond; The Sanctum; Resurrecting Romance; The Emotional Body; Planted Here; ghost trees. You will also find Roving Players to activate in Artist – Action – Reaction, and the Little Shop of Stuff. For audiences 16+ years.

Session 4 includes special performances at 10:30AM What Lies Beyond: Processional poem in words & sound / duration 10 mins, performed at intervals. 11AM Yak Woman Oracle: Live audience / duration 30 mins AND Still Breathing: A player activation in which you help create a soundscape PLUS Interactive installations in place every session: What Lies Beyond; The Sanctum; Resurrecting Romance; The Emotional Body; Planted Here; ghost trees. You will also find Roving Players to activate in Artist – Action – Reaction, and the Little Shop of Stuff. For audiences 16+ years.

Session 5 includes special performance at 1PM Yak Woman Oracle: Live audience / duration 30 mins AND The Funeral Singer: Join her in the kitchen for conversation & song PLUS Interactive installations in place every session: What Lies Beyond; The Sanctum; Resurrecting Romance; The Emotional Body; Planted Here; ghost trees. You will also find Roving Players to activate in Artist – Action – Reaction, and the Little Shop of Stuff. For audiences 16+ years.

Session 6 includes special performance at 3PM Resurrecting Romance: Story, music & song / duration 40-45 mins PLUS Interactive installations in place every session: What Lies Beyond; The Sanctum; Resurrecting Romance; The Emotional Body; Planted Here; ghost trees. You will also find Roving Players to activate in Artist – Action – Reaction, and the Little Shop of Stuff. For audiences 16+ years.

Session 7 Meet & Mingle: A gathering with drinks & nibbles and all The Players in residence. Includes at 4:30PM The Strange Girl & The Romantic Boy: A Dada Love Story / duration 10-15 mins PLUS Interactive installations in place every session: What Lies Beyond; The Sanctum; Resurrecting Romance; The Emotional Body; Planted Here; ghost trees. You will also find Roving Players to activate in Artist – Action – Reaction, and the Little Shop of Stuff. For audiences 16+ years.

Session 8 includes special performances at 10:30AM What Lies Beyond: Processional poem in words & sound / duration 10 mins, performed at intervals. 11AM Yak Woman Oracle: Live audience / duration 30 mins AND The Funeral Singer: Join her in the kitchen for conversation & song PLUS Interactive installations in place every session: What Lies Beyond; The Sanctum; Resurrecting Romance; The Emotional Body; Planted Here; ghost trees. You will also find Roving Players to activate in Artist – Action – Reaction, and the Little Shop of Stuff. For audiences 16+ years.

Session 9 includes special performance at 1PM Resurrecting Romance: Story, music & song / duration 40-45 mins AND Still Breathing: A player activation in which you help create a soundscape PLUS Interactive installations in place every session: What Lies Beyond; The Sanctum; Resurrecting Romance; The Emotional Body; Planted Here; ghost trees. You will also find Roving Players to activate in Artist – Action – Reaction, and the Little Shop of Stuff. For audiences 16+ years.

Session 10 includes special performance at 3PM Funeral for Jesus: Imagining a civil funeral service for Jesus of Nazareth / duration 20 mins PLUS Interactive installations in place every session: What Lies Beyond; The Sanctum; Resurrecting Romance; The Emotional Body; Planted Here; ghost trees. You will also find Roving Players to activate in Artist – Action – Reaction, and the Little Shop of Stuff. For audiences 16+ years.

Session 11 may include ad hoc performances as/when The Players in residence are so moved PLUS Interactive installations in place every session: What Lies Beyond; The Sanctum; Resurrecting Romance; The Emotional Body; Planted Here; ghost trees. You will also find Roving Players to activate in Artist – Action – Reaction, and the Little Shop of Stuff. For audiences 16+ years.

Session 12 may include ad hoc performances as/when The Players in residence are so moved PLUS Interactive installations in place every session: What Lies Beyond; The Sanctum; Resurrecting Romance; The Emotional Body; Planted Here; ghost trees. You will also find Roving Players to activate in Artist – Action – Reaction, and the Little Shop of Stuff. For audiences 16+ years.

Curated by Max Dingle, Death + Love = Art is a major exhibition bringing together artistic responses to death across time and cultures. With works borrowed from large collecting institutions and contemporary collections it will offer an expansive survey of the many ways artists and communities respond to the concept and reality of death. Death is inevitable, yet is also the ultimate unknown, and as such has provided inspiration to artists across the centuries. Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, the late Spanish American philosopher and poet, wrote, ‘There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval. The dark background which death supplies brings out the tender colours of life in all their purity.’ Despite the inevitability of death, it is often depicted in terms of tragedy and devastation – the grief, trauma, loss and hurt caused by the death of a loved one, or the concept of death – your own or that of a legend or fictional figure – has inspired some of the greatest art produced across genres. Love, entwined with death is seen as the ultimate sacrifice. Image: Still from video. Bill Viola, Ocean Without a Shore, 2008. NGV Collection.