Through the Grape Leaves

February, 2016

Not all the knives of the lamp-posts,/ Nor the chisels of the long streets,/ Nor the mallets of the domes/ And high towers,/ Can carve/ What one star can carve,/ Shining through the grape-leaves.  Six Significant Landscapes- Wallace Stevens

This is your invitation: Come! Taste the fruit of the vineyard! Drink of the Vine!

Ok, that it may be a little dramatic, but I do think a drop of vino shared amongst friends in an idyllic location, with live music, dance and artwork is somewhat sensational! Yes, this is your invitation to the premiere of winery psalms– the mixed half dozen, in the Swan Valley, Western Australia, April 2016!

winery psalms has been a highly collaborative, experimental project in which the patterning of thought has found corporeal expression in six short contemporary dance theatre works. Each of the six winery psalms were inspired by a literary quote, matched with the aroma of a particular wine, and invited to be responsive to a winery site in which the artwork, musical compositions and contemporary dance is to be installed. New ideas have sprung from the pattern of each individual’s thought processes. Through collaboration, there has been the development of patterning and thought through a complex process of negotiation and exchange with one or more participants, or co-creators.

Critical thinking shaped by others has the potential to enrich or dilute creative material, but in the final outcome, will propel participants towards an engagement, as philosopher Emmanuel Levinas might describe it, beyond the Self, towards the Other. This high-risk process may become unhinged at any given moment, and yet the “reflection of discourse on itself does not include it in itself” (Levinas, 2013, p. 171). Turning outwards, to be responsive to the Other creates opportunities for engagement, exchange and the kind of thinking that makes for interesting artwork.

Gilles Deleuze maintained thinking takes many forms (Deleuze 1988) and I would add that deep thought can be embodied through creative exploration into the shape and form we often call ‘art’. The making of art involves constant moving from the front to back realms of thinking, folding ideas in on oneself, exploring back-to-back with others, both physically and philosophically. Much like Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s concept of the rhizome, there is ceaseless movement of thought, embodied in action that shapes thinking to recreate new neural pathways and patterns of movement: to create new art work.

The patterning of our winery psalms collaborations has been like the growth of leaves on the grape vine. Each unique shape has been branch-dancing overhead; sheltering the growth of fruity bunches of grapes, soon to be ripe for consumption, or crushed to make very fine wine. Some branches hold many leaves, in some places leaves and fruit are scarce or have dropped off the branch altogether, but still the grape vine winds its way across a trestled landscape, nurtured by sun and rain and the soil from which it springs. This is seasonal work. It will produce fruit, hanging amidst a proliferation of leaves which continue to sprout in the right place at the right time.  At the close of the season, the grapes will be gathered and the leaves will turn sunset colours to be swept away by the wind.

So, don’t miss this premiere! In the making for over a year, the collaborative outcome has drawn on the work of each individual to create something unique beyond the solo practice. But, oh how the individuals themselves are stunning! Thank you to the following creative visionaries, who have collaborated on this project: Lyndall Adams, Shoeb Ahmad, Ellen Avery, Frances Barbe, Kirsten Biven, Katie Chown, Samantha Coleman, Robyn Cooper, Jo Darvall, Alix Hamilton, Anna-Kat Hicks, Digby Hill, Amanda Humphries, Hyphen (Jacob Lehrer, Chloe Flockart, Matthew McVeigh), Stephanie Khoo, Kate Leslie, Johannes Luebbers, Jacqui Otago, Sue Peacock, Scott Putman, Esther Scott, Sue Starcken, Caroline Stevenson, Joanna Tan and Julie Valenzuela. It has been a privilege to have the opportunity of working together. Each of the winery psalms holds delicate beauty, balanced with aesthetic rigour – and is now ready to invite others in to experience, in the words of philosopher Kitaro Nishida, “the appearance of eternity in time”.

This is your invitation: Come!

Tickets on sale now: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/remnant-dance-presents-winery-psalms-the-mixed-half-dozen-tickets-21396677037?utm_term=eventurl_text  

More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1698143603737387/ 

Photography of Pinelli Winery Estate by Lucinda Coleman 2016, reprinted with permission.

References: 

Deleuze, G. (1988). Foucault (S. Hand, Trans.). London: The Athlone Press.

Levinas, E. (2013). Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence (A. Lingis, Trans.). Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Duquesne University Press.