Art of Difference - Disability and deaf arts festival - 10-21 March 2009

Looking Up is a series of uniquely shaped light boxes displaying text by people with disabilities. Scattered throughout the Gasworks Arts Park precinct, the light boxes activate a sequence of surprising and poignant encounters within public space. Intriguing and experiential, these light boxes encourage you to ponder y...our relationship with your surroundings.

Presented as part of the Art of Difference Festival 2009.



Date: 10 March to 15 March 2009
Venue: Gasworks Arts Park
Enquiries: t: 03 8606 4200, tty: 03 9699 4367
Read More

April 29 - May 10 2009
REINVENTION: CREATIVITY & SELF IDENTITY

Works by Victorian artists with a disability or who are Deaf are showcased in this major exhibition forming part of the Art of Difference festival. Circumstance, background, or disability often comes with a predetermined identity, or an identity that is ‘giv...en’. The opportunity for creative expression enables artists to reinvent, restate, speculate, or allow ambiguity to challenge and shift issues of identity. For both artists and audience, this exhibition provides a cultural context in which art and disability can be celebrated, supported and recognised.

A Bundoora Homestead Art Centre exhibition in conjunction with Art of Difference Festival
Read More

Friday 20 March
After dark
Yours Truly Opening

A City of Darebin Artist-in-residence project

Yours Truly examines public perceptions of difference while exploring the intimate, interior lives of
its participants. It consists of a short film projected continuously at night on the exterior of the Northcote Town Hall and ot...her short films, displayed within boxes with multiple peep holes for viewing. Selected for a City of Darebin Residency 2009, this work is presented by Über Dance as a professional development work for artists wishing to extend their engagement with the artform. Led by Dr Katrina Rank, the work is a thought-provoking interpretation of people being people, within and beyond the gaze.

Director Katrina Rank
Filmmaker Dianne Reid
Performers Jaye Haynes, Andrzej Zelazny,
Shea Lauren MacDonough, Craig Wright,
Andrew Tresidder

Projected film
Sun 15 to Sat 21 March after dark
Exhibition Foyer, Northcote Town Hall
Opening Sun 15 March 5pm to 7pm
Mon 16 March to Fri 20 March 10am 1pm & 3pm to 7pm
Sat 21 March 10am to 3pm
FREE
Read More

Outsider Art or Art Brut, also known as Raw Art and Naïve Art, are widely misunderstood terms that carry myths and assumptions about its makers and their ‘conditions’. The artists represented in this exhibition have had work selected for major exhibitions in the USA and Europe where there is a flourishing market for ‘R...aw Art’.

Access Arts Qld established the Brisbane Outsider Artist studio as a professional development program for talented artists experiencing disabilities and mental health conditions. The studio provides support and highquality materials to the artists. Access Arts Qld, through the BOA studio, is committed to providing exhibition opportunities for contemporary Australian ‘Outsider’ artists in order to provoke support in both the public and private gallery and dealer sector.

Presented as part of the Art of Difference Festival 2009.



Date: 10 March to 22 March 2009
Venue: Foyer
Time: Opening Thursday 12 March at 5pm
9am to 5pm daily
Enquiries: t: 03 8606 4200, tty: 03 9699 4367
Read More

Micheline Lee has been exhibiting since 1993 with eight solo exhibitions and ten group exhibitions in Australia and internationally. Her exhibition for Art of Difference is based on a story from Penang, Malaysia. The story behind She-Devil describes a female devil who wanders the streets at night trying to gain entry i...nto people’s homes.

One night Micheline’s grandmother received such a knock. Upon seeing that the woman has no shadow, her grandmother banished the She Devil. Using text and imagery Lee tells a story where instead of banishing the She-Devil, the woman leaves all that is loved and precious to her to changes places with her visitor. She-Devil Part 1, showing in the Angela Robarts-Bird Gallery, offers glimpses inside the woman’s home as she is preparing to leave. Micheline’s exhibition is about taking the next wrenching step into the unknown and what you leave behind and cannot return to. It was supported by an Art of Difference mentorship with established visual artist Jane Trengove.
Read More

Wed 18 March at 6.30pm
Thu 19 March at 2pm & 6.30pm

Ever had that dream where things are going crazy? You can hear and see everything going on around you, but you are totally frozen, unable to move or make a sound? Scary isn’t it? Now, imagine it the other way around – you can move freely, but can’t see or hear a thing? ...Which is more frightening? For In the Dark Roundangle collaborated with the wider deafblind community to explore the concept of fear, creating an accessible multisensory performance to premiere at Art of Difference 09. Jodee Mundy joins Will Tait, Medina Sumovic, Michelle Stevens and Heather Lawson as they re-unite on stage for the first time since Roundangle’s award-winning Source/Sauce in 2006. epresenting sightedhearing, deaf and different forms of deafblind this team bridges diverse sensory worlds.

Artistic Director Jodie Ahrens
Designer Brian Lipson
Sound Artists Madeleine Flynn,
Tim Humphrey
Performers Heather Lawson, Jodee Mundy,
Michelle Stevens, Medina Sumovic, Will Tait

Studio 1, Northcote Town Hall
Duration 40 minutes
Full $19 Conc $12
Bookings Tel: 03 9481 9500 or
03 9699 3253 TTY: 03 9699 4367 Read More

Fri 20 March at 2pm & 7.30pm
Asphyxia
The Grimstones: Hatched

Asphyxia is one of Australia’s leading Deaf artists. In her new puppet production, Martha Grimstone lives with her mother Velvetta and grandfather Elcho. She is gifted with the ability to see peoples’ dreams, seeing her mother’s eternal longing for more babies.... Martha’s father died when she was a baby, and her mother still grieves for the many children they had planned. The young girl urges her grandfather Elcho to cast a spell to create a baby for her mother. When Elcho refuses, Martha creeps into his apothecary late one night and works the spell herself, producing a large egg. When her grandfather discovers what she has done he is horrified: she has made a crucial mistake in the spell and the results will be catastrophic. When the egg finally hatches, a strangelooking baby boy emerges. Martha and Elcho soon realise that the baby will never grow up. But in time the baby, Crumpet, helps Velvetta to set aside her grief and rediscover joy. Hatched is the first in a series of compelling and magical fairytales about the Grimstone family. The story is told with giant books, old-world marionettes and Auslan sign language.

Gertrude Grimstone (Asphyxia) and her assistant August (Paula Dowse) are the delightful storytellers and puppeteers who bring to life the engaging story of the Grimstones.

Designer/Creator Asphyxia
Directors Gabrielle Griffin, Kelly Parry
Lighting/ Technical design Kane Forbes
Original music composed by Ania Reynolds
Performers Asphyxia, Paula Dowse

Studio 2, Northcote Town Hall
Duration 1 hour 10 minutes
Full $19 Conc $12
Bookings Tel: 03 9481 9500 or
03 9699 3253 TTY: 03 9699 4367 Read More

D-Lite: Art of D’s Variety Showdown
A night of off-centre comedy and brave acts.


Join us for this night of comedy, short performance, spoken word and brave new acts from local and international talents.

UK comedian Liz Carr joins international colleagues, symposium keynote speakers Tom Shakespeare
and Christine Bruno, to ...show that it takes smarts to be funny, and it can be funny to be smart. Local artists include award-winning poet Sandy Jeffs, Deaf drag king Mr Kewl, alongside a range of up-and coming
comedians and performers.

Art of D’s Variety Showdown is co-emceed by our comedian-in-therapy Jules Wilkinson and the legendary Auslan interpreter Lynn Gordon.

Studio 1, Northcote Town Hall
Sun 15 March at 7.30pm
Duration 2 hours with one 20 minute interval
Full $25 Conc $13
Bookings Tel: 03 9481 9500 or 03 9699 3253
TTY: 03 9699 4367 or online by clicking below:
Read More

Tue 17 & Wed 18 March at 7.30pm
It Hasn’t Happened Yet!
Liz Carr (UK)

“Right on the edge and fabulously black.”
The Scotsman.

“You can’t just wheel on the stage, tell us all you’re a cripple and think that’s all there is to it. You actually have to be funny”. It Hasn’t Happened Yet! tells the story of a disabled woman’s jou...rney into the funny and peculiar world of comedy. Liz Carr is a disabled actor, writer, stand-up comedian and broadcaster from the UK. She made her stand
up debut with Abnormally Funny People in 2005, is now addicted and is a regular on both the disability and mainstream comedy circuits. As well as being a contributor and commentator on disability culture in the UK, Liz is known for co-hosting the infamous BBC Ouch! podcast with Mat Fraser (www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/podcast). Liz Carr also presents as part of the Art of Difference Symposium and performs at Block Party and D-Lite: Art of D’s Variety Showdown.

Written & performed by Liz Carr
Directed by Huw Thomas
Duration 1 hour 10 minutes
Studio 2, Northcote Town Hall
Full $25 Conc $13
Bookings Tel: 03 9481 9500 or 03 9699 3253
TTY: 03 9699 4367 or online by clicking below:
Read More

Asurreal contemporary dance duet, Bedrock explores notions of beauty and the shaky ground on which the thinking behind aesthetics is based. Bedrock was first performed in Aucland in February 2007 to rave reviews. Major international guests for Art of Difference, Sean Curham and Suzanne Cowan are experienced dance profe...ssionals resident in Auckland.

St. Paul's Court, Federation Square
Thu 12 March at 1pm &5.30pm
Duration 20 minutes
FREERead More