Kiss Club 2019 – PICA

GOODBYE/HELLO BY ADAM BENNETT, MICHELLE AITKEN & SCARLET DAVIS

Our world and society is fundamentally changing. The impacts of environmental degradation and political upheavals are shocking us out of our comfort zones. Inspired by the works of Forced Entertainment, Adam and other performers say goodbye to the things we need to let go of, and hello to our emerging future.

–
Adam Bennett creates and performs live work. After training in Perth he spent two and a half decades in the UK and Europe creating and touring original work, collaborating with artists and companies. Since returning to WA, Adam has been exploring the interplay between performance and political environmental activism.
Michelle Aitken is a theatre maker and performer. She presents work under the banner of Hey! Precious. Last year Michelle toured her award winning solo show Future’s Eve around Australia. Michelle is currently a part of Black Swan State Theatre Company’s emerging writers group.
Scarlet Davis is an emerging theatre maker, writer and director. Scarlet has just completed her first public solo performance, Erosion, at PICA. Scarlet is currently working on new works, both written and devised with strong themes in environmentalism, gender politics and feminism.

LIPSTUCK BY DALEY KING

Lipstuck will vibrantly deconstruct the societal and cultural history of lipstick, and its use as both a tool of body politics and a weapon of oppression. The work will be a queer kaleidoscope of experimental performance art and verbatim storytelling, exploring the history and culture of lipstick, whilst juxtaposing it with a zeitgeist of modern lived experiences. It will explore Daley King’s own experiences with queer nonconformity, and the documented anecdotes and insights of a diverse range of humans. Lipstuck is a small protest, a bright rainbow light in a black and white world, fighting back against the binary and the systems of old that determine who you are, what you do, and how you live your body and your life.

–
Daley King is an eclectic, genderqueer writer and theatre-maker. Raised in Perth, Daley was born in New Zealand, with Māori heritage. Exploring the outer limits of performance through personal experiences with neurodevelopmental disorder, he generates unpredictable and uncomfortable art in a celebration of chaos.

DARK CONTRAST BY ELIZABETH PEDLER, JACQUI OTAGO, BUGS BOYD

In a play of light and dark, movements and reflections, Dark Contrast creates moments of disorientation, flickering wonder, and discovery as the audience takes over.

–
Artists Jacqui Otago, Bugs Boyd, and Elizabeth Pedler have worked together to create Dark Contrast. Coming from diverse approaches to movement their combined bodily practices span KMI therapy, dance, participation, and improvisation. Sharing a passion for collaborative and improvisational movement, this is the first time these three artists have devised together.

SLUTDROP BY JACINTA LARCOMBE

From being idolized to shamed all in one night, jacinta recalls stories of what it was like to work within a strip club in northbridge. Period-ing on customers, change room talk and being told she reminds them of a friends’ daughter.

–
Jacinta Larcombe is a performance artist with a background in dance, theatre, drag, and visual art. She has been involved in projects such as Ecosexual Bathhousewith Pony Express, Unveiling: Gay Sex For End Times with Renegade Productions and a member of the trash drag spectacular The Real Housewives Of Northbridge.

THIS IS NOT (PERSONAL) BY JEN JAMIESON

A set of sign-cards to assist you when your mental health is not helping you socialise.

–
Jen Jamieson is a live artist. She investigates intimacy and the blur between audience and artist. She has created one-on-one performances: How To Have A 3 Minute Shower, and Let’s Make Love. Her favourite work is We Will Build Our Own Mountain, with Mish Grigor, where she built a mountain from ice, climbed it, and waited for it to melt.

A DECOLONIAL HISTORY OF THE AVANT-GARDE BY PATRICK GUNASEKERA

Do not take what does not belong to you.

–
Patrick Gunasekera is an emerging interdisciplinary artist and activist working with performance, theatre, creative writing, visual art, and facilitation. His work researches and critically exposes ongoing colonial maintenance and practice in white/settler art, drawing from institutional critique to realise freedom from whiteness as a central point of epistemic reference.