Obscura is the premiere of the first solo dance work from multi-award winning Australian choreographer and performer Byron Perry, commissioned by Carriageworks and Force Majeure.
One of Australia’s most respected dance artists, Perry is based in Melbourne and has been consistently recognised by the Australian Dance Awards and Greenroom Awards, having developed and performed in roles with Douglas Wright, Leigh Warren, Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin, Ballet Lab and KAGE Physical Theatre.
Unlike anything ever seen in Sydney, Obscura is inspired by an accidental camera obscura that occurs in Carriageworks. Performing alone to a room of 35 audience members, who are contained within a black box environment, Obscura is a site specific dance that literally brings the outside world in.
The box contains shutters, lenses and mirrors to allow small amounts of natural light to enter and be manipulated. While from a sound persecutive, pickups and microphones will grab electromagnetic pulses from the architecture and electrics within Carriageworks and the natural environment surrounds. The outside world is projected in and onto the interior of the performance space to allow audiences to experience first hand the natural phenomenon that is a large-scale camera obscura.
Perry and his collaborators, set designer Michael Hankin and sound designer Luke Smiles have created this incredible large scale camera obscura in an elaborate insulation process with cutting edge visual and audio projections that has to be seen to be believed.
In Perrys words, “It’s one of the most fundamentally amazing natural phenomena you can ever experience. It is one of the only devices that allow us, without too much specialised equipment, to tap into the architecture of our senses.”
What: Obscura, presented by Carriageworks and Force Majeure
Where: Carriageworks, Sydney
When: 14th – 18th October, 1pm and 3pm
More information: www.carriageworks.com