This event is part of the ARCHIVE 2022 program and is presented by Salamanca Arts Centre and Edge Radio

A monthly showcase of Tasmanian contemporary music

Pop music encompasses many disparate styles but their commonality is that they are ephemeral and accessible. Pop musicians are constantly adopting avant garde explorations in music and making these challenging and exciting ideas accessible to broad audiences.

Tasmania has a rich community of alternative pop artists who traverse the line of the avant garde and the popular, creating powerfully relevant and moving music for local audiences. I’ve curated an all women line up to join me in celebrating the diversity of pop music in Tasmania.

FFLORA ( ℎ ) epitomise the ephemeral quality of pop in their improvised sets that are guaranteed to sweep you onto the dance floor.

Drawing inspiration from ‘crying in the club’ ballad mavens like Lykke Li and Robyn, PARKER smashes out soaring vocals with subdued minor-key dance groove and dancehall-inspired beats.

Formally known for her prowess in the Tokyo Punk troupe from FARO 2021, エミエミ (pronounced Emi Emi) takes a Tasmanian spin on the J-pop genre with her sweet sassy sound.

Live Visuals by Grace Huie Robbins (founder of MOOD: A Queer Party in Launceston)


Photo: Isabella Connelly

PARKER

Tash Parker (PARKER)  is a multidisciplinary artist and musician born in Western Australia and raised on a tropical fruit farm in the North East Kimberley, now based in Launceston Tasmania.  Her music is a powerhouse of retro-futurist electronica that soars with glossy synths and commanding vocals.

Her artistic practice is centred around reactionary works in collaboration with musicians, visual artists and technology artists to curate multi-sensory experiences:

“I write about what is real and happening whether that be about my own relationships and experience in my body or an imagined reality of a space travelling future ancestor.” –PARKER


Photo: Bella Waru

FFLORA (FLUID FEMME LUMINARIES OFFERING RHAPSODIC ASCENSION)
A place of musical exploration and expression, FFLORA presents a journey into group improvisation. The ever-evolving ensemble take inspiration from jazz, folk, free improv, sick beats, collisions of sounds, failures, glory, poetry and synergy. Each time the group performs together it is truly unique. Be prepared to experience uplifting, unsteady, un-conforming utters of unreal music.


Photo: Jacob Collings

エミエミ (emi emi)

エミエミ (emi emi) is the experimental J-pop project from 24-year-old Emi Doi. Born and raised in lutruwita to her Launcestonian mum and Japanese dad, エミエミ represents a new venture for Emi, combining her existing indie-music flavour with uptempo neo-kawaii-pop, drawing on inspiration from the likes of Kero Kero Bonito, CHAI, Kyary Pyamu Pyamu and Superorganism. 楽しんでください (≧▽≦)


The Curator

Photo: Ursula Woods

Tash Parker

Tash Parker is a multidisciplinary artist and musician based in Launceston Tasmania. Her music released under the name PARKER is ‘a ‘a powerhouse of retro futurist electronica that absolutely soars with its glossy synths and commanding vocals.’ Her artistic practice is centred around collaboration with musicians, visual artists and technology artists to curate multi-sensory experiences for her audience. She holds a degree in Fine Arts majoring in Sonic and Spatial Practice and made the Vice Chancellor’s list at RMIT in 2016. In 2019 Tash had her first multi-media exhibition ‘You, Me & that Other Thing’ at Sawtooth Gallery in collaboration with Melbourne based drawer and sculptor Jo Lane. Her music videos have since gone on to win awards for best music video at New York Film Awards, Los Angeles Film Awards, Top Shorts and the Melbourne Short Film Festival and Clipped Music Video Festival in Sydney. In 2020 Tash received the Tasmanian Women’s Art Prize Emerging Artist award for her debut music video Can’t Keep Waiting. Tash’s songs have been added to rotation on ABC’s Double J radio station (Superhuman by PARKER) and reached number one on the AMRAP regional charts (Flames by Runaway Belles). Her last single and music video Lie Low, ‘a brave, cathartic, and above all, mystifyingly – beautiful song.’  released March 8th 2021 for International Women’s Day was premiered on Rolling Stone Australia. In 2021 Tash received an Arts Tasmania grant to present a series of music video exhibitions and performances in the second half of 2022. These exhibitions and performances will be; in Devonport at the RANT Gallery in July, in Hobart at Longhouse Gallery partnering the Winter Light Festival in August, and in Launceston partnering with Sawtooth Gallery and Junction Festival in September.


Supported by Live Music Australia – an Australian Government initiative

This event is part of the ARCHIVE 2022 program and is presented by Salamanca Arts Centre and Edge Radio

Archive is a monthly showcase of Tasmanian contemporary music. Each month features a different genre curated by a Tasmanian musician or artist who excels in that particular genre. Archive is a collaboration between Salamanca Arts Centre and Edge Radio. Edge Radio are recording each gig, broadcasting five live and broadcasting all the gigs on the Sunday night following each gig.


The Sleepyheads have spent the last 6 years immersed in the Tassie music scene. Originally starting as the solo acoustic project of Pat Broxton, the band quickly picked up a strong local following with their fun, heart-on-sleeve style of indie-punk.
They’ve done multiple interstate tours and festivals off the back of their second EP, “Be More Optimistic?”, which also saw them score a feature artist slot on Triple J.
The band has spent the last two and half years crafting their debut album, and will use this special night at the Founders Room to share some brand-new material.


Photo: image supplied by the artists

208L Containers
We sell paintings to Lars Ulrich and are rock band.


Photo: Will Moon

Rabbit
RABBIT is a rock and roll band with a lot of rhythmic crunch and sharp guitar hooks and they play fast. Ventolin inhaler recommended.


Photo: Graham Meresith

The Trash Vultures

The Trash Vultures are a Death Western Outlaw band, writing songs about the Wild West, cowboy decapitation, mutilation by grizzly bears and other day to day adventures. Formed in Hobart in 2019 for the Arts Hall Little Bands festival, popular demand saw the band continue on to be a permanent act. They released their debut album “Talking Trash and other songs and stories” and the single “Stupid Town” has been receiving good national airplay through the CBAA network and support from EDGE Radio Hobart


The Curator

Photo: Luke Henery

EWAH

EWAH is based in Hobart, Tasmania and is the moniker for Emma Waters, who has appeared under various guises over the years. Her current projects are dreamy electro post-punk outfit EWAH DUO and EWAH & The Vision of Paradise, whose sound is often cited as cinematic, merging post-punk and new wave.

EWAH & The Vision of Paradise’ debut release, Everything Fades to Blue captured attention nationally and internationally and was longlisted for the Australian Music Prize (The AMP) in 2017.

EWAH & The Vision of Paradise have played at festivals including Mona Foma, Party in the Paddock, A Festival Called Panama, Dark Mofo, BIGSOUND and Junction Arts Festival.

In 2017, they won the National Live Music Awards for Best Live Act Tasmania and were nominated again in 2019.


Supported by Live Music Australia – an Australian Government initiative

This event is part of the ARCHIVE 2022 program and is presented by Salamanca Arts Centre and Edge Radio

Salamanca Arts Centre & Edge Radio present April Archive.
A gig recorded live in the Founders Room and broadcast on Edge Radio.

This month will be curated by The Sleepyheads, you can expect a night of expressive alt-rock and great storytelling.


The Sleepyheads have spent the last 6 years immersed in the Tassie music scene. Originally starting as the solo acoustic project of Pat Broxton, the band quickly picked up a strong local following with their fun, heart-on-sleeve style of indie-punk.
They’ve done multiple interstate tours and festivals off the back of their second EP, “Be More Optimistic?”, which also saw them score a feature artist slot on Triple J.
The band has spent the last two and half years crafting their debut album, and will use this special night at the Founders Room to share some brand-new material.


Photo: David Beckett

Lincoln Le Fevre
Linc is possibly one of the best songwriters to ever come out of Tassie. With three incredible LPs under his belt, he’s finally coming back home to play one of his much-adored solo sets. It’s been a while between drinks, and we can’t wait.


Photo: Aiesha Hanson

Meres
Meres is the brainchild of Mary Shannon, a very familiar face in the Tasmanian music scene. They’ve really sculpted a signature sound for themselves over the last couple of years, pairing beautifully written melodies with fuzzed out, alt-rock guitars. Meres has also been working on some new material, so we’re hoping to get a taste of that on the night!


Photo: Aiesha Hanson

Den.
Denni Sulzberger has spent the last few years honing her craft as a songwriter. She has an incredible ear for the perfect vocal melody to match her lyrics. Denni will have her trio behind her on the night, and we can’t wait to hear her amazing songs brought to life in a full band setting.


The Curators

Photo: Luke Henery

The Sleepyheads

Since forming in Launceston in 2016, The Sleepyheads have turned heads all over the country with their honest approach to heart-on-sleeve punk and indie rock. It’s that buzz-worthy style that earned The Sleepyheads a coveted Triple J Unearthed Feature Artist slot, leading to a milestone performance at Triple J’s One Night Stand in St Helens.

The band have since gone on to appear at some of Australia’s most-loved festivals, including Falls Festival, Party In the Paddock, Til The Wheels Fall Off and Woolly Mammoth. Their charismatic and engaging live shows have seen The Sleepyheads sell out multiple headline gigs, and tour nationally three times. With more new music to come and their charming brand of indie rock at the ready, The Sleepyheads are equipped to continue captivating audiences, new and old, every step of the way.

Supported by Live Music Australia – an Australian Government initiative

This event is part of the ARCHIVE 2022 program and is presented by Salamanca Arts Centre and Edge Radio

Salamanca Arts Centre & Edge Radio present March ARCHIVE.
A gig recorded live in the Founders Room and broadcast on Edge Radio.

ARCHIVE Is a monthly showcase of Tasmanian contemporary/popular music, each month will feature a different genre and curator who will program the nights events.

Curator of this month’s Archive showcase is Swaz Benjamin.


As an artist Swaz takes command of storytelling, party-starting, and poetics through his dexterous lyricism and evocative imagery. Drawing equal influence from a a variety of roots and electronic music, as much as he does from all forms of hip-hop and spoken word, Swaz Benjamin’s fluid vocals and fresh musical backdrops deliver light hearted odes to enjoying life, harder hitting thought provoking pieces, and motivating messages. Joined by his band “The Benjamins” his live sound is given a rawer, transcendent, rockier feel, elevating the energy of their performance. Swaz has shared stages with some of the country’s finest artists including ARIA Award Winners such as Drapht, Thundamentals, Mallrat and Adrian Eagle, and international artists such as Akil (Jurassic 5), Buck 65 (Canada) and Lotek (UK). He’s performed at numerous fundraisers for social and humanitarian causes, and played Falls, Nayri Niara and Vibrance Festivals.


Joining “Swaz & The Benjamins” on the night are:

SteezE DreamR

Combining their lyrical forces once again, the formidable duo of MightE DreamR and SteezE. Meeting one another through local improv band CM3 three years ago, where young SteezE bugged the band unmercifully to let him have a go on the mic, the pair have been seen freestyling, cyphering and sharing stages together from Marrawah to Moonah ever since.

Their sound and style would best be described as conscious, funky, and outrospective, with a pinch of anti-capitalism.

Accompanying the duo for the night will be Ivan Megirian on keys, Chris McGuinniess-Terry on drums and Alex O’Leary on bass. The band will be playing completely blind to create an authentic improv experience, so expect the unexpected. Also you may want to bring an umbrella because these two are a couple of slick spitters!


Pseudo Lucid

In their own words:

We are Pseudo Lucid so shut up.
There are two of us. That’s almost TWICE as many as if there was one of us. We travel the universe, melting minds with our irreverent raps and adorably quaint delusions of grandeur.

With Lachy piloting the BAR-TARDIS and Paul karate chopping faces off mumble-rapping aliens, we really feel like we’re having a positive impact on this scum-muffin planet.


Photo: Matt Osborne

An intrepid traveller hailing from lutruwita (Tasmania), Swaz Benjamin’s storytelling, party-starting and poetics have seen him perform with artists such as DraphtThundamentalsMallratHorrorshowAdrian EaglePezB WiseMaundzAkil (Jurassic 5), Buck 65, Omar Musa, Luka Lesson and Zac Henderson.

On his first full-length release ‘Souled Out Volume One:Daze Gone Bye‘ mixtape. Swaz worked closely with producer Hugh Lake (Jessica Mauboy, Stan Walker, Split Enz) curating the sounds Hugh would work with to create the instrumentals for the album. APRA AMCOS award nominee IAMMXO (of Diafrix Sony Australia) also mentored and oversaw much of the project. In particular, Chasm‘s remix of the title track, and lead single ‘Days‘ helped garner radio play and press across Australia & the UK. In 2018 UK Hip hop royalty Skinnyman was supported by Swaz, playing his first show in London. While in the UK, he talked through each song on the mixtape on Terra Slim‘s ‘The Shout‘ on ImInRadio.


Supported by Live Music Australia – an Australian Government initiative

This event is part of the ARCHIVE 2022 program and is presented by Salamanca Arts Centre and Edge Radio

Genre
Underground/Outsider

Salamanca Arts Centre & Edge Radio present February ARCHIVE.
A gig recorded live in the Founders Room and broadcast on Edge Radio.

February ARCHIVE will be curated by Folk ‘Til Ya Punk Records, a label which is a collective of Australian folk-punk bands, and driven by Hobart’s own The Dead Maggies.

FTYP Records also present the annual debaucherous 4-day folk-punk gig-crawl called HOBOFOPO, that has drawn some of the biggest folk-punk acts in the world to Tasmania.


You can expect the night to start with folk music, finish with punk music, and explore some intense moments of rogue folk in between.

8.45-9.15pm
RYAN GARTH AND BAE HARRISON-DAY will be performing intimate, stripped-back renditions of the Ragged Hollow repertoire on fiddle and guitar. Showcasing Ryan’s cynical, cerebral songwriting.

9.30-10.00pm
ZAC HENDERSON is a much loved and applauded Tasmanian based singer/songwriter described as a storyteller with influences from folk & blues.”Aussie folk that just feels like home. Full of warmth, character and cleverly worded anecdotes that force you to be slow and really sink in.” – Like Velvet Music

10.15-10.45pm
THE DOMINIC FRANCIS GRIEF ENSEMBLE are much like the Tasmanian landscape, the ensemble is wild, rugged and scarred by the impact of suburban influences. Yet to be sanctioned as the only boy band to boast a bones player, this is Rogue Folk at it’s darned finest – brutal, impolite and highly danceable.

11.00-11.30pm
FISTFUL OF FISCAL are a newish band, featuring 3/5th of The Dead Maggies, and playing hardcore punk (with a violin). The music is; short, fast, loud, fun, political, satirical, and financial. Influences include Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, Idles, The Dirty Three and NowyourefuckeD.


The Curators

Folk Til Ya Punk Records is a collective of artists from around Australia spearheaded by Hobart’s own The Dead Maggies. They’ve put out 17 releases to national airplay and international acclaim. They also put on events such as the annual HOBOFOPO Festival. FTYP Records will be curating an evening spanning from folk to punk, and whatever fits in between!

Supported by Live Music Australia – an Australian Government initiative

This event is part of the ARCHIVE 2022 program and is presented by Salamanca Arts Centre and Edge Radio
Supported by Live Music Australia – an Australian Government initiative

A stellar lineup featuring some of Tasmania’s most charismatic and talented songwriters and performers come together for the first in the Archive 2022 series: monthly concerts to a live audience that’ll also be broadcast for radio—tune in live on Edge Radio 99.3FM or stream it on edgeradio.org.au.

SOLD OUT | Saturday 29 January, 9pm (+ Ben Salter + Kat Edwards)
SOLD OUT | Sunday 30 January, 4pm (+ Denni + Magnus)

Curated by Glenn Richards
Produced by Lucien Simon, Aeron Clark and Keith Deverell

Presented by Salamanca Arts Centre, Edge Radio in association with Mona Foma


The Curator

Photo: supplied by the artists

Glenn Richards

Glenn Richards is a multi award winning songwriter, composer, engineer and producer who has toured the world and continues to record with his band Augie March and for his own solo material. He has released eight acclaimed albums, including a platinum and two gold, and has scored, engineered and mixed three feature films, an ABC television series, a recent play for the Theatre Royal Hobart, and many shorts and webisodes. He works out of his studio, Dark Satanic Mill Studio, Hobart, Tasmania.

Supported by Live Music Australia – an Australian Government initiative

Opening Event 
Thursday 7 July
5:30pm-7:30pm
RSVP here

I Will Survive is concerned with the stories of caution, superstitions, and instructions for survival that were passed on to Hayley Millar Baker while growing up in the wilderness as a child. The underlying stories in I Will Survive are rooted in early experiences of being in bushland with her parents and grandparents. Stories of myths and warnings of sinister spirits, pumas stalking the mountain range, sharks waiting to ravage you, and witches watching in the bushland.

The works consider the ways that memories shift over time. Carried from a young age, these experiences and stories have become embellished, or accrued heightened emotional resonances – they have shifted and changed in their constant retelling. Some have become completely false memories, others more cinematic and profound.

The stories and memories that are planted as early seeds grow and change as we experience life.

Hayley Millar Baker I Will Survive gallery installation. Large black and white images sit on a white wall. The gallery floor is wooden. The framed prints are lit.
Photo: Jesse Hunniford
Hayley Millar Baker I Will Survive gallery installation. Large black and white images sit on a white wall. The gallery floor is wooden. The framed prints are lit.
Photo: Jesse Hunniford

Photo: supplied by the artist

Hayley Millar Baker

 b. 1990, Melbourne, AU 

Hayley Millar Baker is First Nations (Gunditjmara/Djabwurrung) woman born in Melbourne, Australia (1990). She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (2010) and Master of Fine Arts (2017) at RMIT University in Melbourne. 

Through examining the role our identities play in translating and conveying our experiences, Hayley works across photography, collage, and film to interrogate and abstract autobiographical narratives and themes relating to her own identity. Her oblique storytelling methods and methodologies encourage us to embrace that the passage of identity, culture, and memory are not linear nor fixed. 

Hayley’s works are held in significant public institutional collections across Australia and has exhibited nationally and internationally. Hayley has been a finalist in several prestigious national art prizes including the Ramsay Art Prize (2019 and 2021), Bowness Photography Prize (2021), John Fries Award (2019), and international prizes including Hong Kong’s Sovereign Asian Art Prize (2021), and United Arab Emirates Vantage Point Sharjah 9 (2021), and has won the John and Margaret Baker Memorial Fellowship for the National Photography Prize (2020), the Darebin Art Prize (2019), and the Special Commendation Award for The Churchie National Emerging Art Prize (2017). She was selected as one of eight artists to exhibit in the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Primavera: Young Australian Artists (2018) and has been awarded several residencies including the Artist-in-residence at Monash University Prato, Italy (2022), the First Nations Residency at Collingwood Yards (2021), the Photography Fellowship at the State Library of Victoria (2019). Hayley was a feature artist in PHOTO2021: International Festival of Photography (2021) and has exhibited in other art festivals including the International Ballarat Foto Biennale (2017), and Tarnanthi (2017). Hayley will present a new commission for the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial at the National Gallery of Australia (2022). 

In 2021 Hayley presented her first early career-survey ‘There we were all in one place’ at UTS Gallery, curated by Stella McDonald. The exhibition brought together five pivotal bodies of work from Hayley’s early career for the first time and will tour Australia in 2022. 

Millar Baker’s work is held in significant collections across Australia: Australian War Memorial, Canberra; Melbourne Museum, Melbourne; Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Melbourne; Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), Melbourne; Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA), Albury; State Library of Victoria, Melbourne; University of Technology Sydney, Sydney; University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney; Warrnambool Art Gallery, Warrnambool; Shepparton Art Museum (SAM), Shepparton; Deakin University Art Gallery, Melbourne; Horsham Regional Art Gallery, Horsham; City of Melbourne, Melbourne. 

Hayley Millar Baker is represented by Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Australia. 



  • Supporters

    Salamanca Art Centre’s 2022 programs are supported by the Commonwealth Government’s Office of the Arts via the RISE Fund.

Proudly presented by Salamanca Arts Centre

What is our future made of? 

In Some Silken Moment, Jessie French explores the promise of algae-based bioplastic, creating innovative objects that are elegant, ephemeral, and oceanic. By harnessing this shape-shifting material, French captures a world in a phase of transition, where the permanence of petrochemicals plastics is reimagined through the soft strength of ecological thinking.  The exhibit will remain on display until Sunday 4 September.

Gallery Hours
5 August – 4 September 2022

Thursday – Monday
10am – 2pm

Closed Tuesday and Wednesday
Catalogue and sales enquiries, contact Michael Bugelli mail@michaelbugelligallery.com 

Opening Event
Thursday 4 August
5:30pm-7:30pm
Free to attend, subject to capacity.
The opening event for Some Silken Moment is sponsored by Spotty Dog Brewers

Artist Talk, facilitated by Loren Kronemyer
Saturday 6 August
11am-12pm
Free, but registrations essential
SOCIAL, 67 Salamanca Place, Hobart TAS 7000

Beaker Street Crawl
Saturday 6 August
We’re excited that Some Silken Moment will be part of Beaker Street’s Street Crawl!
10am – 4pm
This program is a self paced, walkable tour but we recommend dropping by SOCIAL for the Artist Talk with Jessie French from 11am – 12pm and plan the rest of your crawl around this event.

Workshop

Sunday 7 August, 2:30pm-4:30pm

Tickets $65 each, 15 person capacity

SOCIAL, 67 Salamanca Place, Hobart TAS 7000

Step inside the Silken lab for a special workshop. Join artist Jessie French as she takes you through her process of exploratory experimentation, demonstrates cooking a batch of algae-based bioplastic and invites you into the process. Participants will be invited to bring along their own surface, object or mould to explore new ways of mixing and applying organic polymers using an array of local organic materials as substrates, pigments and texturisers.


Photo: Charles Dennington

Jessie French

Based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia, the work of Jessie French explores speculative futures through algae-based bioplastic and water-based ecologies. Housed within an ethos of consumption, sustainability and regeneration, her practice invites others to engage with the possibilities of a post-petrochemical world. Through experimenting with other materials, she explores the potential of closed-loop systems of (re)use and conscious consumption and interaction with objects. In 2020, French founded OTHER MATTER, an experimental design studio working with algae-based bioplastics which engages others in the possibilities of new materials though objects, experiences and futures.



Photo: Saul Steed courtesy of Art Gallery South Australia

Loren Kronemyer | Artist Talk, Facilitator

Loren Kronemyer (b.1988) is an artist living and working in remote lutruwita (Tasmania), Australia. Her experimental artworks are aimed at exploring ecological futures and survival skills through hands-on immersion and deep learning. In 2021, she learned to hand-build millet brooms from Tumut, the last factory in Australia, setting up her own self-sufficient replica of their factory in the project Millennial Reaper (Fremantle Biennale, Melbourne Art Fair). In 2018, she learned to shoot arrows, then became a coach so she could train her audience to shoot at her artwork for the project After Erika Eiffel (ANTI Festival of Live Art, MONA FOMA). In 2016, her collaboration Pony Express created Ecosexual Bathhouse, a touring queer sex club for the entire ecosystem. In 2017, Kronemyer was the first artist in residence at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research. She collaborates frequently with laboratories and received the first Masters of Biological Arts Degree from SymbioticA Lab at the University of Western Australia.

  • Supporters

    Salamanca Art Centre’s 2022 programs are supported by the Commonwealth Government’s Office of the Arts via the RISE Fund.


This event is part of Winter Light 2022 and is presented by Salamanca Arts Centre

This event is supported by the Commonwealth Government’s Regional Arts Fund

This event has been rescheduled to
Saturday 3 September
7:30-9pm
Doors open at 7pm

This concert, performed by Ensemble Mania, is the second in the String Quartet # 1 Project (which was launched at Salamanca Arts Centre in August 2021). Hear four composers first String Quartet – some performed for the first time in over 40 years – as part of Winter Light 2022.

Ensemble Mania comprise:
Peter Tanfield | 1st violin
Josh Farner | 2nd violin 
Damien Holloway | viola
James Anderson | ‘cello

This concert program showcases the first string quartets by four Tasmanian composers.

Hellgart Mahler         Icknield (quartet version)
Russell Gilmour        Five Reasons to Stay Home
Don Kay                   String Quartet: Opus Zero
Dominic Flynn          Mill

14 August 2022
6pm – 7.30pm
Doors at 5.30pm


Whilst the wearing of masks is not mandatory it is recommended in certain situations by Tasmanian Public Health.  Masks will be available upon entering the venue for those patrons who would like one.  

If you’re unwell, it is recommended that you stay at home, and we look forward to welcoming you at Salamanca Arts Centre another time.


About the composers

Hellgart Mahler lives near Devonport, Tasmania, but was born in Vienna. Her father, Hillel Mahler, came from a small village on the Polish-Czechoslovakian border, but his family soon moved to Vienna, then the cultural Mecca of Europe. In his grandfather’s family one older brother became the father of Gustav Mahler (who is Hellgart’s great-uncle), but her musical antecedents go right back to 16th and 17th century Italy, where the Maler family (the H was added later) were brilliant lute makers and players; sought after and vied for by dukes and princes.


Photo: Ingrid Rosenberg

Russell Gilmour was born in 1956 and received his early musical training at Guildford Grammar School, WA. Since graduating from the University of New England in the early 1980s, he has worked as a teacher, lecturer and arts administrator. Gilmour is best known for his short, quirky, humorous compositions (Dark on Bach, 2003) and sometimes melancholic, brooding work (Seven Things I’ll Do Tomorrow, 2005). His musical style has developed from a brief flirtation with neo-romanticism in the 1980s (A Peaceable Kingdom, 1985; Host Of The Air, 1984) to a more direct highly melodic style which the composer describes as ‘the art of post classical drivetime’


Photo: Dominic Flynn

Don Kay

Don Kay’s musical language has its roots in the tradition of Western art music but has been significantly shaped by his experience of Tasmania’s environment and history. Kay identifies Hastings Bay (1986) as the first mature piece that was a direct, conscious response to a specific personal experience of a specific place, acknowledged by the title. Two works, amongst a number important to him for reflecting this influence, are: Tasmania Symphony – the Legend of Moinee for cello and orchestra (1988), and Piano Trio, The Edge of Remoteness (1996).


Photo: Saxon Hornett

Dominic Fynn

Born in Hobart in 1997, Dominic Fynn grew up playing the drums in local bands before shifting focus to composition. Dominic’s music has been performed both locally and overseas, and he has collaborated with the Decibel New Music Ensemble, Hobart Wind Symphony, L’ Ensemble de Musique Contemporaine du Conservatoire de Musique de Rimouski, pianist Michael Kieran Harvey, and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.  In 2021 he received a grant to compose a string quartet inspired by convict folk music, and was selected to be a part of one of Australia’s largest commissioning projects, the ANAM Set. He has studied in Australia with Don Kay, Russell Gilmour, and Maria Grenfell, and in the United Kingdom with Michael Finnissy.


Biographies

Ensemble Mania was created with the goal to provide a unique listening experience in Tasmania, showcasing music that would otherwise not be heard on the island, while exemplifying the possibilities of a richer, more diverse music scene. This music includes the latest, most exciting composers, to the pillars of Australian modernism and lost masterpieces.


Photo: supplied by the artist

Peter Tanfield
Born in England in 1961, Peter Tanfield started the violin aged four. He studied in Germany, Israel, Switzerland and Holland where his teachers were Igor Ozim, Felix Andrievski, Alberto Lysy, Herman Krebbers and Yehudi Menuhin. As soloist and chamber musician Tanfield has performed throughout Europe, China, Japan, India, Canada, the Middle East, Africa, USA and USSR. He was a prize-winner at The Carl Flesh International Competition, International Mozart Competition and International Bach Competition. He has recorded solo and chamber works for television and radio as well as CD. He has played for Chairman Deng Xiaoping in China and the Sultan of Oman. Tanfield led the Australian String Quartet from 1998 until 2001. As a soloist Tanfield has appeared with many orchestras; the Philharmonia, City of London Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Rome. As concertmaster he has worked with the BBC Philharmonic, RAI National Symphony Orchestra, Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He has performed with Astor Piazolla, Charlie Watts, Pinchas Zukerman, Yehudi Menuhin, Charles Wuorinen, Arvo Pärt, Graeme Koehne, Gary Carr, Carlo Maria Giulini, Mark Gasser and Itzhak Perlman.


Joshua Farner is from Hobart, Tasmania, and began playing the violin at the age of nine. Following completion of a Bachelor of Engineering with 1st class Honours, he was awarded a University of Tasmania String Scholarship and commenced a Bachelor of Music under the tutelage of Dr. Susan Collins. Josh has performed with the Tasmanian Discovery Orchestra and the Australian International Symphony Orchestra Institute (AISOI), and regularly performs as section leader and concertino player with the Hobart Chamber Orchestra. In 2018 Josh was awarded the D & MV McDonald Scholarship in Music from the University of Tasmania, allowing him to travel to London to study under renowned pedagogues Simon Fischer and David Takeno.


Damien Holloway studied viola in Hobart with Keith Crellin, Simon Oswell and Jan Sedivka, followed by postgraduate studies in Brisbane with Elizabeth Morgan. He played viola with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and was a founding member of Camerata of St Johns (Brisbane). He is principal viola of the Hobart Chamber Orchestra, and regularly fosters the performance of new music


James Anderson is currently studying a Master of Teaching at the University of Tasmania, having completed his Bachelor of Music in 2018 studying under Sue-Ellen Paulsen. James has previously performed in the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Youth Orchestra, the Australian International Symphony Orchestra Institute, the Jan Sedivka Camerata, and the Tasmanian Discovery Orchestra. In 2018 James worked with the ensemble Musik Fabrik in Cologne, while also spending time at the Royal Conservatory of Den Hague in the Netherlands.


Program notes

Mahler | Icknield
The Icknield quartet, and the quintet that followed, were both written for an English group of that name, who, although experts in the playing of early polyphonic music, were inexperienced in atonal music and contemporary rhythms. I tried to write firstly, a very short, straightforward, logical, polyphonic piece of music, avoiding difficulties in rhythmic coordination.

Gilmour | Five Reasons to Stay Home: [ pandemics notwithstanding ]

Kay | String Quartet: Opus Zero
String Quartet: Opus Zero was composed in 1961 during a few years of fairly exclusive use of the 12 tone technique advised and guided by Malcolm Williamson, my private and only teacher of composition, in London from 1959-1964. It was never performed, although my friend, John Cale, then a music student at Goldsmith College and later co-founder of the famous Velvet Underground rock band in New York, couldn’t find a second violinist to make up a quartet to try it out. It is only now being premiered because of the enterprise of Dominic Flynn (assisted by Nathan Meurant) in putting the pencilled score together and typesetting it 59 years later. I very recently subtitled it “Opus Zero” to distinguish it from the six later numbered string quartets starting in 1971. It is in four movements and applied 12-tone serial techniques, although not as strictly as in later works of that London period.

Flynn | Mill
This piece alludes to the fiddle music of Tasmanian convict composer Alexander Laing (1792-1868), specifically three tunes Laing composed while living in Sorell in the 1810s-’20s which exemplified his climbing of the social ladder in the town. This string quartet is an attempt to wrestle with our perception of such historical figures, given the grim history of colonial towns like Sorell. The subtitle ‘Mill’ is not only a reference to one of Laing’s tunes, but is also an apt metaphor of the ways in which the tunes have been processed in order to create the material for this string quartet. The piece has been composed in three movements, though the edges of these have been muddied with material leeching from one movement into the next.

This event is part of Winter Light 2022 and is presented by Salamanca Arts Centre

Utopia Now! is a community art project where artists collaborated with young people from diverse backgrounds and present their vision of a sustainable future that allows us all to flourish and live in harmony. The culmination of this explorative creative process will be a large-scale installation. The presentation will also include live performances and interactive elements.

The participating groups in Utopia Now Art Installation are: Campania District School | Goodwood Community Centre | The Circus Studio | TAFE Students Against Racism | City of Hobart Youth Art and Recreation Centre | Pakana Studio/Kickstart venue for Takani’s Workshops | LGTBQIA+ community | Cygnet Community

11 – 14 August 2022
Long Gallery

11 – 12 August 2022
2pm – 5pm
13 August 2022
10am – 4pm
14 August 2022
10am – 2pm

Thursday and Friday
Utopia Now! Installation
10am – 11am 

Utopia Now! Installation
11.30am – 12.30pm

QT Kids Edition
1.30pm – 2.15pm

Saturday
Utopia Now! Installation performance 
11.30am – 12.30pm

Young Performers
2.30pm – 4pm
Kieran Mulvany
Malachi Barker
Ari Soo
Sophie Henderson
‘Live Art’

Sunday
CANCELLED due to the weather
Utopia Now! Installation performance 
11.30am – 12.30pm



Whilst the wearing of masks is not mandatory it is recommended in certain situations by Tasmanian Public Health.  Masks will be available upon entering the venue for those patrons who would like one.  

If you’re unwell, it is recommended that you stay at home, and we look forward to welcoming you at Salamanca Arts Centre another time.


Mentors

Photo: Pier Carthew

Davina Wright

Davina Wright is a site-specific artist currently living in nipaluna/Hobart. 

She makes site specific, nonlinear and immersive theatre that looks at loneliness, suburbia, violence and feminism. She wrote and directed This is Grayson; a performance for audience 8+ with her collective Gold Satino. It received four Green Room Award Nominations in the Contemporary and Experimental Performance panel and received the awards for Innovation in Site Responsive Performance and Performance for Young Audiences.


Photo: Marie Nosaka

Risa Muramatsu Ray

Risa began her dancing career at an early age,  studying both classical and modern ballet and receiving numerous awards at the national competition level. In 2006 she entered the Japan Women’s College of Physical Education, home to some of Japan’s rhythmic sports  gymnastics olympic medal winners, where she majored in contemporary dance and poured her creative energies into choreography, stage production and dramatic composition while performing as a contemporary dancer in Tokyo.  

Complimenting her work in the contemporary sphere, Risa has also  

performed regularly at numerous music festivals and many of Tokyo’s  most famous clubs, as well as contributing her skills in event production  and choreography to many artists both in Japan and on the international stage. Now Risa is based in Tasmania and she is enjoying creating her  works inspired by Tasmanian nature.


Adie Delaney 

Adie began her circus career at NICA in 2004. After graduating she left Australia to Europe to join the UK’s largest touring contemporary circus company NoFitState. Over 8 years she performed swinging and flying trapeze, hula hoops, fire, acrobatics, trampolining, roller skating etc. Adie also spent two years with Cie Oncore’s flying trapeze show ‘Une Drole de Maison’ flexing her clowning muscles, and among other various events performed a season with La Clique at Edinburgh Fringe.


Photo: Gabrielle Kneebone

Andy Vagg

Andy Vagg is an artist, designer, writer, poet and performer. His practice explores the qualities and limitations of contemporary existence, and how the choices we make inherently effect, respond to, and delineate social evolution. Using post-consumer objects and materials, he creates work in social contexts, to activate spaces to form literal and metaphorical platforms for the development of ideas to encourage positive social change. His performances explore the role of religion, liturgy and ritual in a contemporary secular context, and how they can help us navigate the ongoing ecological and psychosocial changes caused by industrialisation, globalisation and consumerism. Andy has created work in public and private spaces in Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne, Launceston and Hobart. He has collaborated with community in colleges, high schools, primary schools, community centres, and child and family centres.

www.andyvagg.com


Photo: Paul Hoelen

Troy Melville

Troy has worked on an extensive range of film and art projects over 20 years. His projects have involved working for and in collaboration with many different organisations and has often involved working with at risk youth, First Nations and CALD groups. Recent art projects include Paul Boam – A Creative Life, a film for his retrospective exhibition at Moonah Arts Centre. The Partnershipping Project, a national touring exhibition where Troy worked remotely with 19 artists to edit short bio films and Regenerate where New Town primary students created a series of short films about connectivity.


Photo: Will Nicolson

Yumemi Hiraki

Yumemi Hiraki is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in Nipaluna. Her practice delves into the interactions between memory, nostalgia, history and connection to place, while re-examining the relationship to her Japanese heritage. Viewing herself as a resident of cultural gaps, her works evokes a familiar yet foreign sense of longing, belonging and holding on, while hinting at life’s inevitable continuity and ephemerality. 

Yumemi is originally from Hiroshima, Japan. She completed her BFA(Sculpture and Spatial Practice) at the Victorian College of the Arts and has been an active Arts Worker while exhibiting and developing her practice in both Naarm and Nipaluna. Yumemi has a growing interest in community-based arts, mentorship and education, and currently also works as a Youth Arts Officer at the Youth Arts and Recreation Centre.


Photo: Rebecca Thompson

Julie Waddington

A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Julie has been directing and producing theatre for over 20 years during which she has worked for many organisation including St Martin’s Youth Arts, La Mama, MTC, Melbourne Fringe, Tasmanian Theatre Company, Ten Days and Tasmania Performs. From 2007 to 2010 she was the Artistic Director of Riverland Youth Theatre in South Australia. Julie is currently a specialist drama teacher and independent director and producer. Her latest work, The Motherload, a creative documentary performance made through engagement with over 500 mothers across Tasmania and Australia recently premiered at Junction Arts Festival.


Photo: Kobi Hayes

Takani Clark

Takani Clark is a professional dabbler and multidisciplinary creative from lutruwita, exploring and engaging with mediums of filmmaking, visual art and performance. As a First Nations woman, raised within the staunch palawa community, Takani feels a deep responsibility to protect and document the island and its cultural identity and diversity, both environmentally and socially. As a storyteller she strives to use her creative voice to deepen our understanding of each other, the natural world and ourselves. Takani believes that diversity is an integral part of her creative practice, striving to collaborate with people from different artistic practices, any background and all walks of life.


Utopia Now Mentee/Curators

Photo: supplied by the artist

Neko Kelly

Neko Kelly is a New Zealand born emerging video artist with experience in editing and animation. His work involves a range of content; from stop-frame stories screened in Mona Foma, to LGBTQI+ educational resources for Tasmanian schools. Neko has a keen interest in telling stories that inspire empathy and compassion for marginalised communities.


Photo: supplied by the artist

Adonay Tsegezeab
I’m Adonay Tsegezeab, 23 years old, working with Troy Melville as mentoree on Utopia now for winter light as well as with Tastafe STUDENTS AGAINST RACISM group to make this happen. It’s been amazing working on this project and to be part of it. 


Photo: supplied by the artist

Indigo Garcia is a 16-year-old visual artist working and creating in Nipaluna/Hobart. Swimming through pattern and form, ink stains her identity as she works to represent culture and individuality. Exploring the extent in which she can portray and incorporate all works of organic life, examining the runs of skin, the paths on land. Working with mentor Andy Vagg and the youth of Goodwood, the development and embodiment of their instillation helps to further the representation of utopia and the developing world.


Image: supplied by the artist

Sheree Martin (Utopia Now Coordinator)
Embracing and trusting in the unravelling uncertainties of creativity is integral to the artistic practice and way of life for New Zealander and Tasmanian Artist, Sheree Martin. Sheree is a passionate nurturer and advocate for ‘art as a process’ and the value that engaging in this open explorative process brings to enhancing our mental health and wellbeing. Sheree shares the joy of this process through her uniquely designed and facilitated ARTplayful experiences within The Little Red Art Shed for young children and families, with her creative arts and wellbeing clients and community projects.

@shereemartin_artist

@thelittleredartshed


Photo: supplied by the artist

Halima Bhatti

Halima Bhatti is a 26 yrs old, locally based contemporary Arabic calligraphy artist from Lahore, Pakistan. Her artworks reflect deep connections and sacred knowledge with every stroke and letter. Taking the opportunity to be a part of the Winter light festival, UTOPIA project, as a mentee with the artist “Yumeimi Hiraki”, from Youth Arts and Re-creation center (Hobart city) Halima aims to express the element of peace, diversity and connectedness through her teams youth based theatre work reflecting upon the vision of Utopia, and thereby connect and influence the mainstream community.


Photo: supplied by the artist

Lucas Rilyey-Lyne
My name is Lucas and I’m 16 years old and my mentor artist is Julie Waddington. I am working with a group from my school which is Campania District School. We are working to create an improvised cross art-form performance installation using physical ensemble theatre, drawing and creative writing. I hope my love for the preforming arts will only grow from this experience. 


Photo: supplied by the artist

Ailbhe Maria Szypura
My name is Ailbhe and I am 14 years old. My mentor is Risa Ray and we are doing a movement based performance with around 10 kids about what they envision their future to look like. 

Our group is located in Cygnet. I’m hoping that this mentee role will teach me how to work with kids and groups, and how to collaborate with others. I have been having a really great time doing this.

Photo: supplied by the artist

Bailey Mifsud

My name is Bailey and I’m 15. I’m working with my mentor artist Adie Delaney and a few of my peers from The Circus Studio in Kingston. We will be putting together a short performance involving ground based circus skills and other elements of movement; around what we as a group perceive to be the theme of Utopia Now! I’m really looking forward to improving my circus and collaboration skills with this project. 


Photo: supplied by the artist

Ari Soo
Ari Soo is a young stand-up comedian, who is occasionally funny and hates people who speak in third person. He recently was flown to Melbourne to perform in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival as part of the Class Clowns National Grand Final – most likely his greatest achievement. 


Photo: supplied by the artist

Malachi
My name is Malachi and I’m 16. I have a passion for sound engineering. I help at school mixing and setting up for the school rock band and have my own home studio where I record and mix songs. I’m hoping to extend my knowledge in sound engineering and working with the people around me so that everyone can have the best experience of Utopia Now! 


Photo: supplied by the artist

Kieran Mulvany
Kieran Mulvany is a homegrown Tassie artist who has been writing and recording music their bedroom since the beginning of time itself. With stories of robots, nights with friends and self reflection there is something for everyone in Kieran’s folio. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2suxg5ymscPaZUKzNsZb2v? si=wsPt_YSHQ6i6LapOdXRI-w Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kieranmulvanymusic/ 


Photo: supplied by Campania District School

‘Live Art’
Hello, we are Lucas, Josh, Anna, Mia and Belle. We are students from Campania District School. We will be performing a live art experience via a group painting on a large canvas, exploring what utopia is to us personally and how they are different from one another. We hope to show that everyones personal idea of Utopia is different and very diverse, as we all are. 


Photo: supplied by the artist

Sophie Henderson 

Sophie Henderson is a eager performer who has always grabbed any opportunity to perform wether that is singing or acting or both at the same time. She has been in quite a few musicals throughout her life her most recent being in Guys and Dolls with the Old Nick Theatre Company and The Little Mermaid at Southern Christian College where she starred as Ursula. Sophie hopes you enjoy her performance as part of the Utopia Now Youth Performance Stage!