“Dear Masato, all at once (get a life, the only thing that cuts across the species is death)”
Lisa Radford
4 Nov → 10 Dec 2016
Dear Masato, all at once (get a life, the only thing that cuts across the species is death) is a play and exhibition by Lisa Radford in collaboration with Northern Theatre Company.
Some advice, or information (but not rules):
Not a play
This is not a play. It is a piece of writing. However this piece of writing might resemble a play. The writing was not written, it was spoken. It is the record of an exchange between groups.
Acts
The writing is made from six Acts. These Acts could also be called vignettes or non-sequiturs. The performance of the Acts requires 8-10 Actors. There is a Chorus, which is additional.
Logic and structure
West Space is the stage. The stage must form a loop. This loop is a structure with its own logic.
Duration
The play is performed at West Space over three days. There is a beginning, middle and an end, but in no particular order.
Directed by: Teresa Noble, Evangelos Arabatzis
Actors: Genevieve Neve, Nicola De Rosbo-Davies, Kelly Nielsen, Suzanne Brimley, Rebecca Grinblat, Sam Browne, Sally Guildford, Shrut Parmar, Bikramjeet Singh, Will Sutherland
Voice: Rebecca Harris
Publication
In conjunction with the exhibition, West Space has published Aesthetic nonsense makes commonsense, thanks X, featuring the collected writings of Lisa Radford.
For the past twenty years, Lisa Radford has written alongside (and sometimes about) contemporary art and artists in Melbourne. Along the way her fictocriticism has captured many minor local histories that speak to politics, friendship, popular culture and a myriad of other subjectivities.
Aesthetic nonsense makes commonsense, thanks X brings together a selection of over fifty texts, including catalogue essays for Centre for Style, David Shrigley and Blair Trethowan, alongside other texts previously published in contemporary art journals including Art & Australia, Discipline and un Magazine.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body. Aesthetic nonsense makes commonsense, thanks X has been generously supported by West Space Advocate, Cherie Schweitzer.
Lisa Radford is an artist who writes and teaches. In 2016, West Space published Aesthetic nonsense makes commonsense, thanks X, a book presenting a collection of her writings.