Festival curators Robyn Wilson and Michael Joyce, with artist Rose Vickers and one of her photos behind them. Photo: Dallas Kilponen
IT’S a fine spot for a haircut and a chat, but now an unorthodox barbershop is giving new meaning to the term “fringe festival”. A procession of experimental performers will step into the Darlinghurst store Sedition during a 50-day blitz of offbeat creativity. Anything but the norm is promised in the Left Coast Festival’s evening program, which covers live hybrid music, performance, dance, video, photography and beyond.
“There’s nothing that an artist can do in the shop that will shock the customers,” says the barber and artist behind Sedition, Michael Joyce. That’s because his years of plastering the walls with the pictures, slogans and other art of his sometimes searing social commentary – targeting religion, sex, war, government – has made them ready for anything.
Sedition’s curious mix of hairdresser, eccentric art gallery, performance space and music shop has given Joyce a vehicle to steadily build a reputation under the mainstream radar as an urban-bohemian creative hub. For a decade he has regularly opened his store after hours to experimental music little seen elsewhere in town. Its first Difficult Music Festival, on experimental music. drew enthusiastic responses in January, with intimacy part of the appeal.
Musicians like how “the crowd are, like, sixinches from their faces”, Joyce says. The store starts feeling crowded with more than 20 people.
Robvn Wilson, a self-described audio-visual performer who is curating the Left Coast Festival with Joyce, says it is “about pushingthe boundaries of the institution-driven Sydney art scene and shaking things up”.
Wilson, 26, is putting her body on the line. Tomorrow, in a barber-chair performance under her stage name Flutter Lyon, she will get herfirst tattoo set to a music soundscape and filmed by director Paul Goldman, best known forAustraliaii Rules and Nick Cave’s music videos.
During the festival, exploring “institutionalised freedom”, performances run nightly from about 6 to 8pm until June 30. Entry is free but donations are welcome. On the program are Fourplay cellist Peter Hollo, artists Rose Vickers, Nik Kamvissis and Madeleine Preston, and members of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.
Seditious distinctive look has changed in the lead-tip. Joyce, 45, took all his art commentary down and left only bare white walls, telling people: “Guys, I’ve moved on.”
Festival curators Robyn Wilson and Michael Joyce, with artist Rose Vickers and one of her photos behind them. Photo: Dallas Kilponen
IT’S a fine spot for a haircut and a chat, but now an unorthodox barbershop is giving new meaning to the term “fringe festival”. A procession of experimental performers will step into the Darlinghurst store Sedition during a 50-day blitz of offbeat creativity. Anything but the norm is promised in the Left Coast Festival’s evening program, which covers live hybrid music, performance, dance, video, photography and beyond.
“There’s nothing that an artist can do in the shop that will shock the customers,” says the barber and artist behind Sedition, Michael Joyce. That’s because his years of plastering the walls with the pictures, slogans and other art of his sometimes searing social commentary – targeting religion, sex, war, government – has made them ready for anything.
Sedition’s curious mix of hairdresser, eccentric art gallery, performance space and music shop has given Joyce a vehicle to steadily build a reputation under the mainstream radar as an urban-bohemian creative hub. For a decade he has regularly opened his store after hours to experimental music little seen elsewhere in town. Its first Difficult Music Festival, on experimental music. drew enthusiastic responses in January, with intimacy part of the appeal.
Musicians like how “the crowd are, like, sixinches from their faces”, Joyce says. The store starts feeling crowded with more than 20 people.
Robvn Wilson, a self-described audio-visual performer who is curating the Left Coast Festival with Joyce, says it is “about pushingthe boundaries of the institution-driven Sydney art scene and shaking things up”.
Wilson, 26, is putting her body on the line. Tomorrow, in a barber-chair performance under her stage name Flutter Lyon, she will get herfirst tattoo set to a music soundscape and filmed by director Paul Goldman, best known forAustraliaii Rules and Nick Cave’s music videos.
During the festival, exploring “institutionalised freedom”, performances run nightly from about 6 to 8pm until June 30. Entry is free but donations are welcome. On the program are Fourplay cellist Peter Hollo, artists Rose Vickers, Nik Kamvissis and Madeleine Preston, and members of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.
Seditious distinctive look has changed in the lead-tip. Joyce, 45, took all his art commentary down and left only bare white walls, telling people: “Guys, I’ve moved on.”
Adam Fulton
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday 14/05/2010