DESERT HOTHOUSE

KATINA OLSEN

Australia (as we know it) is built on the legal fiction of terra nullius (land belonging to no-one, the basis of the British claim to possession of Australia). Sovereignty has never been ceded and Australia is the only Commonwealth country without a Treaty with their First Nations peoples. 

Many of these policies have affected Katina and others' own ancestors directly and have left lasting effects on the systemic and cultural landscape we know, understand, operate within and still benefit from today. Whilst some might inherit stolen wealth, others inherit intergenerational trauma. White Lies attempts to show the disparity between truth and a lie and one version of history versus another whilst asking: “if we muzzle the truth of the land and its people, how are we to learn and understand how to care for it and live within it?”. 

FRANKIE SNOWDON

territory is an immersive performance that exposes and calls into question the complicity, ignorance and subjugation of humans throughout history. In an effort to understand belonging, and using the body as a critical tool for interrogating complex questions, the work reckons with the concept of territory as something to be claimed and controlled. 

Developed and performed by 3 dancers with distinct cultural, socio-policital, embodied histories, the dance moves through states of creation, cognisance, occupation, defiance, reclamation and triumph. By framing land as body, and bodies as countries, territory brings the decisions often made on our behalf by those in power into our personal control, asking us to reflect on the difficult truths that have shaped our world and how we might embolden ourselves and our communities to challenge these paradigms for a more hopeful future. 

MADELEINE KRENEK

Inspired by the grim spectacle of depression era dance competitions of the 1920s and 30s, Public Property reflects on the darker side of human entertainment, showcasing suffering and endurance for public spectacle.

In a contemporary context, it critiques the ongoing commodification of risk and vulnerability  through the digital exposure of people's lives, increasingly available for human consumption and public commentary. With a particular focus on the often invisible and undervalued labour of women, the work also draws parallels between historical and modern forms of exploitation. 

Through layered physicality, absurdity, spectacle and real time choreography, Public Property challenges traditional spectatorship, inviting the audience to question their complicity - implicating you in the spectacle of endurance, emotional vulnerability, and exhaustion on display.