HARRY HUMMERSTON Double Vision
H a r r y H u m m e r s t o n ’s l a t e s t exhibition, Double Vision, at the Turner Gallery until August 31. Go to turnergalleries.com.au for more information.
Marthe Snorresdottir Rovik
HEDDA
Woman On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown Although it received mixed notices when it was first performed in 1890, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler is now recognised as one of the great classics of 19th century drama. We spoke to actor, writer and co-producer, Marthe Snorresdottir Rovik, whose new production, Hedda, aims to demonstrate why Ibsen’s work has such staying power.
back in line with the original Norwegian text. “How it differs from the version you might have seen in Australia or other English translations is really important.” she says. “I feel as a Norwegian, having grown up with Ibsen and also having been to acting school and studying it even more, there’s always something missing for me when I read an English translation or I see and English translation in the theatre. Having grown up in that culture I have a completely different understanding of the Ibsen plays, I think, and when you read the English translations, things get lost. I’m hoping to offer those things that I feel have gotten literally lost in translation.” One of the elements she felt needed addressing was the common depiction of the eponymous character, whose boring married life is brought into crisis by the arrival of both an old friend and a former lover, as a victim, which is something Rovik does not believe the original text supports. “She’s not a victim to me,” she states firmly, “As a Norwegian woman reading Hedda Gabler I would never think of her as a victim, I would think of her as a whole woman making decisions. I just think the English translation sometimes just makes her a product of the Victorian era which focuses a lot on the gender oppression, but I could almost take the woman out of the 1890s version and put her straight into 2013 and she would have exactly the same problems, which I find very interesting and maybe that’s where it’s been misunderstood. I am hoping that we will be able to deliver a version of Hedda Gabler that Australian audiences haven’t heard before.”
Speaking to us from a West Leederville production space in a rare break between rehearsals, Norwegian actor, Marthe Snorresdottir Rovik, sounds tired but enthusiastic as she explains how, after honing her craft at the Nordic Institute of Scene and Studio “It’s the equivalent of WAAPA or NIDA or something like that here in Australia.” and appearing in several Norwegian productions, including cult horror movie Cold Prey 2, before upping stakes for Australia. “I came to Australia about four and a half years ago from Norway,” she tells us. “I’m from the same country as Henrik Ibsen, the one who wrote the play we’re doing. I have worked in Broome, I’ve worked in Melbourne, I’ve worked in Sydney and finally I ended up wanted to come back to Perth about a year and a half ago now.” ‘The play we’re doing’ is, of course, Hedda, a reworking of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler that Rovik co-wrote with the production’s director, Renato Hedda runs at The Blue Room Theatre from Fabretti. Rather than an attempt to reinvigorate the August 13-31. Go to theblueroom.org.au for text by updating it or putting it into a modern context, session times and tickets. Rovik is at pains to stress that this reworking is an attempt to bring the English language production _ TRAVIS JOHNSON
The juxtaposition of different aesthetic images requiring t h e p u b l i c to wo r k a l i t t l e fo r their visual experience - this is the underlying theme of Harr y Hummerson’s latest exhibition. From his background in screenprinting that lent itself to the process, this collection is an organic gathering of ideas and images combined to stimulate. Hummerston does not have a preconceived idea about what any of it will look like when he starts - by using a collection of images that he has enjoyed, liked or simply piques his interest he puts together a collection of shape and colour. This work can suggest one thing in an initial impression, but invites the viewer to look more deeply into it to recognise the imagery and begin to form links and opinions about what is being experienced. Some are obvious, some are more deceptive to the eye.
r2d2 - Harry Hummerston of the sailing ship and shadows, and two hummingbirds over the top. They are unrelated, though the article was talking about seeing two images together and you start making relationships. That’s what I’m after really, putting two images together and letting the viewer do the work and make of it what they will, so I don’t have a predetermined reading for the work itself. In his case, he read that birds use the wind, ships use the wind, air is the common medium, etcetera etcetera. Those were the kinds of connections he was making.
How did you come to create the works that you are showing for this exhibition? The main interest I have in putting a couple of images that aren’t normally associated together, and the colour comes about by either trying to disguise what the image might be, or to add an aesthetic to it which makes you think about it in a different way, to take time to look at the image and then suddenly there is more than you realise.
There are the odd nods to artists included in the paintings such as Andy Warhol which seems fitting for an exhibition that riffs of pop-culture with such abandon. Your work has commented on pop before - how is this collection different? In one sense it’s a progression from those. Some of these images are from popular culture, and some are from very recognisable popular culture - for example, everyone is Dr Julian Goddard wrote about your work going to get R2-D2, but some are less obvious. The Kiss - two disparate images of a ship and Which is fine, as some people will want to a hummingbird that come together with a find out, or take it as they will. This is a lot simpler than what I used to do. I’ve cut down common theme. Was this intentional? I t ’s t h e v i e w e r t h a t m a k e s t h e or trimmed the fat off a lot of artwork, I guess. relationship, the background is the masts _ SHAUN FRENEY
LAURA IMBRUGLIA Life Choices
Laura Imbruglia may not have starred in Neighbours, but she is no slouch when it comes to penning heartfelt tunes about relationships gone sour. CHRIS HAVERCROFT speaks with the downto-earth singer/songwriter about the release of her third full-length LP, What A Treat.
Speak Percussion ... CONTINUED FROM PAGE 23 At the festival, Speak Percussion will perform a project created with Robin Fox. It opens with work by Karlheinz Stockhausen entitled Mikrophonie 1, followed by an original piece, Transducer. “Robin Fox and I had been talking about collaboration for a long time and we knew we wanted it to be large scale. His background in programming and electronics and my concern with stripping back and redefining the role and territory of percussionists led us naturally to a place where the microphone and speaker are the heart and soul of the creative content where it is not about us as musicians but about these instruments of transduction, an investigation of their place, character and potential in a performance work. “Stockhausen’s piece is one of the first examples in Western-classical music to use the microphone as notated/instrumental voice in a work and one of the earliest examples of live processing of sound in live performance also. For this reason I consider it to be one of the landmark pieces of the 20th Century and as far as we know it will be the first time it is performed in Perth. Transducer, aside from its own very specific investigation of the microphone and loud speaker, is a kind of sequel or response to this great Stockhausen piece. 26
“The collaboration with Robin began first with a willingness to work together and then conceptual discussion. Early on we knew exactly what we wanted to achieve. Our first creative development was very exploratory in nature and was accompanied by research. We investigated the physics of microphones and acoustics, looked into microphone technology and undertook a kind of phenomenological research of transduction through sound.” It’s easy enough to get under the burden of challenges for a convenient pop band, let alone an act performing the kind of music that does not appeal to a wide audience. “We’re always dealing with new ideas and new music, often across multiple art forms and in unusual contexts,” Ughetti says about the obstacles involved with leading the Speak Percussion. ““The challenges are that one often embarks on a project without knowing what the real unexpected challenges are going to be. We have to see the scope and cost of a project before we know what we’re going to need or even do in some cases. A big part of this is problem solving and making artistic choices within sometimes limited and complicated situations, as well as having strong organisational and logistical skills.”
Since recording her second album Laura Imbruglia has relocated to Melbourne, leaving the Sydney scene behind. While some would be motivated to move cities so as to take the opportunity to expand the creative juices in a new environment by getting outside of one’s comfort zone, it is a more common tale that prompted the Imbruglia move. “I was going out with a guy who had to come down for work,” offers the candid Imbuglia. “I moved down for that reason a few years ago. I ended up staying and it is awesome. It was really just an excuse as I had wanted to live in Melbourne for a while and I would never just do that thing by myself.” Imbruglia has grown into her songwriting over the years, as she has moved from a fairly traditional sounding folkie to the artist who draws on pop and country influences with a knack for a tidy hook and a smart lyric. What A Treat has seen her band swell from a trio to a five-piece to give more scope and breadth to her tunes. “I haven’t had the same band line-up on any of my records so that affects the sound a fair bit. I am always getting into something new and I get bored of what I am doing and change direction. I don’t think that this is too drastic a change from the last record, though. There are more people playing parts and my writing has gotten simpler as I am leaving room for the other musicians. There is one song that has the same three chords the whole way through, but I am trying to make sure it doesn’t sound like that.” What A Treat finds Imbruglia continue to pen songs about unrequited love and being someone who has recurring bad life patterns. Imbruglia is an artist who doesn’t take herself too seriously when sharing her warts and all with punters through song. “A lot of the songs are just me having a go at myself for continuing to make the same choices and being unhappy when there is a bad result at the end. It is mainly just going after the wrong people, who aren’t available emotionally or relationship-wise. These are the situations that I find myself in at least
Laura Imbruglia once a year. It is probably not that uncommon, or if it is the compulsion of the artist to put yourself in that situation so as you can create something out of it.” In the past Imbruglia has been determined not to let her more famous sibling (Natalie) impact on her own musical career, but things appear to have shifted a little now that Imbruglia has forged her own path for over a decade on the local live scene. While they will never pile on the cheese like Dannii and Kylie Minogue, the idea of Laura and Natalie writing some tunes together is no longer out of the question. “If we ever had some time together we could write together. I have been into country music for a lot longer than Natalie, but she has been living in America and has been listening to these alt. country stations and loving it. We have spoken of writing some alt. country together but we are never in the same place together for long enough to be able to do that. “If we were around together I would write a country song with her, and I feel it would be wrong to write a country song with her over the internet. That would be against the idea of country music.” X-Press – First on the street, Wednesdays