Vic McEwan
NEWS
July 2016 George Main and I will be presenting our work Haunting at the Performance Climates conference in Melbourne and exhibiting some of the work at the George Paton Gallery at Melbourne university.
June 2016 I will be spending 2 weeks in Alder Hey Children's hospital in Livepool UK, working towards a large ongoing project that looks at trauma reduction in clinical environments. You can read my diray from my last visit here. I am not keeping a diary on this visit, instead just internalising this part of the process and working towards some new outcomes.
June 2016 I am currently working on a show called Spark in Lightning Ridge that explores the interesting Opal history of the region and the social and cultural landscape that has emerged with it. Spark will be presented at the Australian Opal Centre from July 15th 2016 for several months.
May 2016 Grace Before Meals will be supporting Kristin Hersh at The Cad Factory's Under the Kurrajong Tree gig on May 8th. I will then be hosting 2 nights of me in conversatoin with Kristin in Griffith and Wagga.
April 2016 Portrait of a Shimmering Self Just Waiting to be Touched is a solo exhibition of interactive works at the Griffith Regional Art Gallery.
April 2016 The Land Dialogues conference at Charles Sturt University are presenting our work Haunting for two nights plus we will be talking about the work during a panel at the conference.
April 2016 I am collaborating with Outback Theatre for Young People on a new work called Echos in our Walls - here
Feb 2016 Nava have published an article of mine which explores the role of the artist in different sectors - here
Feb 2016 - To celebrate the launch of the Grace Before Meals album, written by Vic McEwan, we are hosting a very special live podcast launch on Feb 15th at 9pm. You can listen from the player below. For more info about Grace Before Meals, click here
Jan 2016 - The National Museum of Australia have made this fabulous video which gives an overview of the project "Haunting" created during my 2015 residency at the Museum.
August 2015 - ABC NEWS story about Hauting. View here
July 2015 - on July 31st at the National Museum of Australia, I will present Tunnel of Anatomy, an installation using the Anatomy Collection Specimens. More info here
July 2015 - I'm pleased to announce that I have been selected to sit on the NSW/ACT Arts and Health Leadership group. Giving advice on policy direction and the establishment of the Arts and Health National Framework
June 2015 - Read my new blog entry on the National Museum of Australia website here
On July 16th I have been invited to speak at the Museums and Galleries NSW Art Chat event. You can read details and book you place here
June 2015 - The National Museum of Australia have just uploaded a video of my Paddlesteamer performance created in February. Using one of the worlds oldest remaining paddlesteamers as a musical instrument and surface for projections in front of an audience of 1200 people.
March 2015 - I am currently conducting a 2 week residency at the Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, UK. You can read a daily diary of my experience here.
Feb 2015 - National Museum of Australia - Short video outlining my first public outcome as the 2015 Artist in Residence at the National Museum of Australia.
Almost an Embrace - RealTime Magazine have reviewed the Almost an Embrace installation here
Jan 12th 2015 - National Museum of Australia - Throughout 2015 I will be the Artist in Residence at the National Museum of Australia working closely with the People and the Environment section.
Still Point Turning - Dance Bites - Dance Bites is a curated, signature program of contemporary dance works presented by FORM Dance Projects - Still Point Turning, solo dance work by Linda Luke will be appering from November 27th - 29th 2014. Dance : Linda Luke, Music : Vic McEwan, Lighting : Clytie Smith, Video : Martin Fox. Details and tickets here
Almost and Embrace - December 2014 - March 2015 - For nearly a year I had been planning this installation that involves 40 streams of water falling from the ceiling of a gallery. When you touch each stream of water, it plays music and triggers videos all around you in the space. Today was the first day of a 2 week install at the Wagga Wagga Art Gallery of this installation "Almost an Embrace". Hundreds of liters of water, inside a controlled space. A musical instrument made out of 40 streams of water.
Arts NSW Regional Fellowship - Read Vic's latest entry in his Fellowship Diary here
Recent landscape projection on the Murrumbidgee River.....more details soon.
Passion for Freedom : London Art Festival November 2015 - Vic's work Razor Wire has been accepted into the London Art Festival. On exhibition during November, this video and sound work was made high above the ground, in a working prison amongst the rolls of razor wire. Exhibition Details
Melbourne Festival - Still Point Turning - October 2014 - Still Point Turning is a solo dance work by Lind Luke which reflects on time, stillness and turbulence. Being presented in 2014 at The Melbourne Festival, Dance Bites in Parramatta and The Wagga Wagga Art Gallery. Composition by Vic McEwan
September 17th 2014 - Public Lecture, Latrobe University Centre for Creative Arts - Vic McEwan, Artistic Director of the artist led organisation The Cad Factory, will present examples of a new mode for art making which partners deeply with business, health and communities. Dispelling myths that engaging with communities dilutes the artistic output, he will highlight the opportunities that exist to engage high level, experimental, contemporary art making while engaging directly with the practical world. McEwan will share examples from previous partnerships with organisations such as SunRice and exploration of things as complex as The Murray Darling Basin Plan, as well as talking about future projects as part of his Arts NSW Regional Arts Fellowship. Website info here
Council Strategic Planning Day - September 2nd 2014 - Narrandera Council invited me to speak to all councillors at the beginning of their Strategic Planning day in an attempt to share some inspriation and positive thoughts for the region.
Recording Grace Before Meals - Putting our nearly completed studio facility to the test, we spend a week of recording towards a new album which will be completed by December 2014.
Shepherds Park - From July - August I am visiting the Shephers Park School, which is located within the Juvenile Justice Prison in Wagga Wagga NSW. I am working with 6 students there to make a video which explores mental health issues. 80% of inmates at Shepher's Parl have diagnosed mental health issues. The final video will be screened at the Dramatic Minds Festival in mid September 2014.
Dream Big Conference - Friday 22nd August - The day after the Keepin' It Real conference, I spoke at the Dream Big Conference presented by Eastern Riverina Arts and Western Riverina Arts . I gave a presentation about The Cad Factory and participated in a panel on community engagment .
Keepin' It Real - I was invited to talk as a Keynote Speaker at the Keepin' it Real conference in Albury on Thursday 21 August. Musuems and Galleries review the confernece, and my presentation here
June 7th 2014 - Read a review of my Manchester presentation on my Arts NSW Fellowship diary.
June 5h - Machester Univery School of Art, United Kingdom - As part of my Arts NSW Fellowship I am travellign to the United Kingdom to undertake research and create protjects based in Arts and Health.
This fist Visit for 3 weeks in June will allow me to form a plan for working on future visists. I will commence by giving a talk presented by the North West Arts and Health Network at Manchester University.
On Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd May 2014 The Australian National University in Canberra is holding a two day symposium on Walking, The Environment and art.
I will be speaking at this symposium with National Museum of Australia Curator George Main about an upcoming project that involves a three day walk from a site of historical massacre to a location of regeneration of hope. I will also have a sound piece in an accompanying exhibition called The Walk. More Info
16th April 2014 - I was invited to the Regional ARTS Nsw Annual dinner where I was awarded the Inaugural Arts NSW Regional Fellowship by the NSW Arts Minister. This is a great honour which will allow me to undertake 18 months of national and international research and development to contirbute to the cultural landscape of Australia.
There is a webiste which gives details about my fellowship projects that will be updated regularly during the next 18 monhts. You can view it HERE.
29th March 2014 - Attendance at a one day Conference exploring the teaching of Contemporary Art and Feminism entitled : Transgressive Teaching. More info
15th and 16th March - In the Heart of the Past - I am Co-Directing this innovative site specific play which will be presented in the grounds of the old Narrandera Railway Station as a Drive In Theatre experience. Audience members will watch the action from inside the cars while the actors and live choir will be simulcast on local radio station Spirith FM and listened to on their car radios.
Thursday 27th February 2014 will see the opening of the exhibition Yenda Rain which will explore the project I created with the community of Yenda throughout 2013. This gallery version is an opportunity to explore the process taken to create the site sepcific expereinces created thoughout tthe township of Yenda in 2013. You can read the exhibition catalogue here
Feb 3rd - Feb 7th 2014 - I'm attending a 5 day Sound, Art and the Environment Masterclass in the Vicotrian Alps. Masterclass focuses workshops in sound, art and the environment; perception and practice; immersive environments; recording and reproduction; and experimental and expanding practices.
Sydney Festival January 2014 - I am making sound, installation and video mapping for Darrin Bakers work Underpass which is presented as part of FunPark for the 2014 Sydney Festival. Sat 18th Jan and Sun 19th Jan. More info here
Fish Rider - A Composition made from Consequnces - more info here
November 20th-24th - De Quincey Co's performance Box of Birds explores a series of photos from the State Library archive of 1940′s psychiatric patients from Gladesville Hospital in collaboration with photographer Anne Ferran.
This performance which explores madness, marginalised existence and incarceration will be on Performance Space at Carriageworks from this Wednesday 20th - Sunday 24th November 9pm each evening and free entry.
November 12-13 - I will be speaking at the International Arts and Health Conference which is held at the Art Gallery of NSW and COFA. My presentation explores using contemporary art to work with traumatised communities.
November 10th 2013 - Continuing my exploration of discovering poetry in practical objects and extracting musicallity from infrastructure. This is a film clip of a band formed for one night only to record music made with a grapevine. The Grapevine Trio consisting of Drums (Sarah McEwan), Saxophone (Jared Bianchini) and Vic McEwan playing a Grapevine. This was created as part of the project Yenda Rain (www.yendarain.com) which is a project working with the community of Yenda exploring the consequences of the major flood events of 2012.
The Sunrice and Cad Factory Contemporary Art Partnership - Review, interview and video about the project has just appeared online at RealTime Magazine. Watch and read here.
October 23rd 2013 - Today I discovered a new instrument - The Clothesline Wind Flute.
Today was a very windy day in Yenda, NSW. Just minutes after my new Zoom H6 audio recorder arrived, I could hear this strange melody from outside. I went to investigate and found a frame for a clothesline, unstrung , resting on the ground and leaning against the house. As the clothesline was just a frame, The wind was blowing through the holes and making different notes. This recording is untouched/processed (just a hi pass filter).
Found Compositions in a Yenda Vineyard.
International Arts and Health Conference 2013 - Nov 12-14 I will be speaking at this international conference about the project I am currently working on in Yenda which explores how a community recovers from major trauma. Conference Webpage and Project Webpage
Radio Interviews - Wednesday 16th October 4pm on Griffith Community Radio and Thursday 17th at 8:45am on ABC Radio Riverina. Discussing the Yenda Rain project and working with communities recovering from Trauma.
From October 1st - November 5th I am in residence in Yenda continuting to work on a project that I have been exploring since the start of 2013. This project is working with the community after the devastating floods of April 2103 which are still affecting the town. See the project website here.
Read a interview with Regional Arts NSW about the Sunrice and Cad Factory Contemporary Arts Partnership project here
The SunRice and Cad Factory Contemporary Art Partnership - View the program here
Video documentation of Tipping Point project now online
September 1st - 21st In Development at the SunRice rice mill at Coleambally in Regional NSW making a large scale roaming series of performance installations with Shigeaki Iwai and Mayu Kanamori.
August 25th - Speaking at a sypmosium at the National Museum of Australia about the Murray Darlin Basin river system as a place of contestation and conflict; from an arts perspecitve of course.
Tipping Point, which was commissioned for the Canberra Centenary and presented in Narrandera in April 2013 will be presented in Canberra on August 24th at the Belconnen Arts Centre. Then on Sunday August 25th, Vic will speak at at a Symposium at the National Museum of Australia.
August 4th - August 11th 2013 Participating in The Cad Factory project Grong Grong Creative House, laboratory whch explores the confines of a remote highway motel. Read the online blog written by participating artists here
July 21st 2013 Currently in Berlin, attending a video mapping master class, amongst other things. Here is a postcard for you, I made it today, a Postcard from Berlin
June 29th 2013 Documentation of Obfuscate Mass - Large 8.5 meter tall wooden sculpture built by Drew Halyday, Video Mapped by Vic McEwan and set on fire during a 40 minute live installation.
June 8th 2013 Enrolled in a Video Mapping Masterclass in Berlin late July 2013.
June 6th 2013 RealTIme Magazine have conducted a full page interview feature about The Cad Factory in their June 2013 edition. Read it here
June 5th 2013 Currently Video Mapping a large wooden structure that was built by artist Drew Halyday. This will be presented as a video mapped object on June 8th and will be set on fire whilst being projected on.
Throughout 2013 I will be working with the township of Yenda to create a series of large scale video projections that celebrate the strength and community spirit of the town which suffered major flooding damage in 2012. Nearly a year later people's houses are still being rebuild and many people are still in temporary accommodation. A documentary crew will follow the project throughtout 2013. Here is a short 2 minute promo that they have made about the project.
May 17th - 8 Artists, a collaborative project resulting in a gallery installations. The two works made for this exhibition are Rememberance Room and 2 Dances. More info about the project here.
May 4th 2013: Performance Duet with Linda Luke as part of Whip It : A night of curated improvised short performance at Heffron Hall Darlinghurst. For this performance Dancer Linda Luke and Vic McEwan on Piano collaborate to create an improvised 10 minute performance.
May 4th 2013 : Invited to attend the Wild Law Incubator - WILD LAW is a new legal theory and growing social movement. It proposes that we rethink our legal, political, economic and governance systems so that they support, rather than undermine, the integrity and health of the Earth. WILD LAW stresses human interconnectedness and dependence with the natural world and seeks to catalyse a shift in law from human-centeredness to recognition of our necessary relationship with nature.
Artists, producers and other experts from a range of different fields will attend this one‐day incubator exploring WILD LAW. This diverse group of practitioners will collaborate in developing strategies aimed at its realisation. The day will be a creative forum to germinate new manifestations in the public arena and to provide agency for the eventual enactment of WILD LAW.
April 30th - 31st 2013 : Attending 2 day conference in Melbourne, Australia about place making and empowering communities to direct their own futures.
April 28th 2013 : Launch of Dance Diaries Narradera a short dance film made with residents of Narrandera aged over 70 which celebrated the seniors community and explored notions of home and what home means. Compostition by Vic McEwan
April 19th 2013 : Interview on ABC Radio National : Books and Arts Daily with Michael Cathcart. Interview with Robyn Archer, Donna Jackson and Vic McEwan about The Canberra Centenary, One River and the Tipping Point Project. Listen here.
April 12th 2013 : Interview on ABC Riverina about the project in Yenda that explores recovery from major disasters. Listen here.
