Twinships at West Space

TWINSHIPS AT WEST SPACE

Choreographer & Performer: Deanne Butterworth
Sound: Michael Munson
Lighting: Rose Connors Dance

Premiered: 2010 at Dancehouse
Re-presented with ongoing installation at West Space Gallery, Melbourne. 18 October 2012 to 10 November 2012

TWINSHIPS was originally presented in July 2010 at Dancehouse and was one result of a six-month Housemate residency working with Michael Munson and Rose Connors Dance. I had wanted to present it again working with the same collaborators in order to find something else within the work, to revisit what I thought I liked and disliked in order to understand if these things had changed since the first presentation. I had originally set out to make huge changes, big edits of material and to somehow present and reveal the apparatus used in creating a performance work and how that might differ for a gallery setting. I wanted it to be messy. I was unsure about repetition and time. It became two simultaneous projects, an attempt at refinement and a layering of image, plans and history whilst maintaining a strong commitment to working with the space I find myself in.

There is distance too. Rose Connors Dance is not here, living in Germany in a rather different zone and seeing this work develop on a two dimensional screen, delivering instructions based less on intuition and hands on participation. We are all re-experiencing the work through a process of verbal articulation almost 'speaking experience' as it happens. Michael Munson has refined the original music still using sounds created in collaboration with Copenhagen-based Owen Armour- recordings made in Melbourne, Auckland and Stockholm. West Space is here and without this place and space this new version of TWINSHIPS would have remained unseen.

I like the work to speak for itself and for one to enter this space with a sense of freedom of thought but I have said too much already and you are here now. In working on this again I revisited texts written as a response to the original work. This following excerpt by Owen Armour can be thought of as a false synopsis, or not.

“Five detached motifs brought in to a circular realm of otherworldliness. The evocative drone cast upon a lone vanity chest of mirrors sparks light into the unkindly darkness. Fluttering creatures charge the surface. Treasonous waters ahead, a movement a swing of an arm and opening of a wing.

The gyrating un-relenting, a string of sonority, a swipe of a brush, a look into the red eye of dawn. Undecided cohort, trades the pulsating fame of interloping majors. Bounce bounce, kick kick, spin. Stop. Wander. Stop. Light. Black grind, harmonically flicker.”

Production Assistant & Lighting Operator: Taran Ablitt
Assistants: Rachael Allen & Jo Leishman
Set Construction: Jim Stenson
Video: Michael Munson & Deanne Butterworth

TWINSHIPS was released in October 2012 and is available through Dreamland Recordings
http://dreamlandrecordings.tumblr.com/releases

Thanks to: West Space- Huge thanks to Kelly, Cherie & Danny and West Space volunteers, Phip Murray, Dancehouse- Angela, Bridget & Natalie, Lucy Guerin Inc.- Michaela & Laura, Megan at Chunky Move, Jen Hector, Jo Lloyd, Cobie Orger, Jim Stenson, Jan Ritsema, Alex Pittendrigh, Alexander Knox, Owen Armour, Casey Rice, Elvis Richardson, Rachel Roberts, Rohan Young, Antuong Nguyen, Murray & Sally Butterworth, Bundanon Trust, and Aix Les Bains. I would like to acknowledge Michael Munson & Rose Connors Dance for their creativity and enthusiasm in the development of this work.

TWINSHIPS AT WEST SPACE was supported through a Pozible crowdfunding campaign. I am grateful to the the following people for their generous contributions. It would not have been possible without you. x

Amelia Bartak, Kelly Beneforti, Jenni Boyle, Michaela Coventry, Alison Currie, Jess Devereux, Iris Gaillard, Luke George,
Lucy Guerin, Fran Haarsma, Shelley Lasica, Doug Low, Fiona Macdonald, Jo Pickup, Byron Scullin, Linda Tegg, Ingrid Weisfelt, Roger Wood, Brian & Vincent Wu, Anonymous x3

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