We warmly invite you to Ruby’s closing celebration for He Whakaari Ātārangi / Shadow Play featuring I(dent)ITY, featuring an improvised dance performance by esteemed Indonesian actor, dancer and researcher Sekar Sari - with prop and set design by Ruby and sound by multi-instrumentalist/composer Genevieve Fry and vocalist/composer Aarti Jadu. 

Guest entry via the front gallery entrance from 7:30 pm to explore the latest exhibition by resident Ruby Brown. The performance will commence promptly at 8:00 pm and will run for approx. 20 minutes. 

Bookings are essential for access to the performance space from 7:30-8:30 pm.  General access will re-open via the front gallery when the performance has ended, and we’d love you to join us then if preferred.

Places limited. Press 'Join the guest list to join'.

A limited number of free tickets (with or without a drink) for the performance are offered. General access after the performance is free and does not require registration. 

Ticket sales, hospo purchases and donations help us to cover production costs of events such as this. We can do what we do thanks to  your generosity. 

Location: correspondences Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country, 39 Sydney Road Brunswick, VIC, 3056 Australia (map). 
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Additional information:
—Ticketed admission via the rear entrance only after 7:50 pm. Late arrivals may not be permitted after 7:55 pm.
—Refreshments will be available - our house sake, shochu, umeshu or yuzu soda. Drinks (alcohol) will end at 9 pm per our liquor licence. 
—If you’re interested in acquiring one of Ruby’s artworks, please pop in, email info@correspondences.work or visit her catalogue page, which will continue to be updated as her residency progresses.
—All of our events are photographed as we need to document all that we do to evidence the work that we do and secure grant funding. If you'd prefer not to be featured in our event photographs, please let us know in advance, and we will ensure you're not captured. Your comfort is important to us.
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Précis

I(dent)ITY is a live performance for one night only commissioned in connection with the project of resident artist Ruby Brown, He Whakaari Ātārangi / Shadow Play —A study of movement, shadows & play.

Featuring esteemed actor, dancer, and academic Sekar Sari, it is an improvisational response that re-imagines an earlier work of the same name, picking up on its spirit and scale alongside shared perspectives with Ruby and the sense of place on-site at correspondences.

The starting point for Sekar's work is her 'belief in the power of collecting insightful knowledge through body movement, writing, and character', a contention shared by Ruby, explored through her visual art, cultural heritage and weekly dance practice.

In this re-imagining, the two artists' delve more deeply into their mutual search for spiritual connection and self-understanding through the transformative power of sound/voice, repetition, meditation, movement, and play in art-making.

These themes are at the heart of the performance - Sekar's choreography and Ruby's set and prop design. So too, is an examination of the spiritual essence of sound, materials and objects, the revelatory power of story-telling that exists beyond language and the idea of 'mana wāhine' - the power that all women hold.

A statement from Sekar Sari on the work:

Identity is a never-ending process. Identity is a constant fight, and you can't never figure out which side is going to win. There is always a dent in identity. ‘I’ is always leaving a dent in ‘I’, changing it in such a way that it is no longer recognizable. The new I has completely shifted, yet came from the same individual, leaving possibilities of transformation infinite. There is no such straight identity. That constant fight within the body creates a dent to embody the identity as something beyond the material world, escaping concepts and words. Black and white colors symbolize the contrasts that we encounter in our lives. Sometimes, someway, somehow, we have to choose a particular side. Other times, we just need to let it flow, let it be. However, we also forget that there is also grey between those black and white, that it is not always a dilemma, that we have more than two choices, that we don’t have choices as well. How do we show ourselves to the world? That's when the mask emerges and reveals the way we present ourselves to others. Do we wear a mask in our daily life to hide who we really are or the mask we wear is just one? Can the mask be so vivid that it makes us forget the identity underneath? Are we willing to add to us a part that was never there, a mask that transform our perception of ourselves? In the fight for an identity, the internal scars might suffice the pleasure of discovering who we really are.

— Sekar Sari
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Artist Bios
Ruby Brown was born in Ōtepoti, Aotearoa and is of Scottish and Ngā Puhi descent. She lives on Wurundjeri country in Naarm (Melbourne), where she attended the Victorian College of the Arts in 2014. Using found objects and re-purposed materials, her practice considers sensory experience, connection and disconnection, creation traditions, painting, sculpture and meditative action. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Sekar Sari is an actor, dancer, and researcher from Indonesia and is currently based in Melbourne, Australia. Through her acting performances, she received a number of international accolades, including the Best Actor Prize in The Singapore International Film Festival (2014) and Indonesia's Young Iconic Actress Award by Top10 Asia (2018). Currently, she is a PhD student carrying a research project entitled "Indigenous Intercultural Bodies" at the University of Melbourne. Her artistic research focuses on dance film, transnational cinema, diasporic cinema, multicultural realism, and body language in film. She believes in the power of collecting insightful knowledge through body movement, writing, and character.

Genevieve Fry is a multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Naarm/ Birrarungga. Genevieve is interested in exploratory music, drawing inspiration from the natural world, and encouraging an inward journey touching on deep time, memory and sense of place/ self. In both solo and collaborative contexts across the experimental, contemporary, pop and improvisation scenes, Genevieve cocoons the listener within hypnotic combinations of harp, recorder, synthesizer and voice. As well as being the principal director of new-wave new-age project Cold Hands Warm Heart, Genevieve has performed and collaborated with acclaimed acts, including King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (Hear My Eyes; Suspiria), Grand Salvo, Manisha Anjali, Outer Urban Projects, Geoffrey O’Connor, Taylor Mac (US) and Four Larks Theatre (US). Genevieve is the co-founder of Eastmint artist-run studios, label and performance space which focuses on presenting and supporting music that promotes deep listening from a diverse range of artists across all genres.

Known for creating a hybrid of cinematic compositions and bass music laced with disparate vocal arrangements, Aarti Jadu threads together a journey with sounds of minimal classical, distorted folk beats and processed wordless melodies. Their work is formed from a culmination of existentialism, experimentation and research. Her life's work revolves around the power of embodying sound, an interest originating from her lifelong relationship with devotional music.  In 2021 and 2022, they landed nominations for the 18th Australian music prize for her 2022 release, L’ecole De La Caz, as well as a finalist in the category of Avant Garde/ Experimental Artist of the Year for Music Victoria 2021. In 2022 she also released her first public artwork EMBODIMENTS. Photograph by Chloe Sobejko.