BLINDSIDE Festival, On The Verge

Gain an insight into domestic life through an open lounge room window, enter Dante’s inferno in an upstairs storeroom, or hear strains of music as a fragmented choir serenades you throughout the city.

BLINDSIDE, an independent contemporary art space in the heart of Melbourne, presents the third iteration of the BLINDSIDE Festival, ‘On The Verge’ – an experimental art festival of chance encounters, immersive soundscapes and intimate creative exchanges. For 11 days, from 24 August to 3 September, art will materialise in the alleyways and byways of Melbourne’s CBD. New works and site-responsive performances will disrupt, alter and transform the spaces we take for granted.

‘On The Verge’ showcases the talents of emerging and established artists including: Steve Aishman (USA), Buff Diss, Robert Curgenven (IRE/AUS), Louise paramor, Sarah Rudledge, Billie Justice Thomson and many more!

BLINDSIDE Chair, Verity Hayward, explains “’On The Verge’ differs from the larger Melbourne city festivals as it is aimed towards quieter, hidden and intimate spaces, where you wouldn’t expect to see art. You are encouraged to look, to wander, and to experience the city in different, more meaningful ways. This event offers audiences the chance to view contemporary, innovative and high quality artwork from local and international practitioners in freely accessible public spaces.”

“The festival is a unique program amongst Melbourne’s artist run spaces. It’s a chance for artists to exhibit in new and unusual sites, ones that challenges and redefines the placement of artwork in the gallery, while allowing them to experience new territory and opportunities in their work. This festival also offers opportunities for audiences to see art where it’s most unexpected – in a domestic space, retailers, a window space, and even Melbourne’s legendary Kelvin Club”, continues Hayward.

One highlight of the festival is They tore the earth and, like a scar, it swallowed them, a new work by Ireland-based Australian composer Robert Curgenven. By an employing sound as a physical field of perception, Curgenven’s immersive 3 channel video installation explores important themes related to Australia’s colonial history.

Curgenven’s work often challenges us to consider our physical experience of sound; it shapes our understanding of our embodiment; what it tells us about this embodiment and of how we inhabit space, both individually and collectively as an audience; and how the auditory shapes our perception of time and duration. HIs live performances, installations and album releases span pipe organ through to feedback, immersive resonances via turntables and custom-made vinyl, as well as carefully detailed field recordings from remote areas in Australia where he lived for many years.