Over two months, RISING’s monumental new sonic artwork, *The Rivers Sing*, will wind its way along the Birrarung and Maribyrnong rivers. To commence its maiden voyage, *The Rivers Sing* will make its debut at the TarraWarra Biennial 2021: *Slow Moving Waters*, curated by Nina Miall.

This major new RISING commission comes from acclaimed Yorta Yorta/Yuin composer and soprano Deborah Cheetham AO, with artists Thomas Supple and Byron J. Scullin. Its layering of river sounds and the voices of singers from the Victorian music community unites the urban environment, Country and the people who call them home. 

The Rivers Sing is an evolving artwork, recomposed at several points on its journey to, and at, each sunrise and sunset during RISING. Experiencing it first at the TarraWarra Biennial 2021 will be a one-off opportunity. Positioned at seven sites throughout the grounds of the TarraWarra Museum of Art, specially designed, cutting-edge speakers will emanate the first iteration of the work before it continues to build, on its journey to RISING.

The TarraWarra Biennial 2021’s title, *Slow Moving Waters*, comes from the translation of the local Woiwurrung word ‘tarrawarra’, after which the museum, and its surrounding Yarra Valley area are named. For the museum’s 7th biennial, 25 artists from across the country have created new work exploring ideas of slowness, deceleration, drift and the elasticity of time.

*The Rivers Sing* begins its journey at sunset at the TarraWarra Museum of Art on March 27 and 28, for which the museum will extend its opening hours to 7pm. The TarraWarra Biennial 2021, *Slow Moving Waters*, runs from 27 March—11 July 2021.


“The Rivers Sing seeks to reframe our relationship with the two major rivers that pass through Melbourne … Deborah Cheetham is the source of inspiration. Beginning with her own connection to our waterways, combined with language and knowledge granted by Boonwurrung and Woiwurrung Elders, the work seeks to embody ideas found in the ongoing connection between water, Country and people.” 


Dates and tickets:  
27 & 28 March  
TarraWarra Museum of Art extended opening hours: 11AM to 7PM.  
*The Rivers Sing* is presented at sunset.  

Admission: $10 Adults; $8 Seniors; $5 Concession and Students; Museum Members and children under 12 free.

[Tickets will be on sale Monday 22 March 2021 at 9am](https://www.twma.com.au/exhibitions/tarrawarra-biennial-2021-slow-moving-waters/ "Tickets will be on sale Monday 22 March 2021 at 9am").  

Location:  
[TarraWarra Museum of Art](https://www.google.com/maps/place/TarraWarra+Museum+of+Art/@-37.6593999,145.4692055,15z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xf840c950a7be3c6?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj70vjxz6HvAhU-8HMBHeQpCykQ_BIwE3oECCMQBQ "TarraWarra Museum of Art ")  
313 Healesville-Yarra Glen Rd  
Healesville  
VIC 3777

The first outing of RISING’s large-scale, sonic celebration of the Birrarung and Maribyrnong rivers. Experience it first at TarraWarra Museum of Art.  

Opening at the TarraWarra Biennial 2021

The Rivers Sing 

Gregor and Sweet Whirl released two of 2020’s best albums — Destiny and How Much Works. 

Destiny’s full of left-field observations and intimate confessions from Gregor, one of Australia’s true pop eccentrics. Like a painter’s palette, its colours and moods bleed into one another, drawing you into its epic and engrossing psychedelic world. 

And on How Much Works Sweet Whirl’s Esther Edquist stakes her claim as one of the country’s best songwriters, using heartache as a tool to move forward, rather than dwelling in its pain. It’s full of vintage drum machines and waves of organ.

We think the two work so well together, that we asked them to team up for our new RISING: SINGLES CLUB release. They’ve come up with a downbeat cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Have You Ever Seen the Rain’. 

The pair’s take flips the Americana classic on its head with dusky synths; a deep, loping bassline; and sharp, synthesised hi-hats. Edquist’s spoken/sung call and response adds an element of danger, before the song opens up as the singers join for its melancholic chorus. Gregor and Sweet Whirl’s ‘Have You Ever Seen the Rain’ takes you from the original track’s wide-open plains all the way into the twilight zone. You might even get to see them perform it live under a full moon, soon.

Gregor and Sweet Whirl, flagbearers of textured Melbourne pop, take a Creedence classic into the twilight zone.

RISING: Singles Club

 Gregor and Sweet Whirl

At the start of 2021 we wanted to slow down for a minute, look up into the sky and take a big, deep breath of night air.

To soundtrack this moment of reset and contemplation, we commissioned the Kulin Nations-based singer Kee’ahn to deliver our next RISING: SINGLES CLUB release. She’s chosen an early deep cut from Moses Sumney, ‘Man on the Moon’, which the Californian singer originally recorded in his bedroom, straight to cassette tape, on an ‘80s 4-track recorder.

She says that Sumney was one of the first artists who inspired her as a teenager, when she first picked up a guitar. She remembers hearing him say he wanted to become a “one-man choir” — a goal she has since strived for in her own music.

For her take, Kee’ahn — a Kuku Yalanji, Jirrbal and Torres Strait Islander woman originally from Northern Queensland — has kept Sumney’s stripped-back approach but clarified it sonically. Her voice rings out rich and clear over delicately plucked steel guitar and swelling cello, while harmonising with her own multi-tracked vocals.

Fill your lungs and exhale. Kee’ahn’s got the purifying oxygen to keep your heart clear and free.

Take a deep exhale with Kulin Nations-based singer Kee’ahn’s spacious cover of the Moses Sumney deep cut ‘Man on the Moon’.

Kee’ahn

Making a festival takes a village, a constellation or a technicolour collision.

Next month, we’ll be making our first program announcement and before we do, we would like to take a moment to acknowledge some of the people and the place we call Naarm, Birrarangga or Melbourne.

We set out to make a festival that couldn’t come from any other city, anywhere in the world. In July 2019 we enlisted a group of brilliant minds, from both Australia and abroad, to help us determine what Melbourne’s major festival could be.

In our early town square meetings were a collection of artists, directors, musicians, dancers and journalists. From Australia there was Jeff Khan, Genevieve Lacey, Amrita Hepi and Daniel Browning; and reporting in from further afield were Stefan Schmidtke (Berlin), Michael Morris (London), Rachel Chanoff (New York), Claire Verlet (Paris) and Kristy Edmunds (Los Angeles).

Later on, we formed RISING’s curatorial team: Woody McDonald, Hayley Percy and Paul Gorrie on music; Grace Herbert in visual arts; Gus Carmichael taking care of food and wine; and Kimberley Moulton as Artistic Associate. It’s a broad and rowdy church.

A few things emerged immediately: Melbourne is more than an environment or a stage to present a series of events. Its character, and the stories it holds, are defined by the ancient and living culture of First Peoples and colonisation. It’s a city built on immigration with a contemporary culture of progressive thinking, knowledge, music, art, food and footy.

Collectively, we set out to make a program with teeth and heart — a collection of sublime, philosophical, intellectual, beautiful, painful, social, and just straight up fun experiences. It has been pulled together, picked apart, reassembled and refined so that it’s genuinely relevant to this place and this moment in time. And oh, what a time it is.

Right now, 946 individual artists are preparing; 27 brand new commissions are being made; thousands of trees are being grown; wine is fermenting; bands are writing and rehearsing; music is being composed and the RISING team is flat stick.

All will be revealed on 29 March, with our first major announcement coming on 26 February.

In the meantime, we’ll keep on with the sage advice of artist Jenny Holzer revolving in our heads: “To break boundaries, work hard, be generous, don't be a creep.”

Hannah Fox and Gideon Obarzanek
RISING Co-Artistic Directors

## A Broad and Rowdy Church

### GENEVIEVE LACEY

Genevieve creates and performs sound-based works encompassing public art, dance, film, installation and digital works. She is artistic advisor to UKARIA Cultural Centre, was Adelaide Festival’s chamber music curator 2019 and Melbourne Recital Centre’s 2018 Artist in Residence. Her works have won ARIA, Helpmann and Green Room awards, Churchill, Freedman and Australia Council Fellowships, the Melbourne Prize for Music and the Sidney Myer Individual Performing Arts Award.

### AMRITA HEPI

Amrita, of Bundjulung / Ngapuhi territories, is an artist working with dance, choreography, video, performance, installation and objects. Her work considers the body’s relationship to personal histories and the archive. From 2019—2020 she was a RISING artistic advisor, is a Gertrude Contemporary artist in residence and is currently working with Kaldor Public Art  Projects/Serpentine UK as a participating do it artist. In 2018 she was named in Forbes Asia’s 30 under 30 list.

### JEFF KHAN

Jeff is a curator and writer working across performance, dance and the visual arts, with a particular interest in interdisciplinary projects and experimental practices. He is Artistic Director & CEO of Performance Space, Sydney.Previously Jeff was Artistic Director of Next Wave Festival. He has held roles and undertaken guest curatorships at Gertrude Contemporary, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, John Curtin Gallery and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

### DANIEL BROWNING

Daniel is an Aboriginal journalist, radio broadcaster, sound artist and writer. He produces and presents the Indigenous art and culture program Awaye! on the ABC Radio National. Daniel is the Editor of Indigenous Radio at the ABC and supervises podcasts including Thin Black Line and the forthcoming music series Song With No Boss. He is the inaugural curator of Blak Box, an award-winning, architecturally-designed sound pavilion commissioned by Urban Theatre Projects. Daniel is a descendant of the Bundjalung and Kullilli peoples of far northern New South Wales and south-western Queensland.

### STEFAN SCHMIDTKE

Stefan is the Artistic Director for the Festival Theater der Welt 2020/2021 in Düsseldorf. He is the Artistic Director of forumfestwochen ff at Wiener Festwochen, where he is also the drama department Artistic Director and Chief Dramaturg. In 2007 and 2008 Stefan was director of Theaterformen (Hanover and Braunschweig) festival; and from 2011—2014 Chief Dramaturg at Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus. From 2016—2018, he built up the program and event department of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin.

### CLAIRE VERLET

Claire is responsible for the dance programme at Theatre de la Ville, Paris.  She was artistic advisor at La Filature, Scène nationale — Mulhouse from 1995— 2000; and a consultant at Institut Français, which appointed her head of its dance section in 1999. In 2000 she joined the Centre national de la danse as Director of creation and programming until 2008. She has strong links with colleagues, institutions, artists and companies all over the world.

### RACHEL CHANOFF

Rachel has worked in performing arts and film for 35 years and is the founder and director of THE OFFICE performing arts + film, her New York City-based programming, consulting and production company. She is the Curator of Performing Arts and Film for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Rachel holds directing, programming, consulting and advisory positions at major festivals and organisations including the Sundance Institute. Through the Theatre Development Fund’s Open Doors program, she works to introduce underserved high school students to the theatre.  

### MICHAEL MORRIS

As Co-Director, along with James Lingwood, Michael has established Artangel as an international commissioning agency producing extraordinary art in unexpected places by Clio Barnard, Jeremy Deller, PJ Harvey, Roni Horn, Miranda July, Mike Kelley, Michael Landy, Steve McQueen, Rachel Whiteread and many others. Since 2007, Michael has been Artistic Advisor to the Manchester International Festival and served in similar advisory roles for 14-18 NOW, Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center in Long Island, the Pina Bausch Foundation and as a Trustee of Longplayer.

### KRISTY EDMUNDS

Kristy is an artist, curator and  keynote speaker. She’s currently the Executive and Artistic Director of UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance and a leading presenter of contemporary performance. In recognition of her contribution to the arts, Kristy was named a 2016 Chevalier (Knight) de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government and was the inaugural recipient of the Berresford Prize by United States Artists in 2018. Kristy has previously held positions at acclaimed institutions in Portland, Australia and New York.

Not long after RISING’s inception in July 2019, we brought together a group of fearless thinkers, to help us determine what Melbourne’s major festival could be. These are the minds, from Australia and abroad, that met at those first town hall meetings — A Broad and Rowdy Church.

A Broad and Rowdy Church

It’s tempting to look abroad on a journey of musical discovery. But come back here for a second.

As Melbourne’s major festival of the night, we’re giving you a snapshot of the city’s music as it stands right now. RISING’s music team has trawled the city’s crevices and unearthed a selection that speaks to the myriad talents bred in Melbourne’s nooks.

Hit play and you’ll lift the lid on the alternate-reality music box of Time For Dreams’ ‘A World of Your Own’; thrumming bass and keening organ from Sweet Whirl; and a cascading take on ‘70s soul from Karate Boogaloo and Danielle Ponder.

For now, everything your ears need is right here on home soil.

Discover Melbourne’s musical riches-of-the-moment with this genre-jumping set of tracks.

Playlist: A World of Your Own

Australia’s colonial history is often written from a European perspective. Ever since the anchors of the first fleets dropped, and the sovereignty and land of the country’s First Peoples was stolen, migrant stories have been woven into Australia’s concept of itself as a nation.

In this film, you’ll see Melbourne-based visual artist Atong Atem create her ambitious new video work Banksia, which explores the lesser-known history of African settlers.

Banksia, commissioned as part of RISING’s A Call To Artists program, is based on Atem’s research into Australia’s first African migrants — a colonial history that started long before her own family arrived from South Sudan in 1997.

This is a first look at Atem’s vivid new turn to working with the moving image, before Banksia premieres in RISING’s 2021 program.

A first look at the Melbourne-based visual artist’s investigation into Australia’s first African settlers.

In the Making Atong Atem

Melbourne is a city built on the lands of the Kulin Nation peoples; Traditional Owners who continue to maintain deep connections to their country, kin and waterways that have existed for tens of thousands of years.

Along with Victorian Traditional Owners, the place now known as Melbourne is home to many First Peoples from across the country.

The city transforms every day, but beneath the concrete foundations ancient waterways continue to flow. The old gums, scarred with the lines of canoes, stand tall alongside towering skyscrapers, and fresh and salt water continue to meet in estuaries with the moon’s tidal pull.

While the city is changing, country and First Peoples culture is all around us. From the earth to the sky and the stories in the stars, to the built environment, tramways and laneways.

# NITTY GRITTY

We are inviting Victorian Traditional Owners and First Peoples artists to respond to Melbourne and the multiple layers of history, country, diverse community and connections across Victoria.

There will be six trams for the 2021 First Peoples Art Trams Project. The project aims that four trams will be allocated to artists who identify as Traditional Owners of Victoria and two trams to First Peoples who live in Victoria. We encourage artists from both the city and regional Victoria to apply.

Submissions should add positively to the public experience of commuting in Melbourne. Please note that the trams are not a flat canvas, so the initial creative concept should consider that trams are different shapes and sizes. It’s important you consider you design to all the types of tram classes—this will facilitate the tram allocation process.

Please read the Tram Design Considerations and FAQs below for more detailed information on this.

## WHO CAN APPLY?
To be selected as a 2021 Melbourne Art Trams artist:

- You must be a Victorian Traditional Owner 
OR
- First Peoples artist where Victoria is the primary location in which you live and work 
OR
- First Peoples artist whose practice or body of work over the last five years has primarily taken place in Victoria

Artists who submitted an Expression of Interest in previous years but were unsuccessful are encouraged to submit a new idea for 2021.

Artists must have the capacity in the first three weeks of February 2021 to provide final artwork for the project.

## HOW TO APPLY
There are two ways you can submit your artwork of the five (5) tram designs:

- Fill in the form below and upload your artwork and supporting material 
OR
- Email arttrams@rising.melbourne with your artwork as an attachment (please be mindful of file sizes and consider using a file-sharing link ensuring you include any passwords so we can access them). 

You’ll also need to include the following information about yourself:
- full name
- phone number
- language group
- your artwork file + file-sharing password
- an outline of your artwork idea (300 words)
- supporting material to illustrate your idea
- artist bio (300 words)
- website link

Submissions close 6PM, Monday 1 February 2021. 

If you have access requirements that will cause difficulty submitting online, and you need assistance submitting your idea, please call 03 9662 4242, Monday to Friday, between 9AM–5PM. We are only able to respond to accessibility enquiries at this number, for all other queries please askus@rising.melbourne. 

### TRAM DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
- Imagery should not be offensive to the general public

- Be aware that the artwork needs to be appropriate for display on a moving vehicle, most impressions of trams are 3—5 seconds

- Note that there are reflective yellow strips at the base of each door for accessibility

- Artwork graphics are not to be applied on shaded areas on the tram wrap grid, these areas are kept clear for safety. Sections of windows that are covered by the artwork will be printed on a semi-transparent material

- Perforated vinyl is used on windows, at night this becomes more transparent with the interior lights on

- During warm weather the windows will be open, shifting the wrapped element with it

- Artworks which are reflective, predominantly black or which resemble streetscapes would be a road hazard when applied to a tram and will not be able to be selected for safety reasons

- Tram ends should remain visible for safety reasons (avoiding black)

- Designs that include black and dark colours are possible, particularly when featuring high contrast

- Artwork can be different on each side of the tram

- No artwork will be placed on the front/back of the tram 

### DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS 
[Download](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CIU2_wsH4zaCSsQ0-9-LrPp-QHIMeYrd) and apply your designs to the tram templates. Please provide your artwork and supporting material as either .JPG, .PNG, .TIFF, .GIF, or .PDF files and include your name in the file name. Eg. SURNAME_FIRSTNAME_1.jpeg

__No          Class__

Tram 1      A
Tram 2      B
Tram 3      B
Tram 4      C1
Tram 5      D1
Tram 6      D2

Download these [tram templates](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CIU2_wsH4zaCSsQ0-9-LrPp-QHIMeYrd) and place your artwork onto the line drawings of each tram type presented on page two. These Illustrator templates are for the purpose of the EOI application only. A graphic designer will work with you to translate your design into final artwork for the trams.  

If you’re not familiar with using Adobe Illustrator, please provide detailed artwork imagery with indicative examples of what your work would look like on the tram – think colour palette, design and layout. You definitely don’t need to be a graphic design whiz to apply.

## WHO DECIDES?   
Submissions will be assessed by curator and RISING Artistic Associate Kimberley Moulton (Yorta Yorta) and the Melbourne Art Tram Partnership Group comprising representatives of Creative Victoria, Department of Transport, Yarra Trams and RISING. This group will be made up of a majority of First Peoples with additional members to support technical and marketing requirements.

The following criteria applies:

- Strength of the creative vision
- Originality of response to the creative brief
- Technical feasibility
- How the artwork responds to its context (ie. riding the tramlines each day)

## WHAT YOU WILL GET 
Six (6) successful artists will each receive a commission of $10,000AUD for their artwork.

## WHAT HAPPENS   
Successful artists will be notified in early February 2021 and publicly announced soon after.

Selected artists will be allocated a tram type in order to finalise their artwork before it is transferred to the vinyl wrap. The curator and graphic designer will be available to assist artists with this and in digitising work where needed. Artists must be available during this period – first two weeks of February – to complete the project.

Selected artists will then review the digital proofs to ensure that the final product is an accurate and an acceptable rendering of their artwork with the physical vinyl samples reviewed by Yarra Trams and the Melbourne Art Trams curator.

Yarra Trams and the Melbourne Art Trams curator have final decision on tram selection for the selected artists for health and safety and design purposes.

Artwork will then be printed and applied to the trams, culminating in the launch of one of the Melbourne Art Trams to mark the opening of RISING 2021, which artists will be required to attend. Other Art Trams will be released over the following weeks. Trams will be run on the network for 12 months (unless impacted operationally).

RISING, Public Transport Victoria and Creative Victoria invite First Peoples artists to submit artwork ideas for the 2021 Melbourne Art Trams.

FIRST PEOPLES CALL OUT

2021 Melbourne Art Trams

We needed an anthem at the end of 2020 — what was by all accounts a godawful year — something to help us stage dive with full hearts and flailing limbs into 2021. So we asked beloved Melbourne punk rockers Amyl and the Sniffers to join us in raising a middle finger to 2020, as part of our commissioned track series RISING: SINGLES CLUB. Their contribution is one for the ages — a cover of Patrick Hernandez’s disco belter, ‘Born to Be Alive’.

Hernandez’s track went all the way to #1 on the Australian charts in ’79. Allegedly it started out as a hard rock shredder, before morphing into a disco banger, which means Amyl and the Sniffers’ take has come full circle. Kind of like those full moons we’ve been harping on about. This new version’s got lead singer Amy Taylor’s joyous and irrepressible cheek, thundering drums and heavy riffs. It’s a brick through 2020’s window.    

We’re born to be alive. Make it count.  

‘Born to be Alive’ by Amyl and the Sniffers is a RISING: SINGLES CLUB commission. For more full moon tunes subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on Spotify.

Amyl and the Sniffers flip the bird to 2020 with their riotous cover of a 1978 disco belter.

RISING: SINGLES CLUB

Amyl and the Sniffers

There’s no need to harp on about 2020 — we all know it was rough. That’s why we thought it was essential to have a high bpm, high catharsis mix to carry us through to the new year.

To keep the night kicking past 4AM, we asked Naarm-based DJ C.Frim to deliver a mix of sub-bass frequencies, electro, rave and percussion-heavy techno. This one’s for the dedicated party people, who squeeze every current of energy from the night, and run the dancefloor till the wee hours.

Turn it up loud.

A high bpm mix from Naarm-based DJ, C.FRIM. One to shake the shadows and carry you through the night.

IT'S OVAH MIX

C.FRIM

Calling 2020 a rollercoaster would be an understatement. So to match the year’s twists, turns, peaks and troughs, we’ve got this freewheeling mix from Milo Eastwood, host of PBS FM’s The Breakfast Spread.

There’s ‘90s hip-house, vocoder boogie, Latin funk, big-hearted disco and even a kookaburra. These two hours of unbridled musical optimism will reinflate your inner balloon animal and kickstart the new year with a double-shot, positivity cappuccino.

Head out on a genre-jumping audio journey with this mix from PBS FM host Milo Eastwood

I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES MIX

Milo Eastwood

On November 30, 2020, Melbourne’s skies were blessed with a second full moon in a month. In the spirit of rare, celestial, occurrences we decided to give away a super limited run of 100, specially commissioned, artist-designed t-shirts.
During a time in which international travel is limited, we wanted to share our double-moon auspices with our creative friends. So we enlisted local designer — and HTRK band member — Jonnine Standish and Massachusetts-based artist Emma Kohlmann to collaborate on a transcontinental, cotton curiosity, to slip over your torso when the wind is warm and the moon glowing bright.
The design is printed on high-grade, organic cotton, AS Colour t-shirt and to nab one of our blue moon babies, entrants had to finish the following sentence in 25 words or less:
“Once in a blue moon, I…

To celebrate November 2020’s rare, double full moon, we asked artists Jonnine Standish and Emma Kohlmann to collaborate on a special t-shirt as a free gift for you.

GIVEAWAY

Blue Moon T-Shirt

Here’s round two in our series of specially commissioned night-time mood music, RISING: SINGLES CLUB.

This time we’ve enlisted Melbourne dream folk duo Luluc for a release timed with the rare cosmic occurrence of November’s double full moon – and yes, you guessed it, they’re taking on the storied 1934 song ‘Blue Moon’.

Made of band members Zoë Randell and Steve Hassett, Luluc have accumulated some famous fans with their three critically acclaimed albums, including Aaron Dessner of the National, Lucinda Williams and Dinosaur Jnr’s J Mascis. Iconic Seattle label Sub Pop allegedly signed the band 48 hours after hearing the master tapes of their second album Passerby. High praise.

Many icons have tackled the track including Billie Holiday, Dean Martin, Sam Cooke, Cyndi Lauper and even ol’ “Blue Eyes” himself, Frank Sinatra. Luluc have reimagined it as a sonorous soundtrack for a warm summer night. There’s a moseying bassline, Hassett’s gently plucked strings and Randell’s resonant voice rising above the heat of the day.

You know when the clouds part on a warm summer night, letting the moonlight sparkle in your lover’s eyes? It’s just like that, we promise.

Follow RISING on Spotify or subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to hear our next full moon release.

Let the Melbourne dream folk duo, Luluc, serenade you with their sonorous, stripped back cover of ‘Blue Moon’


Luluc

Our program’s still under wraps, but during November's knife-edge, global political moment, we hosted a very special guest: the anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, pro-community, artist, activist and Pussy Riot co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova.

For this live-streamed event, Tolokonnikova was joined by First Nations artist, choreographer and RISING curatorial consultant Amrita Hepi to discuss empowering art and political expression. 

Read the [transcript](https://exhibitionist-rising.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/Wormhole+images/rising-live-conversation-nadya-tolokonnikova-transcript.pdf) of the conversation. Nadya Tolokonnikova in conversation with Amrita Hepi took place on Monday 16 November, 5PM ADST. 

## NADYA TOLOKONNIKOVA

As a member of provocative street art group Voina and the punk-rock feminist performance artists Pussy Riot, Tolokonnikova has been an unwavering challenge to oppressive conservatism, first in her home country Russia and now the world.

Her art and activism saw her imprisoned by the Russian state at the notorious IK-14 penal colony, where Tolokonnikova was forced to long, gruelling days sewing police uniforms, subjected to violence and where she undertook hunger strikes to protest the treatment of herself and her fellow inmates.

Tolokonnikova has now taken her activism global. She has written protest songs in support of the Black Lives Matter movement; and written music and toured with the musical production Riot Days, based on a book of the same name by fellow Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina. In 2018, she released the book Read Riot: A Pussy Riot Guide to Activism, based on Pussy Riot's prison experience and Nadya's advice to fellow activists on how to make effective protest actions. She has also founded an independent Russian news service, MediaZona, and an NGO focused on prison reform and protecting prisoner rights, Zona Prava. Her ongoing work encourages societal change through the sharing of personal narratives, collective protest and community building.

“I believe that only if we unite to protect our interests will we have a chance to win. Because the people with who we are fighting with, people who express racism, violence, are promoting global inequality – those systems are building global alliances all the time” — Nadya Tolokonnikova, Fact Mag 2020 

## AMRITA HEPI

Amrita Hepi is an award-winning First Nations choreographer and dancer from Bundjulung (Aus) and Ngāpuhi (NZ) territories. As well as a RISING curatorial consultant, she is part of the festival’s A Call to Artists program supporting bold new commissions as a panellist.

Hepi ‘s choreographic practices combine dance and movement with visual art, language and participatory research. Although her work can take many forms — from film to performance, sculpture and text, lecture to installation — it always begins with the body as a point of archive, memory, dance and resistance.

The iconic punk activist will join First Nations choreographer and artist Amrita Hepi, for a major livestream event brought to you by RISING.


Live Conversation: Punk Prayers with Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova

One of the most extraordinary flowering curiosities, the RISING music team, lives here, in the lush rainforests of Victoria. Their playlists only flower once a month, on the full moon…

Pull up some grass, crack a tin and tune in.

A flirtatious, frightening and fertile mix for spring, by RISING’s pop pollinators. The bees are buzzing, and you will too.

PLAYLIST: BACK TO THE WOMB

__"Globalization and conceptions of a new world order represent different sorts of challenges for Indigenous peoples. While being on the margins of the world has had dire consequences, being incorporated within the world’s marketplace has different implications and in turn requires the mounting of new forms of resistance.__

Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples 

“Essential” is a defining word of 2020. Since COVID-19 hit Australia earlier this year we’ve been asked to assess what’s essential for our survival; what’s an essential reason to leave home; what’s the essential infrastructure for safe commuting and social interactions. We’ve also been asked to permit essential testing of our bodies and allow essential development of regional landscapes and our Ancient ecologies. For many, this last point, means a non-essential destruction of Country and disrespect of First Peoples.

As we come to understand and control COVID-19, at least in Australia, we continue to battle the enduring disease of racism in society. A pill of denial has been swallowed by powerful factions across the world who, in a collapsing world, refuse to quell the rise of white supremacy and disastrous climate change. People of Colour and First Nations peoples are feeling the full force of this toxic fire fuelled by greed, power and narcissistic charlatans masquerading as leaders.

In our new world we’ve had to consider what’s needed to survive and what must change. Art in diverse forms has saved us this year. Author Benjamin Law summed it up well: “In our most dire hours, art keeps us sane, lights the dark and ensures we stay human”.

It’s through art that we can communicate and explore which actions are vital for the continuation of humanity–actions that go beyond how many toilet rolls we need. I would argue that First Peoples artists, and other communities that have historically been on the margins from the “white centre”, have always made art about what is essential.

In Australia this lineage stretches from the very first Ancestor artists who painted and engraved designs of Country, seasons and kin connections on cultural objects and rock sites, to movements of painting and new media in the regions and the city.

First Peoples art has always been about continuance, resistance, survival and celebrating all that is strong in our cultures, particularly given that this is not our first pandemic. In 2011 the prolific Australian artist and Kamilaroi, Kooma, Jiman and Gurang Gurang man Richard Bell said: “I’m an activist masquerading as an artist”1. The political entwined in art and identity is a common thread across First Peoples’ artistic practice.

This is largely because in a world where we continue to have to fight for representation, for sacred sites on Country, and for identity, our existence is inherently political. It is not to say that all First Peoples in the arts should, or do, make political work, but for many decades, art has been the vessel for essential action and awareness, and it will continue to be.

Two years ago, The New York Times ran the article ‘What Do We Mean When We Call Art Necessary’ that critically looked at the ideology of “necessary art” being widely used by critics, and suggested that descriptor “constrains more than it celebrates” particularly when it comes to marginalised peoples. The author argued that: “What has become truly necessary is stating the obvious: No work of art, no matter how incisive, beautiful, uncomfortable or representative, needs to exist”.  This statement does not consider Indigenous experiences of art making and the multiple layers of politics, self-determination and representation of culture that are, in fact, absolutely necessary.

Now more than ever, it is time to consider how art is crucial to all of us for our health and the empowerment of marginalised peoples. It is also important to reflect on what defines essential art. I have until recently considered it a privilege to be completely neutral in contemporary art making. However, in the “new world order” (that Linda Tuhiwai Smith speaks of, not the conspiracy theory), if you have a platform, to abscond from addressing the world’s diverse realities and intersecting issues is to perpetuate major inequities. Neutrality is a myth and First Peoples do not have the luxury of tapping out of reality in our art making.​

In her essay for the 2018 exhibition Sovereignty at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Wemba Wemba and Gunditjmara artist and academic Paola Balla said: “First Nations artists awaken a sense of responsibility rarely seen in settler art or curatorial work. There is a collective consciousness and obligation, to make work that is, as Toni Morrison wrote ‘at its thrust, yes political but also irrevocably beautiful’”.2

Our voice and our art, in all of their beauty and politics, are essential — now.

RISING’s artistic associate Kimberley Moulton reflects on essential First Peoples art.


Essential Art and the New World Order

Being a voice for change isn’t always a choice. For many people, the personal is political; and communicating that experience is the only way to come up for air.

This mix from RISING music producers Hayley Percy and Paul Gorrie finds empowerment in celebration. There are important messages behind the music for sure, but it’s also just a bass-heavy mix stacked with bangers, that reinforces the party as its own site of protest.

There’s Malyangapa, Barkindji rapper Barkaa’s hilariously brutal takedown of white privilege; Mo’Ju’s monolithic, righteous, ‘Native Tongue’; downbeat meditations from new-era Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rappers Water Streets; skittering jazz-hop from Noname; and Afro-funk, from the inimitable Fela Kuti and Roy Ayres.

Turn it up.

An hour of empowering bangers from hip-hop to Afro-funk, that reinforces the party as its own form of protest.

PLAYLIST: LAND BACK

Destiny Deacon is one of Australia’s boldest and most acclaimed contemporary artists. This November, the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) is holding the largest retrospective of her work to date, DESTINY, featuring more than 100 multi-disciplinary works made over a 30-year period. Before the exhibition opens, NGV and RISING are giving viewers a preview online of one of her seminal works, Home Video.

A descendant of the Kuku and Erub/Mer people from Far North Queensland and Torres Strait, Deacon is internationally known for a body of work depicting her darkly comic, idiosyncratic worldview.

Below you’ll find an excerpt from the book DESTINY: The Art of Destiny Deacon by the National Gallery of Victoria’s Curator of Indigenous Art, Myles Russell-Cook.

*“The character of Delores repeats in a number of Destiny Deacon’s video works, including in her 1987 video collaboration with Lisa Bellear and Tommy Peterson, Home video. As always, Deacon’s performance is manic, intensely funny, and frankly nothing short of comic genius. Delores lacks empathy, and will do anything to avoid making life easier for her co-stars. She uses acerbic, high-energy dialogue to take the piss out of the negative stereotypes that persist about Aboriginal people. How? By becoming the most extreme version of one. In the same way Deacon uses dollies and photographs to reflect and parody the world around her, Delores (the character) exposes uncomfortable stereotypes about Aboriginal people, by presenting an extreme, narcissistic, outrageous and shameful version of herself. 

*In Home Video we see Delores with her son, played by twelve year old Tommy Peterson. The sketch starts with Tommy coming home from school hungry. Eventually Delores smacks Tommy for smoking, and Tommy is taken away and put in a hostel. Delores explains to her friend (played by Lisa Bellear), while down the pub: that “the Government took him away and put him in a hostel full of Abos, [what for?], cos they reckon I am not a good mother and that. They said I’m always in the pub and I’m not looking after him. But he loves the pub”. Eventually the story takes a somewhat Shakespearean turn, and Delores stabs her friend to death with a knife. Now on the run, she breaks into the hostel, reunites with Tommy, and together mother and son raid the safe and escape the city with plans to change their names and move to either Alice Springs or the Murray River.”***

DESTINY opens to the public Tue 23 November at NGV Australia and runs until Mon 14 February, 2021. Entry is free, but registration is required for timed entry. Bookings open Mon 16 November

RISING and NGV co-present a preview of Destiny Deacon’s 1987 work 'Home Video' ahead of her 30-year retrospective exhibition at NGV Australia.

DESTINY DEACON’S 'HOME VIDEO'

With one of the most polarising US elections ever to take place happening this month, not to mention local and state elections happening across Australia, we decided to take a look at how the personal and political are intersecting in 2020.

This insightful piece from The Guardian discusses the work In Plain Sight, in which 80 artists and activists used skywriting planes to spread messages protesting mass incarceration above detention centres, prisons, immigration courts and historically significant sites across the USA on the fourth of July — otherwise known as Independence Day.

In Plain Sight was founded by the Canadian artist Cassils, and the American artist rafa esparza. Both artists have used their own bodies’ politics in their work. Esparza’s recent work bust: indestructible columns Act II, 2019, involved the self-identifying brown and queer artist chiselling himself out of a concrete column in front of the White House. And Cassils, a transgender person, uses their own body as a sculptural material by employing performance and bodybuilding to challenge visual gender stereotypes.

But with In Plain Sight Cassils and esparza draw attention to the bodies of the incarcerated and detained — people whose bodies are restricted, chained and profited from — to question the meaning of liberty and independence, while working to immigrant detention and the culture of incarceration.

[READ NOW](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jul/07/in-plain-sight-skywriting-project-targets-us-culture-of-incarceration-we-have-a-brief-moment-of-clarity)

A deep dive from The Guardian on 'In Plain Sight' — an artwork that saw anti-mass incarceration messages flown over dozens of US cities, courts and detention centres.

In Plain Sight, Cassils and rafa esparza

Art and artists are in a precarious place. But with help they have the power to regenerate, mutate and overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

In this submission for RISING’s A Call To Artists (ACTA) program, theatre-maker David Woods imagines work on a gigantic, mud-drenched scale. It’s Heironymus Bosch meets infected cruise ships, for a 9-hour performance reclaiming culture, justice and democracy.

RISING launched its ACTA program as a response to the pandemic. We asked for bold ideas that can begin work now. From more 1100 applications we have seed-funded 101 concepts and 22 creative developments.

In his A Call To Artists submission video, David Woods imagines mud-drenched chaos on a massive scale.

DAVID WOODS ANSWERS THE CALL

Want to be a part of the making of a new tradition for Melbourne? What a coincidence, that’s what we’re doing – and we need your help. Complete this 5-min survey and we’ll be in touch.

For a more accessible, cream version of the survey, [head here](https://risingmelbourne.typeform.com/to/IFndXvWs).

### [Volunteer](https://form.typeform.com/to/bWFTcBIu?typeform-embed=embed-widget&typeform-source=rising.melbourne&typeform-medium=embed-sdk&typeform-embed-id=49432)

If you're a maker of things or even just enthusiastic, we want to hear from you.

CALLING ALL SPACE CADETS

__Who are you and what do you do?__

I am a curator writer and proud Yorta Yorta woman, originally from Shepparton in country Victoria. I come from a family of creatives, educators, and political activists. 

Recently I joined RISING as Artistic Associate, along with continuing my role as Senior Curator South Eastern Aboriginal Collections at Museums Victoria. 

__How did you get into this art business?__

I write a lot. My cousin, Uncle Wayne, taught me to use "the spear of the pen", to use our voice to create change, inspire and remember. My Dad taught me the importance of healing and cultural strength through art, so it's very much a part of who I am.

I think that's where I developed a sensibility around curating, as it's really storytelling; interpreting histories and seeing the potential in what the artist or object can express and creating an experience around that.

I am passionate about supporting First Peoples cultures from Australia and the world and interested in anti-colonial curatorial methodology and First Nations representation in spaces like museums and galleries and platforms like festivals.

__What has been your career journey as a curator?__

In my practice I work with knowledges, histories, and futures at the intersection of historical collections and contemporary art and making.

I have worked in curatorial roles at Melbourne Museum for over ten years working with the Victorian Aboriginal community and the collections. In 2018, I was the museums lead curator for [Mandela: My Life](https://museumsvictoria.com.au/media-releases/mandela-my-life-the-official-exhibition-opens-at-melbourne-museum/), an exhibition on Nelson Mandela at Melbourne Museum in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation and IEC exhibitions.

Over the last ten years I have critically engaged through fellowships and curatorial projects with collections, archives and contemporary art discourse across Australia, Europe, United Kingdom and North America and have independently curated shows in various art museums across Australia and the USA.

__What interests you about RISING?__

The potential of the multiple layers of story, theme and connection to place is what excited me when I first began discussing RISING with co-artistic directors, Hannah Fox and Gideon Obarzanek, and their team.

The artistic vision they shared inspired me and having been a part of the A Call To Artists (ACTA) process, I got a sense of the rigour in their work and refreshing creative projects that will provide Melbourne and local artists meaningful experiences.

The artists that came through the ACTA process are seriously amazing. It's a privilege to be able to sit and read through applications and talk with creatives at the seed planting stage of ideas.

__What drew you to joining the RISING team?__

What drew me to work with RISING was the commitment to challenging the status quo of curatorial models and power dynamics.

It's a curatorium of brilliant minds working to properly embed First Peoples creatives into the festival. There is respect for the knowledge and Sovereignty of the lands they work on, and the community they work with, across the team, which is really encouraging.

I was also really drawn to the thematic approach and its links to our cosmologies, the lunar motions of cycles, and regenerative experiences that have an incredible sense of togetherness.

Right now, art like this is so important. It nourishes us; it takes care of us and calls to account the rubbish behaviour in society. We need all of that more than ever.

An introduction to RISING'S new artistic associate, Kimberley Moulton.

RISING: PEOPLE KIMBERLEY MOULTON Q&A

October’s full moon marks the beginning of the Mid-Autumn Festival – well, spring for us Downunder – a special time for family gathering, thanksgiving, prayer and moon worship.

Mooncakes represent the moon and are the signature dish of the festival, symbolising harmony and longevity. RISING invited Kay-Lene Tan, Coda and Tonka’s Executive Pastry Chef, and visual artist Jason Phu (part of RISING’s Call to Artists) to reinterpret the mooncake of their childhood.

Jason and Kay-Lene came up with a modern take on a mooncake designed as a lotus flower, a symbol of hope for the times we find ourselves in.

The mooncake’s flavours are a mixture of Jason and Kay-Lene’s childhood memories, smoked and salted egg yolk, matcha and red bean mousses and some creative license.

Mooncakes are everywhere right now. But not like this.
Kay-Lene Tan, executive pastry chef at Tonka and Coda, and visual artist Jason Phu collaborated on an update on the signature dish.

RISING: COOKED MOONCAKE MEMORIES

RISING: SINGLES CLUB is our monthly full moon release of lunar-themed tunes. A series of specially commissioned, celestial space jams, from some of our favourite musicians.

SINGLES CLUB kicks off with retro-futuristic psych-pop duo The Green Child and their majestic cover of Canned Heat’s Poor Moon.

Conceived and created during Victoria’s infamous lockdowns, the cover was recorded by Mikey Young of Eddy Current Suppression Ring and Total Control and Raven Mahon of Grass Widow, in their beachy basement studio in the seaside town of Rye. It’s the duo’s first release since 2018.

Originally released by Liberty Records in 1969, ‘Poor Moon’ made an appearance on Canned Heat’s Hallelujah record as a bonus track. Young and Mahon’s take is a synth-pop sojourn to a dreamy, dark future.

With the music industry currently at a standstill, SINGLES CLUB is one way we're supporting artists – alongside the commission, artists will also retain 100% of the music rights. 

Follow RISING on Spotify or subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to hear our next full moon release.

The Green Child’s Mikey Young and Raven Mahon, wrangle cosmic spring grooves for their cover of Canned Heat’s ‘Poor Moon’.

RISING: SINGLES CLUB THE GREEN CHILD

The jasmine’s blooming right now. Grab a big bunch and rub it all over yourself. Stuff it inside your face mask and let its perfume overwhelm you. Rub it on your neck and other places, so that its delicate pink petals get stuck in your pubic hair. It’s a natural aphrodisiac that stuff. Its smell is winter saying goodbye, to be replaced by pungent, sticky new life.

As Melbourne’s newest cultural propagator, we’re flying through flirty October air, experimenting with intoxicating fertility, mating rituals, blossoming art and regenerative lunar cycles. We’re pollinating the plot in preparation for our inaugural festival in May 2021.

Art and nature swell with new life, sights, smells, tastes and textures. When spring springs, erogenous zones get their first kiss of fresh air in months, and it’s even warm enough to let your skin taste the moonlight. Vibrations start humming through bodies—like the tiny male peacock spiders who’re currently performing elaborate, spring courtship dances in this time of peak-horniness.

One particularly rare peacock spider named after the stars, maratus constellatus, is found among the vast orange rocks of Kalbarri, Western Australia. Its mesmerising arse is covered in iridescent purple, indigo and yellow scales—which it likely uses to attract a mate—and bears a striking resemblance to Vincent Van Gogh’s painting The Starry Night. The unlucky-in-love artist considered the painting a failure, which is sad really, because had he the confidence of maratus constellatus, he might have found a mate, too.

New love is hard won right now—if you’re not a spider. It’s hard to feel the spark when romance is confined to dating apps, or chaste walks in overlapping parks. The intimate vision of Patricia Piccinini’s bedsheet-wrapped hybrid lovers is out of reach for many.

Creators are struggling too, particularly in Melbourne. Audiences have been placed under forced hibernation in their homes through winter. For some it’s been hard to spend money on a livestream when you’re longing for a mosh pit or just don’t have any to spare. To make matters worse, federal government stimulus packages have left many artists without the wherewithal to let their fresh buds bloom. And changing restrictions mean that planning album tours, theatre or exhibitions (and yes, festivals) feels almost impossible.

But as Sun Ra said: “The possible has been tried and failed. Now it’s time to try the impossible.”

Inspiring words there from the celestial jazz voyager. Life started with a Big Bang after all, in a pressure point of infinite creation that connects us across eons and oceans. As you read this, the Zhuang people in southern China are eating Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes while staring up at a pregnant moon, soon to become crescent again after giving birth to more stars. From chaos comes creation — and cakes.

Art has been dormant, but with help it will regenerate. Even when they’re buried in a slurry of wintry mud and ice, artists can’t help but incubate their ideas. Tendrils are starting to rise from our Call To Artists program, in which we asked Victorian artists for bold ideas that can start growing now. From more than 1100 submissions we’ve seed-funded 102 concepts and 22 creative developments, that have already started sprouting through the topsoil.

Here’s the thing: art wants to grow, twist and spread its vines. It’s a lusty beast that wants to sweat, mount and convulse. We know there’s signs of life in these chaotic, fertile grounds. Its heart’s beating away in the golden yolk of the eternal cosmic egg.

So we’re here, ready to usher it into the world, where it will unfurl like a blossoming moonflower at dusk.

Art's a lusty beast.
It may have been dormant, but this spring we're helping it regenerate.

SWOONING MOON, SPRING PERFUME

After the sun goes down hit play on this this playlist, put together by RISING’s music muscle. It’s a top to bottom exploration of the night and what moves within it.

You’ll find a neon-hued Simon & Garfunkel cover, synth soundscapes from masterful horror director and film composer John Carpenter, ‘80s Milky New Way-ve from Midnight Man, horizontal dub from Midnight Tenderness and electro heartache by way of the river Nile from The Egyptian Lover.

Sleep is not an option.

An after-dark soundtrack of neon reveries, horror synths and dark club anthems.

PLAYLIST: SUNGLASSES AFTER DARK

Sometimes the mind’s active with waking dreams and sleep just won’t come. Or maybe you work in the shadows—the cover of dark is necessary for some. Call The Nightline to tell your story.

The Nightline is a creative audio project by acclaimed audio-theatre maker Roslyn Oades and sound artist Bob Scott about the city at night, built around the voices of its sleepless residents.

Shift workers, insomniacs, night owls and dreamers are invited to call The Nightline to share stories about what keeps them up at night. 

To share your night tale, call or send a recorded voice memo to 0457 910 843 between midnight–6AM.

The Nightline is supported by RISING.

If you’re an insomniac, night owl or dreamer, acclaimed audio-theatre maker, Roslyn Oades wants to hear what keeps you up at night.


The Nightline

For our first episode we checked in with Richmond institution [Jinda Thai](http://jindathai.com.au/). Filmed during hard lockdown, they used iPads supplied by RISING to film the rituals bonding the family-run business in times of hardship during the pandemic; and the authentic, comforting, generation-spanning recipes the Thai diner has built its following on.

In the clip, Jinda Thai co-owner Premika Tanpapat tells us about Jinda’s pork noodle soup, that uses a decades-old recipe conceived at her grandmother’s noodle shop in Bangkok. Watch the video then go order one for yourself.

RISING: COOKED is our series unearthing the rituals, tastes and culture of Melbourne’s treasured dining scene.

Family and Ritual at Jinda Thai

RISING: COOKED Family and Ritual at Jinda Thai

In this episode of his Wireless Nights podcast, Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker leads you through his show’s archives to find moments of relief from isolation.

Listen for a Robert Frost poem about the loneliness and expansiveness of the night; tales from a tiny, dark, electricity-free island; an account of getting snowed in at a pub for weeks on end; and meet a man that sends radio signals to the moon.

[LISTEN NOW](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000jfzq)

Be soothed by Jarvis as he potters around his home and shares his favourite stories of isolation and endurance.


Jarvis Cocker’s Wireless Nights

When you step outside after nightfall, there’s a moment in which your constricted pupils fail you and the other senses are heightened. Night time’s possibilities start to coalesce around mysteries and myth. It watches as we work up sweats of lust and abandon, try on new disguises, or remove the ones shielding our true identities. So given RISING’s a festival of the night in a 24-hour city, for the month of September, we’re investigating the night’s shadows.

The dark of night is precious, but increasingly its possibilities are endangered by the creep of light. Right now, in the City of Melbourne, at least 3700 streetlights fitted with smart LED bulbs buzz and illuminate our empty sidewalks. Their stray light particles shoot into the sky and scatter, obscuring the galaxy stretching beyond Earth’s atmosphere.

In built up cities across the globe, light pollution’s persistent glow disrupts the flight paths and mating patterns of nocturnal animals. It’s conceivable that some people living under its net will never in their lives see unadulterated stars; and with so many stories told in the night sky, it can even distort history.

On a clear night, bright constellations like the Southern Cross wink through the light pollution. Early European explorers viewed the Cross through a lens of ancient-Greek celestial traditions, focused almost exclusively on stars. But First Peoples astronomy pays attention to the dark nebulae between the stars too.

There’s a patch of dust and gas in the Milky Way where the Wotjobaluk people of western Victoria believe the menacing emu Tchingal was killed. The emu’s feathered head rests just next to the Southern Cross but can’t be seen through Melbourne’s lights. As the Earth rotates and the Milky Way seemingly moves across the sky, Tchingal is seen in a standing pose and on its side, symbolising its journey from life to death. Rather than a simple series of static motifs, Tchingal’s story is a real-world animatic.

When electric lights obscure the sky’s deepest blacks, a creation story involving white men in boats with telescopes is amplified. But another, involving a massive flightless bird that feasts on the flesh of humans and created Roses Gap in the Grampians, with the furious stomp of its feet, is muffled.

Other First Nations people have stories about, and different names for, the emu too. For thousands of years, it has helped the Wiradjuri people of central New South Wales to locate home and friends; and chart passing time, seasonal changes and the behaviour of wildlife. People everywhere overlay their stories onto the night sky. The Pleiades star cluster is significant to the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation as well as people from Aotearoa/New Zealand, India, Japan and more. To know a clear night is to know your neighbour.

Melbourne’s 8pm curfew means that the night’s riches are only available to a few permitted workers right now. But if you can, try to look past the living room lights and city glow. Picture the night’s deepest black, and all the subversion, exploration and experimentation it holds. It’s a cloak woven thick with histories, characters and yet-to-be-discovered futures.

We’ll wrap you in it again soon.

Investigate the night’s shadows with us. Hidden stories, nourishment and subversion await.

Brightest Light, Blackest Night

The 15-minute video collage is part of an irrepressible dancefloor continuum. It traces a hedonistic timeline across UK dancefloors, from the speed-fuelled ‘70s Northern Soul scene, to MDMA-charged raves in the ‘90s. But its influence has stretched beyond the art gallery and the internet to inspire new forms of dance music, too.​ 

The clip’s Kraftwerk-sampling audio has itself been heavily sampled — most notably by Jamie XX on his 2014 track [‘All Under One Roof Raving’](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk28cgCG3Ho&ab_channel=Jamiexx). ​

Twenty years on since Fiorucci, Turner Prize-winning Leckey h[eld a major exhibition at the Tate Britain](https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/mark-leckey) — featuring a life-sized motorway underpass — and continues to host a characteristically dense, genre-jumping, monthly show on [NTS Radio](https://www.nts.live/shows/mark-leckey)

In 1999, video and sound artist Mark Leckey believed the music video was the era’s most vital artform. His response: Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore.


Mark Leckey’s Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore

In this essay for The New Yorker, writer Paul Elie describes how 2020 was a year typified by crowds: from protesters gathering in their tens of thousands, to presidential rallies to lines of people waiting at food banks.

Elie also says it was a year which showed the injustices that can occur when law enforcement treat citizens as members of a group or crowd rather than individuals with rights and emotions. He describes how racist US city planning gave space to white people in the suburbs while forcing black Americans to crowd together in public housing projects.

He also explores how an economy that relied on crowds to make its airlines profitable and its sports stadiums full, has been decimated by a global pandemic, allowing crowds to channel their energy into protest movements like Black Lives Matter.

Elie asks more questions than he answers, but his writing provides a moment to reflect on what’s been missing this year and something we can take for granted — the ability of crowds to reshape the world.

[READ NOW](https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-present-belongs-to-crowds)

A reflection on how the pandemic has put a halt on crowds’ profit-making power, paving the way for them to reclaim political power.


The Present Belongs to Crowds

When we first shared this podcast from The Guardian journalist Dan Hancox in August 2020, Melbourne was a month into its second lockdown of the pandemic. With the city under curfew, shops shuttered and public gatherings heavily restricted, we decided to examine what was missing — mass gatherings.  

In the podcast, Hancox suggests that historically crowds are sometimes dangerous, but resilient and hard to disperse, too. He recounts the emotion he felt hearing Scottish soccer fans singing in unison and how he misses festivals like the Notting Hill Carnival. Nonetheless, Hancox says that a history of congregation stretching back to 13,000-year-old, “conga line” cave paintings will inevitably return.

[LISTEN NOW](https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2020/jun/26/the-power-of-crowds-podcast)

In this podcast, The Guardian’s Dan Hancox tracks a 13,000-year history of congregation that suggests the power of crowds is hard to resist.

The Power of Crowds

In August 2020, Melbourne was heading into its second pandemic lockdown. We felt it was a time to remember the power of crowds and what it means when they’re absent. We wanted to remember beach throngs of sun-bronzed bodies, the thrashing front row of rock concerts, the ruffle of club kids’ costumed plumage at parties, and the bellow of thousands at sporting events.

In this playlist from RISING’s music team, you’ll find football chant funk and World Cup anthems, from the Barmy Army and New Order; frantic electro-dub from Vanessa Worm, whose track ‘Satisfaction’ moves with the swirling ebb and flow of the dance floor; and stirring cinematic grandeur from Ennio Morricone.

We’ll come together soon.

Crowds are a sea of emotion and experience; individuals making up a collective consciousness. This eclectic playlist embraces the movement, chaos and exultation that coalesces when people come together in unison.


PLAYLIST: FAR FROM THE MADDENING CROWD

Climb aboard our moon module, we’re taking you away to the big silver rock that lights up the night.

In this moon-themed playlist by RISING’s music team you’ll hear bubbling electronics by Japanese pop god Haruomi Hosono; iconic folk guitars from Nick Drake and Neil Young; and midnight blues from Howlin’ Wolf.

Disengage from gravity, kick up some lunar dust and float away — the trip’s on us.

Wormhole

The Rivers Sing : Opening at the TarraWarra Biennial 2021

Gregor and Sweet Whirl: RISING: Singles Club