Perth Voice Interactive

With 2024 drawing to a close, the Voice takes a look back at some of the most interesting arts stories we covered over the past 12 months.

One of the most memorable collaborations was between award-winning poet JOHN KINSELLA and Perth sound artist SIMON CHARLES, who created an eerie and poignant homage to the York suspension bridge.

The first of its kind in WA, the footbridge was built in 1888 to connect the small rural town of York with the Holy Trinity Church on the other side of the river.

In a bold spoken-word performance, Kinsella reflected on the bridge’s colourful past and the environmental impact of colonisation.

His trademark delivery was accompanied by a strange brew of ambient noises captured by Charles on and around the bridge.

The sound artist attached a microphone to the bridge’s structure to record its vibrations and resonance, and even plonked a special mic (hydrophone) in the murky Avon River to capture aquatic sounds.

In August the Voice ran a feature on the little-known GOTHAM STUDIOS, which is actually one of WA’s longest running artist-run initiatives.

Situated on James Street in the heart of Perth, it’s essentially a working space for artists in the inner-city.

It sounds like something that should be common place, but with more and more CBD buildings converted into trendy flats, cafes and small bars, affordable studio space in the city is dwindling at an alarming rate.

Located on the first and second floors of the old NSW Bank Chambers, the studios were opened in 1987 during a period of gentrification and “urban renewal” of the CBD, which left many art collectives homeless.

Since then it has gone from strength-to-strength and has been an incubator for hundreds of visual artists including Jo Darbyshire, Richard Gunning, Theo Costantino, Nathan Beard and Andrew Nicholls.

The Chook loves a bit of jazz and we featured several performers, but one of the most memorable was GEMMA FARRELL playing the EWI (pronounced EE-wee) an obscure electronic wind instrument invented by American Nyle Steiner in the 1980s.

In lesser hands it could sound like a cheap Bontempi keyboard with flat batteries, but thankfully jazz maestro Farrell made it sing on her album Electronic.

She dabbled with the instrument while studying her master’s at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in 2010, but it wasn’t until she did her Phd at WAAPA and learned how to use synths, that she really got into the novel instrument and felt comfortable improvising on it.

Original EWIs from the 1980s are pretty hard to find these days, but thanks to the wonders of 3D printing, the instrument could be poised for a comeback.

Keeping with the jazz theme, in May there was a great retrospective photo exhibition about THE ELLINGTON to mark its 15th birthday.

It featured some of the best photographs taken at the Perth jazz club since it opened in 2009, and was curated by photographer Angelyne Wolfe.

She was the partner of jazz pianist Graham Wood when he setup the Ellington, and Wolfe took photos at the club during its tumultuous early years when it was flying by the seat of its pants and making up the rules as it went along.

Sadly Wood died in 2017 after a long battle with cancer, aged 46, and The Ellington became a bit rudderless.

But in April 2023, Zoe Jay and Travis Simmons took over the club and it’s back on track with a new programme and fresh approach.

Another musical highlight was avant-garde Perth ensemble DECIBEL playing a special concert to mark the 30th anniversary of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

At the PICA gig, Decibel reworked some of the movie’s classic themes and played new pieces inspired by the original Twin Peaks TV series.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK