VIEWING an exhibition sans art is like finding a drop of water in a river. But artist/musician Mei Saraswati has more than a drop of talent and conjures image of water with evocative music as part of the mixed medium exhibition Radical Ecologies opening soon at PICA. Her contribution has no images, sculptures or paintings:…

COMEDY film-makers give their take on the serious side of life in this year’s Over the Fence Comedy Festival. In its 18th year the festival strives for “excellent” films that change the way we view the world, organiser Greg Coffey says. “We say ‘you can say anything with an excellent sense of humour’.” Two-day festival…

SOPRANO Penny Shaw and Divalicious colleague Fiona Cooper Smyth will grace the Sydney Opera House later this month, but not before a warm-up at humble John Curtin College of the Arts in Fremantle. With voices powerful enough to shatter chandeliers Shaw and Cooper Smyth belt out a mix of opera and pop in their show…

THEMES of beauty and greed are woven together in the world premier of Perth-born playwright Nathaniel Moncrieff’s A Perfect Specimen at the State Theatre. It’s the true story of Julia Pastrana, who was born covered in thick black hair, due to hypertrichosis. Tragically deformed by a secondary disease — gingival hyperplasia — which caused a…

ASH GRUNWALD has one the most prolific and successful blues career in Australian music history, and been at the forefront of the music scene for more than 12 years. But his natural talent wasn’t nurtured in a music conservatory; guitar lessons were those at school. His teacher encouraged him to stretch himself with other music…

PLAYWRIGHT James Taylor wasn’t planning on starting up a theatre company when he applied to put on a “no-frills, scaled-back version” of his play Hobo at Fringe last year. Asked for the production company name, he was caught on the hop and the first thing that came to mind was his cat: “Jeffrey is a…

PINOCCHIO’S, Hannibal’s and Gobbles were the in-places for Perth clubbers in the 70s and 80s. Now a local couple wants to reignite the dance fever feeling. Judy and Con Paioff’s son Alex runs Jack Rabbit Slims, one of the new up-market breed of clubs. Ms Paioff says her son rolled his eyes in an “embarrassing…

PLAYING professional baseball was Claire Chase’s dream growing up in sun-drenched California. That was until she discovered the flute, and at just 14 years old she was playing with the San Diego Symphony instead. Now 38, she’s embarked on an ambitious project to commission a new flute solo every year until 2036, marking the 100th…

“What’s love but a second-hand emotion,” Tina Turner belted out on her way to the top of the charts in 1984. It’s a question a troupe of former WAAPA students explore in their collaborative play What’s Love Got To Do With It, currently playing at the Blue Room in Northbridge. There’s a dark vein in…

FORMER WA street artist Brolga has found himself in the limelight after one of his murals was co-opted by fans of Muhammad Ali to mourn the boxing champion’s death. The graphic designer who now lives in Brooklyn, painted a large mural of the boxing legend on a wall next to famed pizza joint Joe’s Pizza…