kimberleybianca

Azured Vault was a series of improvised public performances, live projections and community art held during Surfers Paradise Festival on the Gold Coast, Australia.

The Gold Coast is not known for its culture. In my call out to the community asking what people would like to see valued more in the region, most replied with more culture. Surfers Paradise Festival is one major attempt at this; yet it is fuelled with cooperate sponsorship and ulterior motives. Negotiating a series of improvised public performances and projections at major tourist landmarks was a difficult procedure, however I had recently received Australia Council For The Arts funding ArtStart, and further received local council funding for the project STARBURST to host the performances. This convinced the festivals’ CEO.

The longest I have lived anywhere in the world is the Gold Coast, for eight years. This is my closest connection to a “home”, and I wanted to do something memorable with the community before I decided to move on.

I made a call out for collaborators via social media, a council forum and the local newspaper. Out of the selection I had known two musicians and the others came from all over the Gold Coast. None of them knew each other and this was a very exciting aspect. The photographer/videographer and make-up artist were also considered as collaborators.
I facilitated and directed the entire program, allowing much creative input from the collaborators. Everyone received a fee from the STARBURST budget.

The musical aspects of the performance were improvised and improved in coordination and harmony over the three, two-hour situational performances.
I performed the vocals and video using sources of the communities’ submitted imagery and text about the Gold Coast.

The festival then asked me if I would like to do some mobile projections, so I used a similar process as the visuals for the performances and was able to beam onto interesting landmarks. Shortly after I was also able to make a video installation using the material in the shopfront of the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Art in Brisbane, Australia.

The project concluded with a DVD. The DVD was produced during my residency in Tallinn, where I learnt to use an old newspaper-printing machine to make the cover.