We’re excited to announce our first 2019 Temperance Hall Resident Artist, Geoffrey Watson!
Temperance Hall offers two Resident Artist positions annually to Australian choreographers or artists working in performance and interdisciplinary fields of practice. As the first Resident Artist for 2019, Geoffrey Watson will spend the residency creating a body of photographic, design, performance and sculptural works exploring his current interest in muddying the waters between art forms, documentation, and dissemination.
The project for Geoffrey's residency was motivated by the photo-documentation of Reverse Jayne; a performance which never actually occurred, but which Geoffrey, photographer Ashley Mclellan, and 'performers' Nasim Patel, Luke Fryer, Rachael Wisby and Luigi Vescio staged as though it had. This took place because Geoffrey was applying for an important professional opportunity, and, not having enough documented work to officially qualify him for this opportunity, he was forced to fake some.
The fact that the goal of Reverse Jayne's imagery was to appeal to a panel meant that the issue of superficiality—which often accompanies image-centred work—was mitigated by the utilitarian need to lie. This is the kind of attention that Geoffrey will be bringing to the development of Reverse Jayne into a real body of work.
Temperance Hall Resident Artists receive up to 100 hours of in-kind space to help develop their artistic ideas and practice, ongoing mentoring support from the Artistic Director and Executive Producer, office space and facilities, and we also encourage the resident artist to join the company’s Artistic Subcommittee (a branch of the Phillip Adams BalletLab Board).
Feature image courtesy of Geoffrey Watson.
Images above: Nasim Patel, Luke Fryer and Rachael Wisby; Nasim Patel and Rachael Wisby. Photography by Geoffrey Watson and Ashley Mclellan
Geoffrey Watson is an experimental artist based in Melbourne. His work is rooted in dance but has branches in wearable design, text, music and sculpture. Geoffrey advocates for an advanced state of confundity in the already confusing landscapes of art, desire, performance and the stubborn mindbody.
Geoffrey's choreographic work includes: Camel (Next Wave Festival 2016) and Camel Extracts (Saatchi Other Art Fair 2017), Loving You Ad Nauseam (Melbourne Fringe 2016), DISTRACTION: T.C. is Dead Meat (Counihan Gallery, 2017) DISTRACTION: Smackdown (Melbourne Fashion Week 2017), and The Reverse Jayne (Temperance Hall, 2018).
Geoffrey creates fashion, costume and wearable art under the label GEOFFREY GEOFFREY GEOFFREY; Йебем ти Бога с неба. This work has featured in exhibitions at Virgin Australia Fashion Festival, Melbourne Fashion Week, and in performances by choreographers including Phillip Adams, Lilian Steiner, Nana Biluš Abaffy and Brooke Stamp.
Geoffrey works regularly with choreographers Nana Biluš Abaffy and Phillip Adams (BalletLab), and has also performed in works by artists and companies including Hermann Nitsch, Lee Serle, Natalie Abbott, Gekidan Kaitaisha (Tokyo), and The Australian Ballet.
Image above: Luke Fryer. Photography by Geoffrey Watson and Ashley Mclellan