Known for his fusion of Asian tradition with Australian ease, Akira Isogawa is one of our country’s most loved and celebrated fashion designers. This exhibition is the first to explore his career of more than 25 years, revealing the background, impulses and cultural influences that have contributed to the making of a fashion original. Produced/edited by Philippe Charluet, the 10 min film showcased three dance works, created by Graeme Murphy, for which Akira designed the costumes and was projected on a loop as part of this amazing array of fashion design displayed.

Quotes:

“As a designer I want to make things that are emotionally or spiritually connected to people”
Akira Isogawa

“Give the man poetry and he’ll give it back to you in fabric”
Graeme Murphy AO

Exhibition Review

Featured video: iPhone shot by Roger Leong (22 sec-silent)

Video Tab above:
MAAS Exhibition Film (SILENT as interviews’ sound was heard within exhibition)
Micro-Doco screened within exhibition  (on the making of Romeo & Juliet costumes)
ELLIPSE (also designed by Akira but not in exhibit)
GRAND (with music)
MOURNED BY THE WIND (a section of ‘Air & Other Invisible Forces’ with music)

This short film features excerpts from the play powerfuly interpreted by Marco Chiappi in the role, which was originally perfomed by the late Lewis Fiander. All these media – the powerful writing, the stirring artwork, the performance and the B&W photographs of Lewis Fiander (by Jeff Busby) – combine into a moving short film directed, filmed and edited by Philippe Charluet, which forms part of and is screened within Catherine’s exhibition titled ‘…of script and facture…’ which was shown at the Fortyfivedownstairs gallery in Melbourne CBD in late 2018.

“And once so far into the night that no dawn seemed possible I thought I heard him cry out for me, or for some other, lost for something, at least beyond his small grasp, his blind grasp and in his cry there seemed to be a kind of light …

… all the entire world was sudden reduced to that sound, I thought I heard

And the whole earth illuminated”  — play excerpt written by Daniel Keene

In memory of Lewis Fiander
“My friend Lewis Fiander performed this play as part of the early 2000s Keene-Taylor project. I was particularly taken by the script and decided to work with it in collaboration with my own artwork.”  — Catherine Bainbridge

Featured video: 1 min Preview

Video Tab above: the full short film

The Book of Revelation in the Christian Bible has been a fascinating source of inspiration for artists. The Tapestry of Light is a giant illuminated tapestry, spread across 14 panels, 36 metres long by 3 metres high, made from glowing fibres of threads and light especially constructed, using nanoparticle technology developed by Professor David Mainwaring.

Nearly 20 years in focused development and existing somewhere between art, science and design, the completed artwork is an extraordinary illuminated full-visual interpretation of John’s Apocalypse in tapestry form in over 500 years (re-imagining the medieval Angers Tapestries of the Apocalypse), and the first known to be by a woman!

The exhibition The Tapestry of Light: A 21st-Century Apocalypse is currently on at the Museum of the Bible in Washington until 01/01/2020 where our short film is showing on a loop within.

Past Brussel exhibition

Featured video: Short excerpt (1 min)

Video Tab above:
Our documentary excerpt 
Walk-thru of the exhibition (from the Museum of the Bible)

As well as this, documentary footage was filmed following the intense rehearsal period of many weeks where past works were taught to a new generation of dancers, including Sheherazade (a piece that Graeme with his wife and artistic partner, Janet Vernon, not only created 40 years ago but also danced in 1979), Air and Other Invisible Forces, Grand and Ellipse… a fascinating process of reconstruction which presented a lot of challenges, nostalgia and emotions for all involved.

We also provided footage from the original works we filmed over the years (Sheherazade, Air and Other Invisible Forces, Grand and Ellipse) for The Australian Ballet’s online promotion.

A film montage of Graeme Murphy’s lifetime work was also created, projected on a loop within the Australian Performing Arts Collection’s exhibition, Glimpses, at the Arts Centre Melbourne (see photo in Photo Gallery), then during the subsequent Sydney’s season at the Sydney Opera House.

Review

Front video: Opening clip which was projected over the whole stage

Videos Tab above:
Trailer featuring MURPHY rehearsals’ glimpses
Film montage of Graeme Murphy’s lifetime work (8 min)
GRAND, a sample of TAB MURPHY online promotion with provided footage
ELLIPSE, another sample of online promotion with provided footage

“The challenges were multiple: select illuminated manuscripts that reflected both the journey undertaken by the exhibition’s visitors and that were specific to the chosen poems; select poems, find their correct english translations and retranslate them accordingly into Persian; find a Persian poetry reader; find talented Persian musicians and singers, and compose original music and songs reflecting the chosen poetry; select already composed tracks; film musicians to mix with images of illuminated manuscript – and all of this in line with the curators’ narrative…”
Philippe Charluet – Filmmaker and Music Director

TAASA Review(see article, DISCOVERING PERSIAN MUSIC)

Videos Tab Above: 5 x Persian poetry reading clips (in English)

GALLERY

Various film segments created by Philippe Charluet (originated on B&W 16 mm & Super 8). These are projected within and over the whole sets of this Australian Ballet’s production, choreographed by Graeme Murphy (originally created in 1992 and restaged in 2002, 2009 & 2017 – segments filmed in 1992 & 2002). The story is set on a hot Melbourne Christmas Eve in late 1950s. Clara is not a child but a frail ex-ballerina, reliving her rich and eventful life in one night of feverish dreams.

Front video: sets the start of the Russian revolution – our bolsheviks are now portrayed as rats and our heroin (all Australian Ballet’s artists) is weaved within Siegei Eisenstein’s Oktiabr, which, incredibly!, was filmed nearly 100 years ago.  Note how well the Melbourne National Theatre match the Russian palace in the film.

Videos Tab above: One excerpt where other film components were used

TAB Blog |  Review |  Review II

Performed in 1990 at the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, Australian National Gallery, Seymour Centre Sydney, Caracas International Theatre Festival (1992)

Creator/play director/designer
Kim Carpenter

Filmmaker
Philippe Charluet

Cast
Norman Kaye as Lloyd Rees
Christine Mahoney as Marjory Rees
Kate Champion as the Ghost bride

The second Act has also a film projection but a more abstract and dreamlike quality. It is three decades later. Our hero is watching late television and Mr Movie, Bill Collins, is introducing an old movie which is no other than Nearly Beloved. That triggers memories of the girl the hero never married, the same girl who was watching  the movie with him in the Coronation Hall years earlier.

In the third Act, the curtain rises on the now decaying Coronation Hall and a group of ghostly wedding guests. The groom, the Hero, arrives. As he is years late, the guests and Hall are covered in cobwebs and dust. They slowly come to life around him and there follows a sad enactment of the happiness that might have been…

“Playing with time and memory has always been a favourite pastime of mine.  In Nearly Beloved, the present arrives some twenty years late to find the past still patiently waiting. What might have been becomes inextricably linked with what was and paths that might have entwined meet fleetingly only to be forever parted.”
Graeme Murphy AO