Arts House return: From percussive sounds to bubble art

Home for contemporary performances and interactive art, Melbourne’s Arts House is gearing up to entertain live audiences in what will be a show-stopping end to the year.

Ready to make the stage their own is musician and architecture academic Simona Castricum and projection artist Carla Zimbler with their show SINK.

After dealing with two cancelled production dates due to COVID restrictions and lockdowns, SINK is now set to hit the stage for four days straight, premiering on December 1.

It’s a moment that Simona Castricum is “excited about”, after having to “warehouse” a lot of her creative work due to the absence of live performances.

“The tactile element of music and live performance is so important and there is no substitute for it,” she said.

“This particular work does rely on an ‘in real life’ experience. It’s about having that line of sight and physically sinking into your seat and experiencing the heaviness of the music and the content.”

Blending percussion, electronic music and projection, the 35-minute abstract show leans in to both Castricum and Zimbler’s expertise. Centred around Castricum on a drum kit, a three-metre drop string curtain hangs above the stage and is used for the projection elements.

The combination of the various ideas aims to display to the audience the deeper themes of gender nonconforming perspectives and their importance in cultural and urban landscapes.

“It’s about moving through some adversity and hostility and dancing through it. It’s about resistance, celebration, community and relationships,” she said.

Exploring the chaotically unique blend of multiple elements, Castricum believes the Arts House space allowed for SINK to be reimagined into the production the audience will now get the privilege of witnessing.

“The Arts House studio space presents a really unique opportunity to embark upon ideas and they end up somewhere you didn’t think they were going to go at all,” she said.

Also ready to surprise and entertain audiences after a long time spent rehearsing and waiting is three smaller and more intimate shows; ENTITY by Back to Back Theatre, Soap Bubbles and the Forces Which Mould Them by Brian Lipson, and Love Me (Bar) Tender by Stage Mom.

While ENTITY is a short and sharp solo work focused on the hypnotic engagement with an ever-changing autonomous life form, Love Me (Bar) Tender is an intimate work centred around secret conversations over custom-made cocktails.

And because life can inspire art, Soap Bubbles and the Forces Which Mould Them centres around the science and chemistry of bubble art experiments. An idea which stemmed from the increased need of sanitisation during the pandemic.

While all the shows at the Arts House differ in content, they all aim to repair the audience and performer relationship that has been missed in Melbourne’s creative industry over the past 18 months.

All four shows premiere on Wednesday, December 1 and will be showing at various times until Saturday, December 4 at the North Melbourne Town Hall •