NOMINATION: Excellence in Experimental Practice
For works, people or events that interrogate, extend, or challenge standard artistic practice within the Australian repertoire
If you believe you are nominated in the wrong category or the details of your nomination to be incorrect, please contact the AMC via email at awards@australianmusiccentre.com.au before proceeding with the nomination.
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Nominee
Rachel Lewindon
Nominated Project/Activity
/esis - Rachel Lewindon
Nominator Statement
I would like to nominate Rachel Lewindon for the Award for Excellence in Experimental Practice, for her work /Esis presented as part of Speak Percussions Axon Bespoke Artist Showcase. Rachel is an artist with a highly diverse practice, working in a large range of interdisciplinary projects across theatre, dance and live performance. I am fortunate to have seen her perform live on several occasions in collaborative settings, to which she consistently contributes a voice uniquely her own - drawing upon her extensive experience as a sound designer, instrumentalist and vocalist. To me, she traverses between styles, ranging from chaotic pop songs to minimalistic and meditative compositional forms. I never quite know what to expect, and this is what excites me most.
Rachels recent solo performance /esis as part of the Speak Percussion bespoke artist showcase was a game changer, and left me utterly awe-inspired. The work pushed several conventional performance mediums into a new sphere of experiences, using technology-altered prepared pianos, solo vocal performance and an entirely new instrument she built herself using the innards of a piano. Informed by her research into post-humanist theories, she crafted extremely inventive and unique approaches to her compositions, juxtaposing these dystopian instruments and layouts with a beautifully vulnerable performance aesthetic to create an entirely new and cohesive sonic world.
A stand out moment for me was her vocal performance, where Rachel stood facing the audience, strongly lit, with a symphony of unsettling facial expressions - her extended vocalisations moving through moments of pain towards delirious laughter. This scored work alongside the detailed backing track created an unsettling fracturing of self, as the recorded sound became increasingly present and ominous with affected and processed versions of Rachels voice creating multiplicities of herself that both laughed with, spoke for and challenged her acoustic voice. Here, I found myself laughing inside of (what felt like) an inviting horror film.
Another stand out was a new instrument - coined the Hammer Harp, the hammers of a deconstructed piano removed, prepared with found objects and played almost like a percussive harp is unlike anything I have seen. It looked like Rachel was holding another human, caressing it, until it started to unravel, percussively, dismantling onto the floor. It was mesmerising to experience the new percussive timbres, combined with live processing, alongside the beauty and joy Rachel had as a performer within this world.
/Esis is an exciting progression of Rachels practice and a testament to her commitment to pushing the realm of sonic world building within a live performance setting. The work was chaotic, unsettling, mesmerising and otherworldly, yet connected with me in such a beautiful, raw and human way, which is so important in the world of experimentation. Rachels constant questioning of stylistic norms and how we experience and empathise with sound within this work, and by extension herself as an artist, makes her impossible to place within a specific genre, making this nomination such an important one.
Nominee
Rachel Lewindon
Nominated Project/Activity
/esis - Rachel Lewindon
Rachels recent solo performance /esis as part of the Speak Percussion bespoke artist showcase was a game changer, and left me utterly awe-inspired. The work pushed several conventional performance mediums into a new sphere of experiences, using technology-altered prepared pianos, solo vocal performance and an entirely new instrument she built herself using the innards of a piano. Informed by her research into post-humanist theories, she crafted extremely inventive and unique approaches to her compositions, juxtaposing these dystopian instruments and layouts with a beautifully vulnerable performance aesthetic to create an entirely new and cohesive sonic world.
A stand out moment for me was her vocal performance, where Rachel stood facing the audience, strongly lit, with a symphony of unsettling facial expressions - her extended vocalisations moving through moments of pain towards delirious laughter. This scored work alongside the detailed backing track created an unsettling fracturing of self, as the recorded sound became increasingly present and ominous with affected and processed versions of Rachels voice creating multiplicities of herself that both laughed with, spoke for and challenged her acoustic voice. Here, I found myself laughing inside of (what felt like) an inviting horror film.
Another stand out was a new instrument - coined the Hammer Harp, the hammers of a deconstructed piano removed, prepared with found objects and played almost like a percussive harp is unlike anything I have seen. It looked like Rachel was holding another human, caressing it, until it started to unravel, percussively, dismantling onto the floor. It was mesmerising to experience the new percussive timbres, combined with live processing, alongside the beauty and joy Rachel had as a performer within this world.
/Esis is an exciting progression of Rachels practice and a testament to her commitment to pushing the realm of sonic world building within a live performance setting. The work was chaotic, unsettling, mesmerising and otherworldly, yet connected with me in such a beautiful, raw and human way, which is so important in the world of experimentation. Rachels constant questioning of stylistic norms and how we experience and empathise with sound within this work, and by extension herself as an artist, makes her impossible to place within a specific genre, making this nomination such an important one.