Nerida Ross

Welcome to the 43rd guest blog post of Time Out Sydney's 52 Weeks of #SydCulture 2017 challenge! October’s culture selector is Nerida Ross: Arts and Culture EP at FBi Radio, and the producer of Two Up talks and the after pARTY series. Every week in October, Nerida will be telling us what she loved the week before. Think of it as your recommendations for this week, from someone who sees a helluva lot of arts and culture. Over to her. In the second week of Liveworks Festival I experienced everything from an intimate one-on-one performance in which Jen Jamieson attempts to create the ‘love hormone’, oxytocin, with a complete stranger, to a 12-hour queer performance party featuring more than 11 artists and 27 unique performances. In intriguing and unexpected experiences, Liveworks really does deliver. My favourite works at the festival are the ones that tap into emotions. If I laugh, cry or gasp you can pretty much guarantee I’ll be thinking about it for the rest of my life. 7 Ways by Geumhyung Jeong made me laugh. By placing a mask on various parts of her body – from her foot to her wrist – Jeong played intimately with the inanimate objects that were scattered across the stage. I was captivated by the physical control Jeong had over her body. She was dressed at times in a morphsuit, and you could easily forget that her masked foot was connected to a leg and not a neck. Her approach to the question “Where lies the boundary between the body and the machine?” was humorous and pl

Welcome to the 42nd guest blog post of Time Out Sydney's 52 Weeks of #SydCulture 2017 challenge! October’s culture selector is Nerida Ross: Arts and Culture EP at FBi Radio, and the producer of Two Up talks and the after pARTY series. Every week in October, Nerida will be telling us what she loved the week before. Think of it as your recommendations for this week, from someone who sees a helluva lot of arts and culture. Over to her. Continuing Sydney’s unofficial art month marathon is Liveworks, Performance Space’s ‘festival of experimental art’. A friend of mine raised a very good point this week when they asked “what’s the difference between Liveworks and Underbelly Arts?”. Where Underbelly claims to represent the ‘boldest voices’ in contemporary art and Liveworks purports to present ‘brilliant, brave and innovative voices’, you can see why people might be confused. One difference is that Liveworks has a stronger focus on the whole Asia Pacific region. Another is the fact that its program is made up of more established artists. Because of Liveworks, this year we get to see performance art rock stars such as Christian Thompson and Justin Shoulder. Because of Liveworks, Sydney got the opportunity to see one of the year’s best artworks: The Second Woman.   Nat Randall and collaborators, The Second Woman (2017) presented by Performance Space for Liveworks Festival of Experimental Art Photograph: Heidrun Löhr     The Second Woman is all I have been able to talk about since I

Welcome to the 41st guest blog post of Time Out Sydney's 52 Weeks of #SydCulture 2017 challenge! October’s culture selector is Nerida Ross: Arts and Culture EP at FBi Radio, and the producer of Two Up talks and the after pARTY series. Every week in October, Nerida will be telling us what she loved the week before. Think of it as your recommendations for this week, from someone who sees a helluva lot of arts and culture. Over to her. I like to compare the arts to sports. They both share a special place in Sydney’s culture, even if the 30,000 person crowds at a standard footy game make an arts lover pretty jealous. And if contemporary dance was a sport, it would have to be soccer. Think about it: soccer players, like dancers, have an agility and athleticism that is captivating. Whether you’re at a soccer game or the ballet, very little understanding of the rules is required. In soccer, one goal equals one point. And in contemporary dance, when they say the performance is a “sensual study of human interaction”, that’s what you’re going to get. So if contemporary dance is a sport, then Sydney Dance Company would be Barcelona – because they are up there with the best.   Sydney Dance Company's Bernhard Knauer and Todd Sutherland in '2 One Another' Photograph: Daniel Boud     Sydney Dance Company’s recent season of 2 One Another (which closed on Sunday) is a true example of what the dancers and artistic director Rafael Bonachela do best. They are athletes at the top of their game

Welcome to the 41st guest blog post of Time Out Sydney's 52 Weeks of #SydCulture 2017 challenge! October’s culture selector is Nerida Ross: Arts and Culture EP at FBi Radio, and the producer of Two Up talks and the after pARTY series. Every week in October, Nerida will be telling us what she loved the week before. Think of it as your recommendations for this week, from someone who sees a helluva lot of arts and culture. Over to her. I like to urge everyone to go to gallery openings. Go by yourself and go early. Give yourself the space to move freely, to get lost in the work or, if you’re not feeling it, tap out and try the next one. It’s like you’re taking yourself on a date – a solo art date! This week I took myself to the opening of Tokyo Trace 2 by Masaharu Sato at Firstdraft, an artist-run initiative in Woolloomooloo that has a reputation for presenting consistently engaging exhibitions – and having fantastic openings.   'Tokyo Trace 2' by Masaharu Sato, at Firstdraft, Woolloomooloo Photograph: Zan Wimberley     When I popped in early I was drawn upstairs by the sound of a piano. It was playing a familiar tune and no one was around. That’s where the intrigue began. The twelve screens displayed around the room depicted ordinary scenes of city life: a woman crossing at an intersection; a man eating nigiri. While I watched each video, the image transitioned fluidly between animation and reality, as if I had dipped in and out of a Miyazaki film. If you walked by too quickly

Welcome to the 39th guest blog post of Time Out Sydney's 52 Weeks of #SydCulture 2017 challenge! October’s culture selector is Nerida Ross: Arts and Culture EP at FBi Radio, and the producer of Two Up talks and the after pARTY series. Every week in October, Nerida will be telling us what she loved the week before. Think of it as your recommendations for this week, from someone who sees a helluva lot of arts and culture. Over to her. As we move into the warmer months, the dilemma facing many Sydneysiders is: “Do I participate in our city’s creative culture, or do I go to the beach?” The question is particularly pressing now daylight savings has clocked over and the days feel longer. I think the clear answer is: more daylight = more time for activities! And that’s why I’d like to unofficially title October “Sydney’s Art Month”. There’s heaps to see! First off the block is Underbelly Arts Festival. Underbelly Arts is self-described as Australia’s ‘boldest’ contemporary arts festival and I would 100 per cent agree. It’s a place for emerging artists to realise their most ambitious work. What makes it particularly special is that in the weeks before the festival you can go behind the scenes and see the works in development. It’s called the Lab, and it continues Tuesday-Thursday nights this week.   Amrita Hepi with ‘This _ _ _ _ _ _ _ may not protect you but at times it’s enough to know it’s there' (2017) by Amrita Hepi, Honey Long and Prue Stent – Underbelly Arts Lab Photograph: S