Elizabeth Dunn

Trust your instincts and the golden wings. Channel your vision and take a migratory walk through the city, between mediated sights and sounds of quiet bird spaces and spectacular scenes.

Elizabeth Dunn, with sound artist Lawrence English, investigates the enchanting nature of migratory birds and the annual epic, threatened journeys they make across a shifting globe in search of rest, food and a nest. Moving from place to place, their in-between-worlds existence makes them invisible to many, but there are the devoted individuals and groups who work to illuminate the birds’ plight, protect them and hospitably welcome them as they make their way.

Created for presentation at the 2012 Next Wave Festival and selected as part of the Next Wave Kickstart program, FLYWAY draws on ecological philosophy, personal and collective mythologies and wetland field research with active birders from Melbourne through to country Queensland. FLYWAY points to our increasingly mediated experience of ‘nature’. Using video, sound and performance to merge foreground and background, it navigates audiences on a guided walking tour through Melbourne’s urban spaces with altered perception.

FLYWAY ARTISTIC TEAM                                                                                                              

Elizabeth Dunn – Artist: one of Australia’s most exciting young artists working in hybrid forms. Her solo and collaborative practice crosses video, installation, objects, photography, and performance to create works that consider social and environmental ecology, personal and collective mythologies.

Elizabeth conceptualised FLYWAY and has created it with research gathered on an extended birding trip from Melbourne to Maryborough, QLD meeting with bird watchers and shorebird conservationists to document the sites they care for.

Lawrence English – Sound Artist: an internationally renowned media artist, composer and curator based in Australia, Lawrence works across an eclectic array of aesthetic investigations. His work prompts questions of field, perception and memory. English utilises a variety of approaches including live performance, installation and found sound/video vision to create works that generate subtle transformation of space and ask audiences to become aware of that which exists at the edge of perception.

Lara Thoms – Creative Producer and Mentor: an inter-disciplinary artist and curator, Lara’s projects have been presented at the MCA, Performance Space and Radial System V. She is part of the collective field theory and a contributor to lalaishere.net. In 2012 Lara is mentoring Elizabeth Dunn as part of the JUMP mentoring program.

YOUR SUPPORT

Funds raised from this campaign will be used towards:

- Production costs for the 2012 Next Wave Festival presentation (screens hire + headphones + mp3 players).

- Creation of the FLYWAY Field Guide.