Nicci Wilks

56 inch circus - Outrageous Art for the open-minded

Contemporary circus artist Chelsea McGuffin, shortest and loudest circus virtuoso Nicci Wilks and acoustic anthropologist Vanessa Tomlinson join forces in an exposé of unusual musicality, belly sawing laughs and balloon orchestrations. On their bikes on a road to nowhere, they reinvent the art form amongst 10kgs of rice. This is esoteric circus, full of aural surprises, extraordinary feats of skill underpinned with superb comic timing.

"56 inch circus" is a great adventure in a world where nothing is quite as it seems. You will be surprisingly drawn to unexpected places, experiencing where sounds and physicality meet in a world full of challenges and mishaps. Sometimes it just takes seeing things slightly differently and your whole world can be reinvented.

"56 inch circus" seeks support to develop a recycled exercise bike into a human powered piece of circus equipment.  We wish to convert this exercise bike into an essential part of our art and performance. The bike will power a gramophone and a hand made "light machine" created by designer, inventor, maker Bryony Anderson. The "light machine" is a hand cranked film projector that uses 3 levels of hand painted films to create a moving landscape. We wish to adapt this machine to fit the bike. Our physical antics on the bike will project the landscape and crank the gramophone to create a unique visual and aural theatrical experience. The piece will be based on an ancient Chinese circus act called "Group Bike" and will cross pollinate with other art forms using physical theatre, visual art, comedy and silent film. We will spend 2 weeks in a creative development to construct the equipment and create an absurd piece culminating in an exciting journey for the audience. Once finished this piece will become part of a larger show created by 56 inch circus, but it will also be a stand alone piece which can be performed as an installation at specific events.

56 inch circus is part of a larger dream. Supporters will be helping us to create work that will help take circus into new artistic dimensions.  

The artists involved include:

Performer Chelsea McGuffin trained at the Centre for Performing Arts, Adelaide in dance, before moving into circus and working with companies including Circus Monoxide, Tony’s Imaginary Circus, Queensland Theatre Company, as Artistic Director for Vulcana Women’s Circus and from 2001 – 2009 with Brisbane based circus company CIRCA. In 2002 Chelsea travelled and trained at The Moscow State Circus School and with international clown Angela Decastro. Most recently Chelsea performed in ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ for the 2010 International Sydney Festival, performed and co created ‘Fake It’ for the 2010 Sydney Hoopla Festival and received a residency to create a solo work through Ausdance QLD.  Some other career high lights have been Opening the Galway International Arts Festival, a season at La Tohu Montreal, Bogotá International Arts festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Sydney international Festival 2008, tours to Belgium, France, Germany, Canada, UK, Hungary and Romania.  Chelsea co created and performed in ‘Regarding The Joy of Others’, a 25 minute solo trapeze performance as part of the 2009 Brisbane Festival at the iconic gas works Brisbane and is excited to return this year with a world premier performance of ‘Cantina’. www.ladytorpedo.com

Nicci Wilks began her circus career at the age of 13 with the Flying Fruit Fly Circus. She has strutted her skills on every continent in the world bar 1 & performed in 10 different languages. After training with the Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe, the John Palacy Trapeze Volant School in Paris, she pursued her fetish for wheels & trained in Germany and Montreal. Melbourne Theatre Company, Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus, Melbourne Workers Theatre, the Tiny Top, the World Famous Spiegel Tent, Hothouse Theatre, and Born in A Taxi & The Humor Foundation are a few companies she has worked with. Nicci is/has been: a Circus Artist, Clown Doctor, wheel enthusiast, drag king, tent boss, Shakespearean actor, singer in a band and a musical, stage manager, production manager, tour manager, waitress in a cafe for three days.

Dr Vanessa Tomlinson – Co-Director, Clocked Out is active in the fields of solo percussion, contemporary chamber music, improvisation and composition. She has travelled the world since 1992 performing with red fish blue fish, Ensemble Modern, Elision, circa, Clocked Out, in places as diverse as Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, the Casbah and Nudgee Beach. Vanessa loves working with other art forms – in particular circus performers, visual artists and fashion designers. She is also dedicate to producing new musical ideas and has commissioned more than 50 composers to write new works for her. Vanessa studied at University of Adelaide, Hochschule fur musik in Freiburg and University of California, San Diego (with Steven Schick) where she received her DMA in 2000. She has also spent extensive time studying Sichuan Opera Percussion in Chengdu China with Mr. Zhong. Vanessa currently lives in Brisbane where she is Head of Percussion at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, and co-artistic director of Clocked Out. Vanessa is currently Head of Percussion Queensland Conservatorium and Griffith University Artistic Advisor. http://www.clockedout.org

Bryony Anderson is a designer, inventor, maker, and exhibiting artist who has been working with puppetry and circus companies in and out of Australia since 1997. Puppetry work includes projects with Erth, Theatre of Image, Puppetvision, Polyglot, MyDarling Patricia, Born in a Taxi, and museums in Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, and Los Angeles, as well as numerous festivals. Circus work has included Circus Monoxide, Riggerous, Acrobat and The Flying Fruit Fly Circus. While a scholarship student at the University of Wollongong in 1995, she was accepted as Trainee Puppetmaker at Skyworks Studio and later returned to complete her Visual Arts degree, and her sporadic career as a fine artist includes three four solo exhibitions (Pets and Livestock, 1997; Scape-o-matic II, 2004;Sick People, 2008). She lives and works in Pappinbarra, NSW, in a shed in the bush.

Eclectic Australian-American musician Erik Griswold fuses experimental, jazz and world music traditions to create works of striking originality. Specializing in prepared piano, percussion and toy instruments, he has created a musical universe all his own that is "sincere" (neural.it), "playful" (igloo magazine), "colourful and refreshingly unpretentious" (Paris Transatlantic). Griswold performs as a soloist, in Clocked Out Duo (with percussionist Vanessa Tomlinson), and collaborates with musicians from diverse backgrounds as well as visual artists, and writers. Griswold has lived in San Diego, Los Angeles, New York, Melbourne, Adelaide, and now calls Brisbane home. He is currently director of Clocked Out, and adjunct professor at Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University. He holds a PhD from University of California, San Diego.