Peter Banki 9/28/17 Peter Banki 9/28/17

Being With Your Dying and Your Dead with Victoria Spence

In this workshop, we will explore how to be with yourself in a dying process, while you accompany someone you love. It will address questions such as dying at home, home-based after death care, integrated funeral care and ceremony creation. We will also speak to the role and power of contemporary ceremony and storytelling in our funeral rites.

Victoria Spence is a Consultant, Facilitator and Civil Celebrant. She has an extensive background in community cultural development and arts practice working across Sydney’s creative communities since 1988.

For a detailed article on her Celebrant and Ceremonial Practice, see this Dumbo Feather issue.

Read about Victoria’s work in the Sydney Morning Herald

Peter Banki 8/19/17 Peter Banki 8/19/17

The Art of Holding with Peter Banki, Ph.D

While holding forms an integral part of many physical interactions, and while it can, by itself, generate intense emotions and sensations, it is rarely investigated on its own merit. Often we do not actually feel safely held, even though that is what we long for. We can only truly let go when we know that someone will be there to hold us. Once we understand what it is that makes being held a less than satisfying experience, we can be clearer about what it is that we wish to feel in an embrace and where to place our attention.

While holding forms an integral part of many physical interactions, and while it can, by itself, generate intense emotions and sensations, it is rarely investigated on its own merit. Often we do not actually feel safely held, even though that is what we long for (we can only truly let go when we know that someone will be there to hold us). Once we understand what it is that makes being held a less than satisfying experience, we can be clearer about what it is that we wish to feel in an embrace and where to place our attention.

This workshop, which has been inspired by the work of Frank T. Khani and Sheila Crux, will experiment with different ways of holding someone. We will be looking at an entire spectrum from the caring, protective embrace to playful grappling where we can test the limits of our strength.

Doctor Peter Banki is Research Associate in Philosophy at the University of Western Sydney. He holds a Ph.D from New York University. He wrote his Ph.D on the debate on forgiveness in the literature of Holocaust survivors. He has published a number of articles in peer review journals in the fields of continental philosophy and literature. He has recently spoken about his research on the Radio National Program “The Philosophers’ Zone” and has tutored and lectured in philosophy at the University of Western Sydney and also at the University of Sydney. His website is http://peterbanki.com

His book The Forgiveness To Come: the Holocaust and the Hyper-Ethical is forthcoming with Fordham University Press (2018).

Peter Banki 8/19/17 Peter Banki 8/19/17

Losing Someone You Love with Sebastian Job, Ph.D

In this workshop you will be invited to engage with a range of religious and spiritual meditations on death, and to use those in order to reflect on what you have learned, or perhaps not wanted to learn, in losing someone you loved.

Grief can be experienced as pure loss. The death of a loved one a descent into pitiless darkness.

Agony eventually turns into ache and helplessness usually finds an end to itself, but in retrospect it may turn out we have metabolized death only up to a certain point. There is unfinished business in our hearts, in our solar plexus, in the kind of attitude or energy we put out, in how we move or breathe, in what we dare to say or do.

Meanwhile, many thinkers and traditions have taught that death itself is a teacher, perhaps an ultimate teacher, with ultimate lessons.

Peter Banki 8/19/17 Peter Banki 8/19/17

"Dying in the 21st Century: why has it got so hard and can we make it easier?" with Dr. Peter Saul

Dr. Peter Saul has helped to write all the current NSW Health guidelines about end of life, and is a senior intensive care specialist working in both public and private hospitals. His excellent TED Talk "Lets' Talk About Dying" has been seen by nearly a million people. Dr. Saul's workshop will give you advice as to how to talk to doctors, and how to make decisions for others and for yourself. It will include elements of planning ahead, understanding personal values (and how these influence the decisions we make for others) and how to take control when that is needed.

Dr. Saul is currently working with state and local groups to develop web-based and electronic systems for recording conversations with patients about end of life preferences.

Peter Banki 8/19/17 Peter Banki 8/19/17

Sleeping, Dying and Dreaming with Dr. Michael Barbato

This workshop will focus on some of the unusual language and experiences of dying patients. It explores the history and significance of end-of-life dreams and visions and will show how these experiences and the language used by dying patients are often ignored or misinterpreted in today’s highly sophisticated medical environment. It will explore the myths and truths surrounding their cause and provide examples to illustrate the profound healing effect end-of-life dreams and visions can have on the person dying and their carers.

Participants will be asked to share their own experiences of being with the dying, the challenges they may have faced and the gifts they received. The workshop will foster a better appreciation of these unusual experiences and afford guidance on how best to respond to them.

Photograph by Tina FiveAsh for the Death Letter Project (www.deathletterprojects.com).

Following 20 years as a specialist physician in rural NSW, Michael Barbato moved to Sydney in 1989 to commence work in what was then the relatively new specialty of palliative care.

In the following years he directed services within NSW and the ACT before transferring to the Illawarra and Shoalhaven Palliative Care Service. Prior to his retirement in 2012 Michael did regular locums for the Northern Territory Palliative Care Service working in both Alice Springs and Darwin.

Together with his wife and partner Ann, Michael now runs a correspondence course for professional and community groups on the art of Midwifing Death (www.midwifingdeath.com.au). His research interests and publications include the doctor as healer, unusual experiences around the time of death, the nature of unconsciousness and the experience of dying.

Peter Banki 7/26/17 Peter Banki 7/26/17

Human Rooms with Efterpi Soropos

When her mother Evangalia, died of breast cancer in 1995 a process began that both devastated and enlightened Efterpi Soropos to research and develop sensory concepts that would create a better perception of space and environment through the senses for vulnerable people. HUMAN ROOMS™ is an immersive experiential concept that can assist participants to reduce stress, induce relaxation and meditative states within a peaceful and harmonious environment that is self directed.

HUMAN ROOMS™ is an immersive experiential concept that can assist participants to reduce stress, induce relaxation and meditative states within a peaceful and harmonious environment that is self directed.

The combination of content - video, sound and colour lighting sequences - are developed to suit the needs of the participant group and is influenced by research, place space, preference, embodied memories, biophilia and 25 years experience of designing performing arts environments. The content is delivered by a system which allows the participants to have control and engage with a variety of options. The interior architecture of the room is designed to absorb and reflect the sensory content and create an atmosphere that enables participants to re connect with themselves and the environment presented in the room.

Efterpi Soropos is a Visual Artist and Designer. With a background in performing arts lighting design, Efterpi has spent many years fascinated by the way combinations of light, sound and image can affect audiences, guiding them through spectrums of emotion and sensation. When her mother Evangalia, died of breast cancer in 1995 a process began that both devastated and enlightened her to research and develop sensory concepts that would create a better perception of space and environment through the senses for vulnerable people.

As part of her Masters Research, Efterpi began a creative partnership with Monash Medical Centre as Artist in Residence in 2007, to research the effects of the interior environments of hospitals in palliative care units on patients. Following on from her research Efterpi developed an immersive interactive artwork in 2008 called the ‘Disambiguation Room’ housed in McCulloch House, Inpatient Palliative Care Unit at Monash Medical Centre, Clayton,Victoria. The aim of the project was to discover how effective the artwork would be in reducing anxiety, stress, fear and pain for patients and families. The room is now a permanent multifunctional art space and received the Primary Care Award, Australian Arts and Health Awards in 2009.

Human Rooms™ was established in 2008. Since then Efterpi has continued research and development of the Human Rooms™ concept as an effective interior/spatial and therapeutic intervention for psychological relief of the symptoms of stress, fear and anxiety during mental, chronic or terminal illness.

In February 2014, Efterpi completed a Churchill Fellowship investigating various art programs and Dementia design in culturally specific settings to solidify the work of Human Rooms™ in aged care. As a result of this fellowship Efterpi has collaborated with Alzheimer’s Australia Victoria and Opaque Multimedia as the artistic consultant, to develop a new innovative experiential game for people living with Dementia as well as developing new systems, programs and apps that will utilise the Human Rooms(TM) for greater accessibility for residential aged care and the wider community.

Peter Banki 7/26/17 Peter Banki 7/26/17

Forgiveness with Peter Banki, Ph.D

One of the most profound and intimate experiences is to be wounded and unable to forgive. The inability to forgive may not be something that is simply chosen. Something very powerful continues to say ‘no’, even if one would like to say ‘yes’, to forgive the other, believing that it will make things easier, lighter and better from now on. In certain cases even after one has said ‘yes’ and meant ‘yes’, the ‘no’ insists.

To be refused forgiveness is also profound. Something in the other remains inaccessible, unattainable. And the past that one shares with the other—or with the other in oneself—is unclosed, like an incurable wound.

I have been thinking and reading about these aporias for the last few years, particularly with relation to the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II. However, one can appreciate what I am talking about, without necessarily referring to the legacy of these crimes.

The impossibility to forgive—or to be forgiven—may be an elementary dimension of all our relations with others, and in particular, with the people who are most important to us. It is something that I encounter forcefully in my relationships with those I love the most.

Can there be a dance of the unforgivable? A dance of forgiveness?

His book The Forgiveness To Come: the Holocaust and the Hyper-Ethical is forthcoming with Fordham University Press (2018)

Peter Banki 7/26/17 Peter Banki 7/26/17

Share My Coffin with Alan Schacher

In this role-playing workshop, based on Alan’s solo performance Share my Coffin, we imagine and enact the idea that one is in their own coffin being not ready (unprepared) for death and departure, with things left unsaid or yet to say, conversations yet unfinished, feedback not heard.

In their respective roles, workshop participants will take turns to lie in a simple coffin and speak with those gathered around who witness and support them by taking on significant roles, listening and/or responding as stand-ins, representing those with whom there may be unfinished business and issues.

Alan Schacher is a contemporary performance-maker: a director, choreographer, designer, performer and installation artist, whose focus is on spatial experience and bodily mediation. An undercurrent of cultural landscapes and diasporic references, both imagined and inherited, form significant motifs in his work. He has developed an architectural approach to the interpretation of sites and use of materials which is carried through in ensemble performance, solo dance, video, installation and performance art. The body is a primary means and reference point in his work, which also employs large sets and spatial manipulation to realise projects, most of which involve a major collaboration by an artistic team.

With over 25 years experience, he was the founder of the Performance Ensemble Gravity Feed (1992-2004) he conceived and designed most of the company’s works and performed in them all. He also formed G.R.I. in 2000 and this is his current production company. As a dancer he was influenced by the methods of Butoh dancer Min Tanaka, with whom Alan trained and performed in Japanfrom 1989-91. Alan was recipient of the NSW Helpmann Scholarship for Dance in 1994, and completed an MFA at the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW in 2000. He lives in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.

b. 1952

Peter Banki 7/26/17 Peter Banki 7/26/17

A Panel on Compassionate Communities with Jessie Williams, Professor Debbie Horsfall anJenny Briscoe-Hough

What could a compassionate community be? And what role might it play in the dying process and in death? Join a panel of people who are passionate about re-imagining the role of communities in death and dying in Australia.

What could a compassionate community be? And what role might it play in the dying process and in death? In what ways does the capacity for village-mindedness help us to carry the dead and care for the dying? Join a panel of people who are passionate about re-imagining the role of communities in death and dying in Australia.

Jessie Williams is Executive Director of the Groundswell Project, a leading social enterprise known for using innovative arts and health programs to create social and cultural change about death and dying. As a learning entrepreneur, she’s facilitated for over 20 years for The School for Social Entrepreneurs, The Centre for Community Welfare Training, the Hunger Project and the Create Foundation. In all of her spare time, she runs learning sessions on grief, ethics and coaching.

After losing her first-born son in 2006, she experienced post-traumatic growth thanks to her community and the practice of death ritual. Her passion with the GroundSwell Project keeps her up at night and she invites everyone to be a part of the collective change around death and dying in Australia.

Debbie Horsfall is Professor of Sociology at Western Sydney University. She is a passionate leader in the field of inclusive, democratic, qualitative research in health, human services and community development. She has engaged in participation in numerous engaged research projects including work with: Cancer Council NSW; Multicultural Health; The Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care, Women’s Housing Services; and the Prime Ministers Youth Action Task Force. Working with informal carers and service providers in end of life care her current research work explores how dying at home develops death literacy, health promoting palliative care, creative partnerships and compassionate communities. She is also researching socio-cultural influences on older Greek carer’s decisions in end of life care. In 2005 Debbie was awarded the Vice Chancellors Award for Excellence in Postgraduate Training and Supervision. She is a post graduate examiner at national and international levels and has successfully supervised over 34 research candidates.

Jenny Briscoe-Hough is a community worker who runs Tender Funerals, one of Australia's first not-for-profit, community-run funeral parlours, offering services at a fraction of the price. With the standard funeral leaving little change from $10,000, it is no surprise that money, more than religion, is often uppermost in the minds of families when a loved one dies. That is particularly true when those families are living on welfare payments.

But the community in Port Kembla, south of Sydney, has taken matters into its own hands. Jenny had her first encounter with the business of death when her mother died seven years ago. "I was shocked by the cost of a funeral," she recalled. "And I said, maybe we should just start a not-for-profit funeral service." Since then, Ms Briscoe-Hough has worked towards getting Tender Funerals off the ground. The organisation became the subject of a 2013 documentary film called Tender. There is a call from the community to actually bring conversations about death to life. "For me, what Tender Funerals is about is saying to people, you've got control over this process, what do you want to do? We'll work with you," she says. "We are trying to say, we are not going to equate the money spent on a funeral with love. "We are trying to say love has got nothing to do with that."

Peter Banki 7/9/17 Peter Banki 7/9/17

Experiencing Terminal Cancer with Tamara Targo

Terminal cancer is such a common diagnosis, but unless we have had personal experience with it we are very sheltered from how it feels to be diagnosed. Often we are at a loss just simply knowing how to respond when someone confides in us that they're dying. In this workshop Tamara candidly shares her own experience of being diagnosed with terminal cancer at 36, and provides an opportunity for everyone to explore how their lives would be impacted if they received this diagnosis. The second part of the workshop investigates the question of what is an appropriate response when the ill person tells you, the healthy person, that they're terminal. To conclude the workshop, there will be a no holds barred discussion and Q&A session around terminal illness where nothing is taboo.

Tamara Targo was a multinational corporate veterinarian working herself to death when, at the age of 36, she was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. The ensuing surgery, tumour regrowth, radiotherapy and chemotherapy somewhat changed her life perspective, and she now has a very different philosophy on what is important. Having worked in the only profession where euthanasia is a daily event, and observing her clients' approaches to death and grief, Tamara also has a unique insight into peoples' behaviour when faced with not only the imminent death of a loved one but a death they voluntarily chose to make happen.

Altogether, Tamara's observations, experiences and conclusions make for some engaging insights surrounding terminality. Get in quick, this workshop is only available while she lasts!

Peter Banki 7/6/17 Peter Banki 7/6/17

The Consolation of Poetry with Luke Fischer

Most poets write a lot about death, and funerals (along with weddings) are one of the few public occasions at which poetry is frequently read. In this workshop poet and philosopher Luke Fischer will share his own poetry (especially from his new collection A Personal History of Vision) and discuss how it addresses death and grief. He will also shed light on how Rilke's poetry finds meaning in these themes.

Most poets write a lot about death, and funerals (along with weddings) are one of the few public occasions at which poetry is frequently read.

In this workshop poet and philosopher Luke Fischer will share his own poetry (especially from his new collection A Personal History of Vision) and discuss how it addresses death and grief. He will also shed light on how Rilke's poetry finds meaning in these themes.

Participants will have the opportunity to discuss how they have found consolation in poetry and are welcome to bring poems to share with group.'

Luke Fischer is a poet, philosopher, and scholar. His books include the poetry collections A Personal History of Vision (UWAP Poetry, 2017) and Paths of Flight (Black Pepper, 2013) and the monograph The Poet as Phenomenologist: Rilke and the New Poems (Bloomsbury, 2015). He is currently co-editing a volume of essays on the philosophical dimensions of Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus (Oxford University Press). He is an honorary associate at the University of Sydney. For more information see: www.lukefischerauthor.com

Peter Banki 7/5/17 Peter Banki 7/5/17

The Beginning of Peace-Making with WeiZen Ho

This workshop is a two-day process, which will draw from Pancha Tanmantra (a West Javanese energetic practice). It will conclude with a circle in which you may encounter the energies of a deceased or living family member, friend or lover. You must attend both workshops to take part in this. If you would like to experience this process, it is strongly recommended you contact WeiZen Ho via email prior to the festival at least 7 days before attending. (Her email is weiofzen@gmail.com)

This workshop is a two day process, which will draw from Pancha Tanmantra (a West Javanese energetic practice). It involves two 90 minute workshops (one at the beginning and one at the end of the festival). It is only possible to do the second workshop if you have already attended the first. If you would like to experience this process, it is strongly recommended you contact WeiZen Ho via email prior to the festival at least 7 days before attending. (Her email is weiofzen@gmail.com)

Day 1: We will learn to recite the Varjasattva mantra as a group. This is a 100-syllable mantra and which will be used as a vehicle to cleanse our intention in preparation for Day 2. The purpose of this mantra is to offer clarity. It is a great foundation to set any ritual 'space’.

Within Day 1, we will also play with some 5-Element integrated vocal-movement practice.

Day 2: We will then move on to facilitate individuals who wish to encounter the energies of a deceased or living family member, friend or lover. Time may permit only one encounter per individual. If you do not wish actively to undergo the process of encountering the energies of the deceased, it is possible to act as a witness and supporter in the circle. This in itself is a very important role.

Transliteration:

oṃ va jra sa ttva sa ma yam a nu
pā la ya va jra sa ttva tve no pa
ti ṣṭha dṛ ḍho me bha va su to ṣyo
me bha va su po ṣyo me bha va a
nu ra kto me bha va sa rva si ddhiṃ
me pra ya ccha sa rva ka rma su ca
me ci ttaṃ śre yaḥ ku ru hūṃ ha ha
ha ha hoḥ bha ga van sa rva ta thā
ga ta va jra mā me mu ñca va jrī
bha va ma hā sa ma ya sa ttva aḥ

English:

Oṃ. Vajrasattva, keep your samaya. As Vajrasattva, remain near me. Be steadfast towards me. Be very pleased with me. Be completely satisfied with me. Be loving to me. Grant me all accomplishments. In all actions, make me mind pure and virtuous. Hūṃ. Ha ha ha ha hoḥ. O Blessed One, Vajra-nature of all the Tathāgatas, do not abandon me. Be of vajra-nature, O great Samaya-being, āḥ.

Varjasattva Mantra

Sanskrit:

oṃ vajrasattva samayam anupālaya

vajrasattva tvenopatiṣṭha

dṛḍho me bhava sutoṣyo me bhava
supoṣyo me bhava anurakto me bhava

sarvasiddhiṃ me prayaccha

sarvakarmasu ca me cittaṃ

śreyaḥ kuru hūṃ ha ha ha ha hoḥ

bhagavan sarvatathāgatavajra mā me muñca

vajrī bhava mahāsamayasattva āḥ

Imagery:

Vajrasattva is pure white in colour and is sometimes known as the Prince of Purity. His name means "Adamantine Being", or more poetically "Embodying Reality". He is a member of the Vajra family of Akṣobhya which also includes Vajrapāṇi.

He is depicted as a young man in the prime of life, with all the silks and jewels of a wealthy prince. In his right hand he delicately balances a vajra at his heart. In his left had he holds a bell at his waist. The vajra represents Reality, and Compassion; while the bell represents Wisdom.

WeiZen Ho is a Performing Artist and Deviser who brings together phonic-vocals and movement. Her performances transform and extend mundane postures, sounds and everyday objects or speech into poetic prayer. She excavates linguistic processes searching out their connection to identity. Her work draws upon a lineage of Chinese immigrants who have lived for several generations in Melaka (Malaysia) and Java and extends it to her status as an Asian immigrant in Australia. She is fascinated by ritual, in particular the animistic rituals still practised by Chinese clans in her hometown and throughout South-East Asia. For her, ritual and imageries, distilled into performance locates her visceral vocal-body.

She is currently a recipient of Australia Council's Arts Project funding to study and develop Performances, Interpreted & Reimagined of Asian Animistic & Shamanistic Rituals (2016-2018). The research phases have taken place in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo in May 2016 and Hanoi, Vietnam in March 2017. She devised and performed in Platform 2017 by De Quincey Co and will perform and conduct workshops for the Festival of Death and Dying in Melbourne and Sydney. She collaborated as the sound, text and vocal designer for Joshua Pether in Monster at the Yirramboi Festival in Melbourne in May 2017. WeiZen was 1 out 4 artists in Body as Material: Solo Practice, a partnership between Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, Bundanon Trust, FORM Dance Projects and Critical Path. She was also invited to perform for the Asian Performing Arts Market Japan, part of Setouchi Triennale 2016.

A performance improvisation event WeiZen initiated in the Blue Mountains, now called Sound Bites Body, presented its twenty-third programme featuring thirteen artists from sound, installation and dance disciplines at Bilpin International Ground for Creative Initiatives (Bigci) in February 2016. As a current member of Splinter Orchestra she recently did a recording project at Lake Mungo and performed with them for Tectonics at Adelaide Festival of the Arts, 2016.

Peter Banki 7/5/17 Peter Banki 7/5/17

Your Will - What Do You Really Want To Say with Donal Griffin

In this workshop you will learn how to write a Will that reflects your own wishes and values. Legacy lawyer, Donal Griffin, will share with you what people have done well and not so well in terms of their Wills. Personal relationships often pay the price in a world where the property market means a lot. Too often, dry lawyers give people documents that are either too complex or too simple to look after a client’s family. This workshop will enable you to have the Will you deserve. In addition Donal will also share a little about the book he is writing for his son: The Irish Book of Living and Dying.

In this workshop you will learn how to write a Will that reflects your own wishes and values. Donal Griffin will share with you what people have done well and not so well in terms of their Wills. Personal relationships often pay the price in a world where the property market means a lot. Too often, dry lawyers give people documents that are either too complex or too simple to look after a client’s family. This workshop will enable you to have the Will you deserve. In addition Donal will also share a little about the book he is writing for his son: The Irish Book of Living and Dying.

Donal Griffin is admitted as a lawyer in New South Wales and in Ireland. He also has qualifications in financial planning including the award of Certified Financial Planner. Donal has a Masters in Wills and Estates.

Donal practices as a lawyer in the areas of asset protection, estate planning, estate litigation, family trusts and business succession planning.

He specialises in advising on superannuation and family trust issues. He has a particular interest in the international aspects of estate planning which affect a large number of people in Australia.

Donal’s Sydney based firm, LEGACY LAW, is a specialist private client law firm for people who want experts to advise them in important personal areas such as wealth preservation, beneficiary protection and, for those who do not spend it all, successful inter-generational wealth transfer.

Donal takes his own advice sometimes and has a Will but more interestingly is writing a more personal document for his young son called “The Irish Book of Living and Dying”.

Peter Banki 7/4/17 Peter Banki 7/4/17

The Death Letter Project with Tina FiveAsh

In this workshop artist/Photographer Tina FiveAsh introduces The Death Letter Project, a three-year undertaking, during which she invited fifty Australians to write a letter responding to: What is death? What happens when we die?

The project’s fifty letters, accompanied by photographic portraits of each contributor, provide a glimpse into the diversity of thoughts, beliefs, and experiences surrounding death in contemporary Australian society.

Tina will share some of the letters and photographs from the project and open up the discussion for you to share your own thoughts, beliefs and experiences in response to What is death? What happens when we die?

The later part of the workshop will provide you with the opportunity to reflect and write your own letter, with the option to display your letter in a special exhibition space for the duration of the festival.

Tina Fiveash is an Australian photo-artist who has been exhibiting for 25 years. Winner of the People’s Choice Award at the 2013 Olive Cotton Award for Photographic Portraiture, Tina’s work most recently was selected as a finalist in the prestigious 2016 National Portrait Prize, the 64th Blake Prize and the 2017 Olive Cotton Award. Her work has appeared on billboards, illuminated public advertising spaces, film, television, book and magazine covers, as well as in exhibitions and festivals throughout the world.

Currently, Tina is undertaking a PhD at The Australian National University, Research School of Humanities and the Arts, Majoring in Visual Arts. Investigating intersections between art, science, and spirituality, Tina is exploring experimental photographic approaches to the visual representation of death and imagined conceptions of an afterlife, based on scientific studies into near-death experience.

www.tinafiveash.com

Shona Bridge (Yoga Teacher) is: Guest speaker #1 for Tina Fiveash Death Letter workshop.
Ellen Hewitt (artist and photographic curator) is: Guest speaker #2 for Tina Fiveash Death Letter workshop. Also photographer for event. Website: ellenhewittart.com

Peter Banki 6/7/17 Peter Banki 6/7/17

Testifying to Grief Through Art with Iqbal Barkat and Milissa Deitz

How do the processes of art and grieving attempt to find meaning in the chaos of the void? How do we create in the storm that is propelling us forward? Based on our digital essay, All the Little Boxes, we will consider how the digital essay gives voice to our grief. It explores non-traditional storytelling in order to theorise, ritualise and create from the state of bereavement, encouraging viewers to recognise grief as an essential part of life.

How do the processes of art and grieving attempt to find meaning in the chaos of the void? How do we create in the storm that is propelling us forward? Based on our digital essay, All the Little Boxes, we will consider how the digital essay gives voice to our ‘psychic chiasmus’. The essay exposes our vulnerabilities and our pretense at a unified self. It constructs no scaffolding. But its elements form a constellation that crystallize through movement, revealing what Walter Benjamin calls“a not-yet-conscious knowledge of what has been”.

When Milissa’s little girl died unexpectedly, her mind fractured. In order to show the vertigo, disassociation and hyperarousal of what is known as complicated grief, the non-confluence between image, sound and word was uppermost in conceptualising All the Little Boxes. Written by Milissa Deitz and directed by Iqbal Barkat.

This digital essay explores non-traditional storytelling in order to theorise, ritualise and create from the state of bereavement, encouraging viewers to recognise grief as an essential part of life.

Bring along writing implements and any (basic) device for capturing digital images.

Iqbal Barkat is a digital artist and filmmaker. His artistic practice is based in Western Sydney which is also the home of Filigree Films, the filmmaking company he co-founded. He lectures in screen production at Macquarie University. Iqbal was born in Singapore and began his career in theatre as Artistic Director of Gung Ho Theatre Ensemble. He is a proponent and practitioner of community and participatory arts specializing in works involving a combination of actors and non-actors. His works are often hybrid as they emanate from real settings but include fictional elements and involve the intersection of digital media with other art forms. He co-authored a major Australian Tertiary text on media production, Screen Media Arts (OUP, 2009). Screen Media Arts won the Tertiary Teaching and Learning Category at the Australian Publishing Awards. He is currently working on a project that explores the outsider and Islam. The first development showing of this work, Terrorist/Apostate, was at Parramatta Riverside Theatres in May 2017.

Milissa Deitz lectures in communication and digital media at Western Sydney University. She is a journalist and novelist. Milissa's book Watch This Space: The Future of Australian Journalism (2010) was published by Cambridge University Press. Her novel Bloodlust and non-fiction title My Life As A Side Effect are both published by Random House. Her research and scholarly interests include grief, identity and family; voice and the marginalised within digital storytelling (The Right To Know: 100 Years of the Australian Red Cross International Tracing Service, Immigration Museum, Melbourne 2015); and young people, wellbeing and technology (wwwinvisiblecity.org.au).

Peter Banki 6/1/17 Peter Banki 6/1/17

The Mortality Performance Night

An Evening of Long and Short Works with Alan Schacher, WeiZen Ho, Peter Banki, Ryuichi Fujimura and AñA Wojak. It is possible to book ticket s just for the Performance Night.

An Evening of Long and Short Works with Alan Schacher, WeiZen Ho, Peter Banki, AñA Wojak, Ryuichi Fujimura.

Alan Schacher - Share My Coffin

This is a solo movement and sound performance using a cardboard coffin and a trolley. It is over-dramatic or comical, depending.

Peter Banki - Death Denial with the Plush Animal Collective

Plush animals will talk with me about how they think and don’t think about ageing, mortality and death.

Ryuichi Fujimura - How Did I Get Here?

The performance investigates how our perception of time changes as we age, and how we recognize and accept our own mortality as we enter the autumn phase of life.

WeiZen Ho - Stories from the Body #6 – The Intolerable Body

The 'Stories from the Body' performance series began in 2014 as a methodology to re-trace lineages that have been disrupted: myths that have been distorted, stories that have been fragmented and rituals half-remembered, as a result of migration, time and language erosion from the South Fujian Province of China to Java, Singapore and Malaysia.

Coming from the premise that all of human living is performed, I choose to activate this process of uncovering, reclaiming and reimagining through my body and its voice – my ancestral template is embedded within my physiological being.

#6 is inspired by mixed imageries and memories:

Hair that my mother’s mother had; long and dark brown-black, up to the day she died in her sixties. My mother also related to me recently that many women in my grandmother’s generation never cut their hair.

The washing of the bodies of my paternal grandparents and my maternal grandmother by my uncle, the only family member willing and able to take responsibility for this task. These grandparents died at home - my family home in Melaka, Malaysia.

I introduce the use of full-length batik fabric, which is the first thing that covers a dead body, an act of ritual carried out in the spiritual folk-culture of the Malays.

This will be a participatory performance piece that explores the porosity between contemporary concepts of performance, ritual and conversation.

Lamentation - AñA Wojak

The /Lamentation/ performance cycle addresses our human propensity to oppress and destroy each other in the name of righteous morality, justifying forms of hegemony that also damage our precious planet.It is a howling prayer of despair for the blind self-destructive inhumanity of humanity.

The performers will be joined by:

Phillippa Murphy-Haste is a multi-instrumentalist based between Malmö, Sweden, and Sydney, Australia. She specialises in clarinets and saxophones.

Sam Gill is a saxophonist & composer based in Sydney. His music explores the intersections of composed and improvised music, establishing a number of bands including Coursed Waters, Scattered and Mind on Fire. He is currently completing a Master of Performance Research degree at Sydney Conservatorium of Music. In addition to his saxophone work, he also plays clarinet.

Simon Ferenci is a Sydney-based trumpeter who has been a finalist in the National Jazz Awards in 2003, 2010 and now 2017. He regularly performs in Sydney, as well as around Australia and internationally. As a member of the award-winning Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra, he has also performed with many leading international jazz musicians including Grammy winner Maria Schneider (US) and nominees Darcy James Argue (US) and Chris Potter (US).
https://simonferenci.bandcamp.com/

Book For the Performance Night Only

Peter Banki 5/10/17 Peter Banki 5/10/17

Catharsis with AñA Wojak

Catharsis* (from Greek κάθαρσις) is the purification and purgation of emotions through art, or any extreme change in emotion that results in renewal and restoration.

This experiential workshop channels an expressive response to grief… remembrance… celebration… connection with past loved ones through breath, movement & vocalisation.

Catharsis* (from Greek κάθαρσις) is the purification and purgation of emotions through art, or any extreme change in emotion that results in renewal and restoration.

This experiential workshop channels an expressive response to grief… remembrance… celebration… connection with past loved ones through breath, movement & vocalisation.

AñA Wojak creates visually poetic works that resonate with a visceral depth, with a particular interest in site-specificity, durational performance, ritual and altered states.

Based in Northern Rivers NSW this Australian inter-disciplinary artist studied in Gdańsk, Poland and has been an exhibiting visual artist for over 40 years, a performance artist for 20. Their work has been short listed in numerous award exhibitions and their performance and video have been shown throughout Australia and internationally. Lamentations, her most recent cycle of performances has been enacted in Melbourne, Java, Malaysia and Singapore.

Energetic exchange & esoteric arts meld with a deeply rooted Eastern European sensibility and lush aesthetic across all their mediums.

Peter Banki 5/2/17 Peter Banki 5/2/17

Surrendering with Tod Thompson

In this workshop, we will physically explore letting go. We will undergo a process of guided relaxation of the body and from this relaxed state, we will explore the beginnings and endings of interactions with other people with the help of tai chi partner work.

Tod Thompson is tai chai practitioner and player for 20 years experience. He has always had an intense interest in human beings and the human condition. This has expressed itself through involvement in a wide variety of lifestyles and practices from Thai Massage to trading financial markets. He got involved in the recovery movement over 17 years ago and as part of that exploration he developed a keen interest in psychology and counselling, specifically a variant of Gestalt termed Conscious Integration. Todd was recognised for his emotional courage, empathy and technical aptitude and was asked to co-lead and later lead emotional exploration process groups. Todd has always had a keen interest in the nexus of sexuality and authentic relating and the issues that arise through relating and how those issues can be a portal to healing less than optimal formative experiences. Since 1992, Tai Chi Chuan has been a consistent source of experiencing and healing on the physical, emotional and energetic levels for Todd. It has been a source of great insight and inspiration and a touchstone in being present and harmonious in relationship.

Peter Banki 5/1/17 Peter Banki 5/1/17

Closing Ceremony with Boats

The closing ceremony will be at sunset and will involve a water departure at the Rushcutters Bay jetty.

The closing ceremony will be an opportunity to gather the whole festival together at sunset and will involve a water departure at the Rushcutters' Bay jetty.

Peter Banki 4/19/17 Peter Banki 4/19/17

Meditations with David Packman

Contemplating death and dying is a core principle in meditative practice. Drawing on his own experiences, as well as lessons from historical influences such as the Stoics, the Samurai and Buddhist traditions of conscious dying, David Packman will guide workshop participants through a powerful death meditation as well as discuss the concepts and underlying philosophy of such a practice. The workshop will also include a series of related exercises which focus on the pivot point where life is given and taken away – the breath.

After more than 20 years working with the world’s leading brands as a communications senior executive, a series of significant life events led David Packman to shift gears. In 2007, his sister chose to end her life after many years struggling with chronic physical illness. Three years later his mother made the same decision after a courageous battle with cancer. Shortly after, David was diagnosed with a progressive rare blood cancer himself. During the journey of self-discovery that ensued, David turned to meditation and now helps others by using that medium to share his experiences of life and death. A qualified mindset coach and MAA-registered meditation teacher, David is also a certified HeartMath and Wim Hof Method instructor. A regular speaker and facilitator, David is an editor at The Good Men Project and contributes to numerous other wellbeing and lifestyle publications. David can be found at www.thefifthdirection.com.au.