Pilots Take Flight - In Conversation with Micah Rustichelli
“…what could happen if we who are left behind were to survive the apocalypse, and, what would we pull together to believe in after such an event?.”
In 2022, Backbone welcomed three young artists into our Pilot Artists in Residence program. The offer was simple, but life changing: work with Backbone for 6 months as an artist in residence and get paid to create the first development of a brand new idea. Now all of that hard work is coming to fruition with the opening of Backbone Festival this Friday the 28th of October, where our Pilots take centre stage.
Micah Rustichelli is one of our Pilots who has been hard at work transforming The Workshop at Seven Hills Hub into an immersive exploration of the divine and deliverance through their exhibition ‘Howling Jackals’.
We had a chat with Micah to dive deeper into their experience, and what to expect from Howling Jackals opening Friday 28th of October to 12th November…
Tell us about the experience of seeing Howling Jackals…
Howling Jackals is a strange, violent and delicious work to live in. Removing the glory and shine of the idealised, this installation embraces the weird, absurd and wonderful images of apocalyptic religion and myth. Exploring the idea of apocalyptic fantasy, Jackals questions what could happen if we who are left behind were to survive the apocalypse, and, what would we pull together to believe in after such an event?
Why did you make this work?
Initially, I wanted to create this work as a fictional, narrative story of some kind. Through the process of development, I discovered that what I really needed from this work was a purging of sorts. I think that’s what this iteration of Howling Jackals is, a vessel to purge my fears, hopes and curiosities around eschatology and the apocalypse. I feel like I’ve finally just scratched the itch and am excited to see where this strand leads moving forward.
What has the Pilot experience been like for you?
The Pilot program has been such a wonderful, strange and new experience. In terms of Howling Jackals, some projects just need a little bit of push from an outside source to allow them to find their potential. Being able to explore this project with stable and consistent support has provided this project the incubator it needed to find out what it could, or wants, to be.
As for myself as an artist, it has been such a valuable learning experience. The biggest lesson has been seeing just how important it is to support artists with stable and consistent employment. Being able to focus on this project with the safety net and stability of working with Backbone has been pivotal to its success. Being able to collaborate with the team at Backbone has helped me to expand my practice a little more and gave me the space to ask for help when needed and answers to “the silly questions” that are so very helpful.
What are you most excited for at Backbone Festival?:
I am most excited to see the Seven Hills Hub activated as an exciting multidisciplinary arts space. There is so much potential at this venue and I am excited to give our Brisbane audiences a little taste at what is possible when artists get together to experiment and play and make something happen.