PILOT ARTIST RESIDENCY
PROGRAM DATES: May - December 2022
LOCATION: Backbone at Seven Hills Hub
NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS RECEIVED: 36
NUMBER OF EVENTS:
1 new dance work - 2 public performances.
1 new theatre work - 3 public performances.
1 new visual art installation - 1 public performance + installation open for 3 weeks.
8 masterclasses delivered.
NUMBER OF PAID ARTISTS: 14
NUMBER OF AUDIENCES: 635
Pilot Artist Residency supported three young artists with part-time employment to engage in the first creative development of a new work or idea.
These 3 artists were weaved into the fabric of operations at Backbone, gained access to industry-leading mentor Chelsea McGuffin, participated in a series of 8 masterclasses to leverage producing skills for independent practice, and given free access to space at Seven Hills Hub to make their idea come to life.
To culminate their learning experiences, Pilot Artists in Residence presented the first showing of their new idea at Backbone Festival 2022.
MASTERCLASSES:
Networking Through Creative Play with Anna Yen (Independent artist)
Backing Yourself to Take a Risk - Producing 101 with Scott Maidment (Founder, Strut and Fret)
Creative Accounting Crash Course with The Creative Crunchers
Marketing for Independent Artists with Sampson Smith (Marketing Specialist, Brisbane Festival)
Allyship in Disability Arts 101 with Bree Hadley and Madeline Little (Undercover Artist)
How not-for-profits Operate and Survive with Sue Rider (Lead judge, Matilda Awards; Previous: Chair, Backbone & Artistic Director, La Boite)
Circus skills with Chelsea McGuffin (Founder, Chelsea McGuffin & Co.)
Technical & Design consultations with Steven May (Founder, Steven May Productions)
Image of Pierrot Directed by Martelle Simon-Green, photograph by Jade Ellis Photography.
MEET THE ARTISTS
DAKOTA HANNINGTON
Dakota, also known by his stage name Baby Blue, is a proud Mununjali & Irish choreographer and dancer. Having performed with some of Meanjin’s most influential collectives such as The House of Alexander and District Studios, Dakota is now making a name for himself as a solo performer, and sharing those skills with his community. Dakota’s dance style is unique, informed by his experiences in hip hop, vogue and whacking.
As a part of his Pilot Artist Residency, Dakota developed an immersive dance experience, ‘Sad Boys Luv Art’, a work that explored divine masculine and feminine expressions in the LGBTQIA+ community.
Dakota has continued his relationship with Backbone, joining the team in 2023 to lead hip hop workshops as part of Backbone’s Studio Sessions at Seven Hills Hub.
SAD BOYS LUV ART
Explore the enchanted deities that roam your binary in this immersive walk-through experience.
Transit through a world of male femininity and its enchanted creatures.
Be submerged in a creation that defies the commercial standard of masculinity and what it holds.
Be consumed by the magic and power that follows you on your journey, what creatures will you find?
“The concept of bringing together different forms of performance to celebrate male femininity was ingenious. By taking us into a fantasy world, Baby Blue showed us a dreamlike ideal world in which the masculine and feminine play together harmoniously. ”
MARTELLE SIMON-GREEN
Martelle Simon-Green is an award-winning director, writer and performer based in Meanjin (Brisbane). She received her BFA (Drama & Literature) from QUT. In 2018, Martelle developed La Silhouette (dir. SUI), an immersive theatre work that ran for two domestic seasons (Backbone Festival 2018, Brisbane Powerhouse Melt Festival 2019), before touring to the UK for a season at Battersea Arts Centre (UK, Homegrown Festival 2019). La Silhouette was awarded Best Independent Production (2019) at the Matilda Awards, and was nominated for the Lord Mayor’s award for Best New Australian Work (2019). In 2021, Martelle performed in the debut season of Tangerine Hour (dir. NDRNCE) for Metro Arts. She was a director and dramaturg for the 2022 season of Caribbean-Australian play, Dominoes and Rum (dir. Prince Brown). By night, Martelle is also a drag and cabaret performer under the pseudonym Duckie Darling. She has produced LGBTQ+ events for Backbone, Metro Arts and Brisbane Powerhouse and performs at queer events locally.
In 2022, Martelle was a Pilot Artist-in-Residence at Backbone, where she debuted her play Pierrot as writer and director, for Backbone Festival.
Martelle began as a teaching artist with Backbone Youth Arts Young Creators Program in 2021. Through her Pilot Residency she also developed and ran multiple education programs with Backbone. In 2023, Martelle has continued her relationship with Backbone in a part-time role as Lead Facilitator and Associate Producer.
PIERROT
Dive into the moonlight, lament in your longing, and laugh through loneliness at Pierrot; an ode to the infamous eternal clown.
Transcending hundreds of years of tradition, Pierrot reimagines this historical popular culture staple through three contemporary interpretations. Alongside his silk collar, pantomimic humour, and painting his face with moonlight, it is Pierrot’s unworldly naivete that has stood the test of time. Through Pierrot, he is brought back to life and given a voice thrice over, with original texts performed by three local performing artists, each of whom change him evermore.
A man in love with the moon, interpreted by three performers, Pierrot is a lovelorn lamentation on naivete, moonlight and the clown who never dies.
“This show created big explosions for me: it is literally pure magic!”
MICAH RUSTICHELLI
Micah Rustichelli is a Meanjin-based, multidisciplinary artist working primarily in painting and performance art. Since 2016 Rustichelli has been developing an expanded practice which investigates the role of the self and the body in relation to art making.
More recently, the artist has been exploring these performance ideas in the context of circus and contemporary dance alongside their interest in applying performance in fine arts, expanded sculpture and drawing.
In 2022, Micah joined Backbone as a Pilot Artist in Residence, developing a new body of work ‘Howling Jackals’ exploring the duality of deliverance and destruction in eschatology.
During his Pilot Residency, Micah had the opportunity to work with HOTA on the Gold Coast & Woodford Folk Festival. Both of these opportunities, and the networking they allowed, have resulted in ongoing relationships and potential for future projects, including interstate employment. After participating in the Pilot Artist Residency, Micah, also secured an internship at Museum of Brisbane. He has continued his relationship with Backbone, recently being employed to perform at Teneriffe Festival 2023.
HOWLING JACKALS
What is real is a subjective truth for some, with apocalyptic consequences for others.
In the shadow of an ever-looming apocalypse there are those who fear it and those who look forward to its coming. Set in a post-revelations reality the cathedral is built on the fractured truths that have been left behind.
Howling Jackals weaves a distorted mythology in which tragedy and ecstasy occupy the same place in space and time, between truth and belief.
“Howling Jackals is the type of exhibition I love, creative, wholly unique, and deeply provocative. I spent a great deal of time studying each piece as they underwent a metamorphosis before my eyes.”