Projections at City of Lights

The projections play on the hour every hour from 8pm. We encourage you to walk through the Perth Cultural Centre to experience each projection. 

16 February to 14 March, 2021
Time 8pm – midnight, Tuesday to Sunday, on loop beginning on the hour, every hour.
No projections on Mondays.

Bilya Beneath 

All buildings
On the hour from 8pm

Commissioned and produced by Perth Festival with Clint Logan and Sandbox
Creative Associate Mark Howett
Director David Vincent Smith
Director of Photography (Water) Rick Rifici
Cinematographer Lewis Potts
Timelapse cinematography Stefan Kraus
Camera Assistant Ari Gillespie
Art Director Sally Phipps
Production Co-Ordinator Emma Jackson
Sandbox Online & Colourist Denzil Heeger  
Music Boodja Koorndarminy
Written by Della Rae Morrison & Charley Caruso
Performed by Della Rae Morrison, Charley Caruso and Barry McGuire
Music Production Josh Hogan, Lee Buddle

On the hour, every hour, a symbolic river rises and washes away the layers of images and history - the crescendo of the modern world and the projected environment finds quiet and tranquillity, euphoria and rebirth in the middle of our city.

Northbridge is built on what was once a fresh water source for the Whadjuk Noongar people, and Bilya Beneath tells the story of that water and its connection to the waters of the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River).

Bilya (river) is the source of life and the beginning of histories of this place.  But in another sense, it speaks to all our river and the people who live alongside it and amongst it. It is a representation of us.

The idea of the river being a life source is the key inspiration for this short film, shot on location in, on and along the banks of the Swan River.

It is set to new music by Noongar singer songwriter Della-Rae Morrison and Charley Caruso which talks not only of histories but of a new dreaming into the future. An orchestral version of this music also features in the 2021 Perth Festival Concert Dreams of Place. 

The film has two components: The River as a Lifeforce, for the people of Western Australia to view it as their own living, bubbling organism; and Humans and Nature, focusing on the landscapes, sunrises and sunsets we all know the river generously provides us with. The way we play, its food, and how humans and animals all share the bilya.

Life Through the Lens

State Theatre Centre

Edited by Richard Evans from the personal Super 8 archive (1954 – 1989) of the Honourable Max Evans MBE

As Minister for Racing and Gaming in the Richard Court Government, the Honourable Max Evans MBE was the driving force in the creation of Lotterywest. Max was also a prolific documentarian of the people and places that his rich and storied life brought him into contact with, shooting almost 18 hours of Super 8 film over a period of nearly 30 years.

Now digitised by his son Richard, the archive sandwiches moments and people of historical significance between quiet moments of personal reflection. Selected highlights of the archive present a disarming portal into a transformative period of modern Perth.

Wetlands

PICA 

Artists Sam Price with Annie Huang

The Derbarl Yerrigan connects many Western Australians through time and place. It is a through line that ties us to our physical neighbours, but also to previous generations of Western Australians and previous incarnations of the land we inhabit.

Wetlands references this history and the original wetland on which PICA now sits, showing the evolution of this location into its current form as a home for local and international artists and their art.

The work draws upon the experimental practices that PICA has nurtured and encouraged, bringing together illustrations of flora, fauna and faces with digital networks that display them as manifestations of the river, the wetland or the built environment of the Perth Cultural Centre.

In acknowledging PICA’s commitment to supporting new artistic work, Sam Price mentored recent UWA graduate Annie Huang, whose projection-mapped sculptural work was selected for inclusion in PICA’s 2020 Hatched program.

A Night Inside Out at the Museum

Hackett Hall, WA Museum Boola Bardip

Artist Kye Howard

A specular series of illusions bring the Museum and its collections to life. See the century century-old façade of Hackett Hall fade, crumble, and rebuild itself anew, exposing the whale – and other treasured stories – kept within.

History in Motion: Visual Stories from the State Library of Western Australia

State Library of WA (Amphitheatre side)

Artist Roly Skender

The State Library of Western Australia becomes a giant canvas of moving pictures, bringing the richness and depth of its collections to life.

The work will expose significant parts of the collection to the outside world. Intimate details of letters, artworks, photographs, illustrations, newspapers and other hidden gems willbe rendered larger than life, piecing together an abridged visual history of Western Australia.

Digital artist Roly Skender, in an ongoing collaboration with the State Library of Western Australia, presents this bespoke projection work for Perth Festival.

Pieces

State Library of WA (James St side)

Artist Nicolee Fox

A slideshow of portraits documents some of the people of the Perth Cultural Centre – the artists, workers, visitors and volunteers who bring the culture to the centre.

With a background in film, photography and records management, Nicolee Fox is deeply interested in the physical presence of memory and creating a tangible human presence. Shot on a range of physical and digital media – film, mini DV tape film, phone camera, and home-printed cyanotypes – this work captures a vivid snapshot of the Perth Cultural Centre at start of 2021.

Featuring portraits of Janet Carter, Hafsa Mohamed, Suzanne Fielding, Ryan Sandilands, Leslie Rigot, Cara Teusner-Gartland, Salma Youssef, Aisyah Sumito, Brent Harrison, Asha Kiani, Alisha Francis, Yoshiko Kon, Cecile Vuaillat, Carla Adams, Wade Taylor, Helen Smith, Dimitri Dimitriadis, Alex Hayes, Julien Solecio, Leonor Solecio, Walter Solecio, Mimi Helm, Paul Komadina, Mark Howett, Jenny Robinson, Alec Thomas, Charlotte Sym, Darcy St James.

Beautifully Brutal

Art Gallery of Western Australia

Director Dominic Pearce
Cinematographer Ben Berkhout
Producer Sandbox

Beautifully Brutal showcases AGWA as a place where diverse cultural influences come together in surprising ways.

The Art Gallery of Western Australia’s main building is an iconic example of Brutalist architecture Marking both the 40th Anniversary of the Brutalist building in 2019 and AGWA’s 125th anniversary in 2020, Beautifully Brutal features roaming video that explores the Gallery’s original design features and reveals the beauty within what some consider to be an impenetrable exterior. This architectural study is juxtaposed with significant works from AGWA’s collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, acknowledging the opening of a major new collection exhibition - Balancing Act - that places Indigenous art front and centre in the gallery experience.

The project launches at a transformational time for AGWA as the rooftop development fulfils the architect’s original plan to make AGWA’s upper level publicly accessible, making the Gallery a true point of connection between the cultural centre and the city. As new gallery spaces develop under the construction site cladding, Beautifully Brutal projects the Gallery’s past and present on the site that is manifesting this rich and long-term civic vision for the future.