After a year hiatus, the Gertrude Street Projection Festival has returned in 2019 with artists exploring the theme of Persist. Resist. Shift. It was a quiet Tuesday evening as I walked down Gertrude Street tonight and it felt like there were a smaller number of pieces than in previous years. One of the first large scale projections I saw was Yandell Walton's Voice, which focused on images of young climate activists.
One of my favorite things in the festival each year are the projections on the Atherton Towers, and this year they were done by Atong Atem in her piece Looking On, which explored othering and the gaze that accompanies it.
Another piece that I really liked were the aerial landscapes of Taloi Havini's Habitat on the Builders Arms Hotel. This piece explored the cultural and environmental contexts of Bougainville during Papua New Guinea's independence period.
The Gertrude Street Projection Festival runs until Saturday, 3 August 2019.
It's been eight years since Seeker Lover Keeper released their debut album. The supergroup featuring Sarah Blasko, Sally Seltmann and Holly Throsby are back and played a couple intimate shows in Sydney and Melbourne ahead of the August release of their new album Wild Seeds. I was fortunate to get a ticket to last night's sold out show at the Northcote Social Club.
I arrived for the second opening act, Alice Skye, who just managed to make the show after flight delays from Sydney. She played a short and mellow set that featured songs from her debut album Friends With Feelings. Accompanied by a guitarist and playing keys, she joked that she was bringing the room down with her more somber songs.
Seeker Lover Keeper then hit the stage in full band mode and treated us to a sneak peak of Wild Seeds as they played the new album in full from start to finish. There was not one dud song in the bunch and they took turns singing lead and harmonising together. The banter was quite funny and a bit awkward at times, and included some running commentary on Sarah’s throat gargling in the upstairs toilet (which an audience member walked in on).
After they were done playing Wild Seeds they did a few tracks from their first album with "Light All My Lights," "On My Own," and the anthemic "Even Though I’m A Woman" to finish the main set. For the encore the three of them came back out and sang "Bring Me Back" to close out the night. It was an excellent show and I'm looking forward to getting the album when it comes out.
Here's the video for "Let It Out" featuring Magda Szubanski
