HOME
2016
High resolution digital projection (6500 x 1080 @ 25fps)
60m x 15m
90mins
Directed by Nigel Jamieson
Artistic Associate & Design : Zoe Atkinson
Artistic Associate & Animation Supervisor: Sohan Ariel Hayes
Commissioned by Wendy Martin for the Perth Festival
Audience: 50,000
Notes:
In 2016 I was invited by Zoe Atkinson to serve as Artistic Associate & Animation Supervisor to Nigel Jamieson for the opening event Home (2016). My reply was very enthusiastic, yes, wonderful! Though, to be honest I hadn’t considered the implications of meeting the demands of an event involving more than 500 performers and a 60-metre long stage, with a cinematic backdrop displaying five three-storey houses.
The format Nigel had developed was like the most up-scaled family variety show filled with the most memorable names from Western Australia’s music and arts lineage. The task was to transform the variety show of many segments, each of them incredibly beautiful, into an arc epic storytelling that traversed “ WA's incredible Indigenous history, white settlement and what had happened since then, and also offered a shared vision for the future.”
The ambition was incredibly high and the resources incredibly thin, but thanks to many contributions and countless hours of diligent work we did manage, somehow, to bring this thing Home. The audience of approximately 50,000 who converged on Langley Park experienced something extraordinary that was never repeated. Not even did we get through a dress rehearsal for this colossal carousel of powerful voices and images.
Featuring: Wadumbah, Middar & Kwarbah Djookian (Welcome to Country Dance Groups) • Sharyn Egan • The Drones • Western Australian Youth Orchestra • The Waifs • Grace Barbé • Tara Tiba • Lucky Oceans & Vicky Ramakrishnan • Ernie Dingo with the House Band and Swing It Dancers • Robert Drewe • Dave Warner • The Panics • Shaun Tan • Josie Boyle • The Pigram Brothers • The Triffids • Kim Scott • Tim Minchin