Where should the birds fly after the last sky?

Where should the birds fly after the last sky? 2012 | Live Performance, Installation and Sound | Dandenong Winter Arts Festival

The motor vehicle is a metaphor of a nest and it carries memories that has taken place in the past. I installed two video cameras in night shot mode inside the car to capture the live performance in the dark. I collected materials from different origins and used them as a point of departure to create abstract moments and open-ended narratives. My intent is to reconcile past experiences and invent future ones. I am interested in the impact of displacement and the arrival into a new place – the feeling of uncertainty in the space combined with unfamiliar collection of objects and images that captures both isolation and eventual adaptation. I am interested in creating moments of similarities from the past to construct a memory of space in the present. Dance artist Janette Hoe and I used the internal space of the car as a stimulus to shape the performance piece. The performer’s body in the space represented the subjects-on-hold, frozen, in transition between lives and countries. The fear of being viewed by the public was expressed thru movement and repetitive gestures that suggested paranoia.

Photography: Jason Edwards
Artistic Concept, Installation, Sound and Video: Riza Manalo
Performers: Riza Manalo / Janette Hoe

© Riza Manalo 2018