haiku

November 20, 2009

Journeying through the world

To and fro, to and fro

Cultivating a small field

Basho

slideshow updated

November 4, 2009

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the photos (stills from video) from our very special performance at Changdong Art Studios are now in the nok cha cafe slideshow

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November 2, 2009

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Video of Nok Cha Cafe performance in Changdong, collaboration by Nathan Stoneham & Jeremy Neideck @ Cue – Changdong Open Studios 7

Hannah Suarez from Bris­bane Cre­at­ive Indus­tries shares inspir­ing stor­ies of com­munit­ies and organ­isa­tions who have spot­ted empty spaces in their cit­ies — from aban­doned shop­fronts to car park­ing spaces — adop­ted and trans­formed them through creativity.

read more…

poster

WHAT: Nok Cha Cafe (performance meditation, video, sound, live art & music + free korean green tea)

WHO:  Jeremy Neideck & Nathan Stoneham

WHEN:  Tomorrow night!  27th Oct @ 7pm

WHERE:  Changdong Art Studios, Changdong, Seoul, Korea.

HOW TO GET THERE:  Take the light blue line (number 4) to Changdong, exit the train station via exit 2 – keep walking in the direction of the stairs out of the station, cross the road and catch bus 1157 to the Korea Exchange Bank, Changdong branch – the studios are next door!  Alternatively, show a taxi driver this map once you get to Changdong!

map

looking back

October 19, 2009

A video package of footage from the Brisbane season of Nok Cha Cafe as part of Brisbane Festival’s Under The Radar Festival.

Enough time has passed for me to sit down and write a little about the Brisbane season of Nok Cha Cafe.  To be honest, it was quite an exhausting experience – creating this “solo” work (I was the only live performer, but many people contributed to the video & audio material) was time consuming and mentally draining…  I faced a couple of problems that can arise when performing a public performance, in a relatively un-controlled environment, without any preparation in the performance space or with the technology that will be used.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was disappointed with the first night due to some projector issues – but now I just consider that a tech run, since I’m happy with how the other nights went!  Day 2, 3 & 4 were pretty smooth sailing and I received some lovely feedback.  In the same way that my season opened on a downer, it ended on a downer too due to an intoxicated man abusing me after the show for a few minutes until security was called and I was escorted away.  It was really difficult for me to understand what upset him so much.  He was an angry nationalist, and he said he was disgusted by my ignorance.  Despite the abuse (which was not aimed at the work, or at my appearance/sexuality/behaviour – but rather my thinking… somehow… it’s pretty irrational since he doesn’t know anything about how or what I think) I remained calm.

Anyway, despite these unfortunate moments, I was proud of Nok Cha Cafe.  I’m proud of the video of performance stunts that I featured, proud of the music I wrote, proud to facilitate a cross-cultural process between Australia, Korea and Japan, proud to include elements of Korean culture and language, and very very proud that I was able to donate to Solidarity for LGBT Human Rights, Korea.  Since the work was heavily focused on multi-media, I feel like the live action could be developed into a more structured performance… but after our showcase of Nok Cha at the National Museum of Contemporary Art next week, I think I need a rest from this project.  Time for something new.

It was what is was.  A performance art meditation on separation & displacement using tea to help us be present in the here and now.

new photos

October 3, 2009

Photos from Nok Cha Cafe in Queen Street Mall as part of  Brisbane Festival’s Under The Radar have now been added to the Nok Cha Cafe slide show.

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In line with my philosophy to match the cost of making art and donate that amout to a charity/aid agency/human rights group, I’m donating 869 290 Korean Won to Solidarity for LGBT Human Rights of Korea.

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Major goals of  Solidarity for LGBT Human Rights of Korea are as follows :

Abolishing discrimination of sexual minorities.

Achieving cooperation among different minority groups.

Establishing a consistent alliance against oppression on foreign workers, women and national workers.

Addressing sexual minorities issues onto “National Human Rights Commission”

Establishing cooperated shields against illegal investigation of gay bars and mass-media companies broadcasting and reporting biased news on sexual minorities.

Staging allied movements against the government’s illogical AIDS policies saying, “.. must have our sex education strengthened in order to help the youngsters avoid being involved in the homosexual ideas and activities, which will hopefully lower the rate of HIV-positive among the population ..”

For more info & the organisations history, visit here

2 nights left!

September 19, 2009

3933279130_3c3138c2bf_othanks for the photo Jason

Under The Radar has begun and Nok Cha Cafe is open!

Come to the top of Queen Street Mall (approaching George Street) to witness a traditional Korean green tea ceremony and some multimedia/performance.

We used a different projector tonight and the result was lovely – so if you happened to see the performance on Friday night (and couldn’t quite make out what the images were, and saw me struggling to interact with them…) feel free to drop in again on Sunday or Monday night at 8pm.  I was disappointed that I couldn’t give Friday’s audiences what I wanted to, but it’s all good now.

There’s a bunch of great stuff happening at UNDER THE RADAR, and BRISFEST – make sure you check out the website.

I head back to Korea on Friday, so this might be our last chance to catch-up for another couple of months…

Gotta thank Fi & The UTR team for quickly fixing the tech issues.  Also Mum and my sisters for last-minute help.  And Kate and Alice for their excellent FOH skills xoxoxoxoxoxo

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