Abbotsford Convent has announced that its two artists-in-residence for 2020 will be Hayley Tanzer and Jacob Boehme. Now in its third year, the Abbotsford Convent Studio Residency Program focuses on supporting artists to develop works that are site-specific or site-responsive.
Commencing her residency in January, Tanzer is a musical diva with an unmistakable voice. Known for her cinematic, high-glamour, escapist works that are at once intensely powerful, deeply fragile and darkly humorous, her work spans stages, clubs, galleries and festivals and fuses musical forms to a multitude of performative and artistic outcomes.
Her musical compositions move fluidly from opera to disco and from the experimental to pure pop – exploring self-image, gender, romance and the power of the alter ego. Her film and curatorial works are renowned for their elaborate dreamscapes and meticulous aesthetic that take stylistic cues from 70s retro-futurism, Euro camp and Australian pop culture nostalgia.
Tanzer’s residency with Abbotsford Convent will involve the creation of a original, iconic Australian disco composition embedded in a large-scale video installation, developed in collaboration with fellow artists within the alternative queer scene of Melbourne. It will be shown across a number of explosive musical events in 2020, beginning with a launch within the Convent itself.
In the second half of 2020, multi-disciplinary theatre maker and choreographer Jacob Boehme will take up his residency. A Melbourne born and raised artist of the Narangga and Kaurna Nations, South Australia, Boehme was the founding Creative Director of Yirramboi Festival and recipient of the 2018 Green Room Award for Curatorial Contribution to Contemporary and Experimental Arts.
Boehme is a multi-disciplinary theatre maker and choreographer, creating work for stage, screen, large-scale public events and festivals. Jacob has led the artistic direction of Tanderrum (Melbourne Festival), Boon Wurrung Ngargee (Yalukit Willam Festival), Thuwathu (Cairns Indigenous Arts Fair) and choreographed for the opening ceremonies of Dreamtime at the G, FINA World Swimming Championships and the Cricket World Cup.
Boehme is the writer and performer of the critically acclaimed solo work Blood on the Dance Floor, recipient of the 2017 Green Room Award Best Independent Production. Jacob currently sits on the Board of Directors for Dance House and Polyglot Theatre and is a member of the Ministry of Culture Taiwan South East Asia Advisory Panel.
Alumni of the Victorian College of the Arts, (MA in Arts – Playwriting, MA in Arts – Puppetry) Boehme is currently the recipient of the 2018 Australia Council for the Arts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Fellowship and the Artistic Director of Geelong After Dark.
The Studio Residency Program offers a unique opportunity for artists to have time, space and support to undertake site-specific or responsive research, investigation and consideration. Residency artists will invest in their own practice, and at the same time build their professional network and share their work with diverse audiences.
Works created through the studio residency will be presented throughout the Convent as a vibrant and temporary means of fostering delight and dialogue, as well as fostering engagement between our site, urban landscape, artistic community and audiences.
For more information about the Abbotsford Convent Studio Residency Program, visit: www.abbotsfordconvent.com.au for details.
Image: Jacob Boehme and Hayley Tanzer (supplied)