Who is Azaria Universe?
Performance and Visual Artist.
What would you do differently to what you do now?
In another life I would be a scientist, and travel and study the planet.
Who inspires you and why?
Clever ladies, young women who speak their minds, audacious individuals who buck the status quo.
What would you do to make a difference in the world?
Advocate for children’s rights. Their right to be safe and have access to food, education and healthcare.
Favourite holiday destination and why?
Somewhere with sunshine, and a hammock. Or the Trans Siberian Express mid-winter; the long fairytale pajama party of extremes, it’s down to -45 degrees outside, the snow falls like clumps of white feathers wrapping everything up. Jumping off to buy hot potatoes from the Babushkas that are so hot you can’t even eat them. And ice cream so frozen you need to take them back on board to defrost! Playing cards, drinking vodka into the night with wild Russians. Being rocked to sleep as we *click clack* a third of the way around the world in seven days…
When friends come to town, what attraction would you take then to, and why?
Out to see some transgressive live art, dinner at one of the too-many-to-name eateries in Melbourne, then a slow wander home via back street bars and hidden clubs.
What are you currently reading?
Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham, The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, He’ll Be OK by Celia Lashlie, and Wallpaper by Havana Guide.
What are you currently listening to?
When The Storms Would Come by Holy Holy.
Happiness is?
Being with my 4-year-old twin sons, watching little minds and bodies grow.
What does the future hold for you?
Touring Finucane & Smith’s show Glory Box to Havana, Cuba! Followed closely by Day of the Dead in Mexico.
Azaria Universe is an experimental feminist performance artiste, trained at The Moscow Circus School in Russia. Her influences draw from traditional sideshow and circus of yesteryear. She has created and performed with Glory Box since its inception in 2004; contorting on trapeze, spinning golden hoops on her body, flinging herself across the stage dressed in Pearls, or emerging from a swarm of butterflies.
She is a luminary of Circus Oz, Circus Monoxide, the Tiny Top, Rock’n’Roll Circus and the Candy Butchers. Azaria’s work subverts and redefines the presentation of the female form onstage, monstrous and delightful.
Hailing from the halcyon days of subversive underground Australian performance art and positioning herself at the cutting edge of avant garde theatre, Azaria’s work has travelled from London to Korea, New York to Eastern Europe. Audiences have blushed, stormed the stage, and ultimately demanded more.
Azaria can be seen once more in Finucane & Smith’s Glory Box La Revolucion from 20 August 2015 in the Melba Speigeltent. For more information, visit: www.finucaneandsmith.com for details.
Image: Azaria Universe