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Do Not Go Gentle

An audio-visual collaboration on death, dying, memory and love. Originally commissioned by David Atkins for White Night 2017.

Do Not Go Gentle resonates with images of women elders preparing to battle death. Tended by younger women, they look beyond the screen, knowing it is a battle they will lose. The work movingly evoking concepts of dark, night and age, of light passing, of wisdom gained, encouraging viewers to consider their own time, their own elders and the time they have left together.

Do Not Go Gentle is a three-channel projection and soundscape commissioned by David Atkins for White Night Ballarat 2017. It reflects on time, memory and dying, and is created to engage audiences in their own memories of past loved ones and elders in their present. The soundtrack resonates and reverberates as memory takes its own breath.

Created by Christine Tammer, the soundtrack bumps up against those emotions held so close. Yum Studio’s visual work is nuanced with a strangeness that beckons and teases memories to appear. Time is the constant, clicking between heartbeat and echoes of generations.

The beauty of Do Not Go Gentle is heightened through the vocals of Dylan Thomas from his BBC recordings, within the reflection of heritage footage from Erin & Christine’s family and the National Library of Congress.

ARTIST BIOS

Christine Tammer

Chris is a composer, arranger, musician and vocal improv teacher. She creates delicate intricate works that shake the emotions, using layers of polyphonic textures. Recent works include composing and producing for the 24 Hour Experience (Ballarat) and the Metanoia Theatre (MilkBars).

Erin M McCuskey

Erin is a multimedia and film artist with a reputation for working in the space between art and cinema. She is the author of transmedia project Luxville, with commissions for Finucane & Smith, City of Ballarat, Art Gallery of Ballarat and screenings at Melbourne International Film Festival and Gertrude Street Projection Festival.


RECENT COLLABORATIVE WORKS

Twirl de Lux a short art film. Please email for private link.

An Indelicate Performance a portrait of Lola Montez for the Digital Portraiture Award. Please email for private link.

Silver Rememberings a commissioned piece by the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute (BMI). link: https://vimeo.com/181901009

Arising short film to music for Biennale Of Australian Art (BOAA) link: https://vimeo.com/239410555


MEDIA

Christine Tammer Music christinetammermusic.com

Erin McCuskey Yum Studio yumstudio.com.au


“A highlight of White Night Ballarat was Do Not Go Gentle. I first experienced it walking around the corner from my hotel, delighting in its choice of site: projected onto a structure set back from a laneway, it drew passers-by in with a curiosity that was gently transformed into a close focus.

As I moved from there to Ballarat’s more densely populated intersections, where thousands of faces gazed up at the work of thousands of lumens projected onto enormous heritage façades, all the talk was of that intimate work on Chancery Lane…

What did it mean? What was the story? Let’s go back together!

The sensitive composition of personal stories and evocative sounds drew us in for more than just moments: for audiences expecting scale and spectacle, this was one of the most important White Night works in resetting our expectations of what it means to wander through a town at will, to encounter its people in new ways, to reimagine its histories and be welcomed into its present.

Thank you Erin McCuskey and Christine Tammer – I can’t wait to see this work in a new context and experience its complex work of reinterpreting that new place into familiar stories. Very best of luck with your plans for this beautiful work.”

Esther Anatolitis, Director of Projects, Regional Arts Victoria.

WORKS SPECS

  • Video 3 Channel 1920 x 1080p (1.0), 25fps,
  • Apple ProRes, 48Hz .mov
  • (1 Channel linked to Audio)
  • Audio 48Hz Stereo
  • Dur: 30mins looping

Space requirements:

Do Not Go Gentle requires a space not impacted by direct light or external sound. Its premiere was in a small carpark off a laneway. It would work within a dilapidated building or pristine gallery environment. A dark quiet space that allows the audience to sit and feel embraced, to feel their own dark and to feel comfortable in that dark.

“Located down a dark laneway, the work was sonically constructed with beautifully delicate imagery. It wasn’t just gentle; it was a genuine awakening of the senses, a call to awaken oneself.”

Bryce Ives

Director Arts Academy, Federation University

“Visually stunning, beautiful audio and perfect site. Congratulations, one of my favourite works at White Night.”

Bernadette Fitzgerald,

Creative Producer, Footscray Community Arts Centre

“Experiencing Do Not Go Gentle was profound for me.

I was immediately drawn into the Courtyard space and compelled to sit between the women on either side of ‘centre stage’, to witness along with them.

The imagery on the brick wall was fabulous and combined with your incredible soundtrack – I found myself completely immersed in the message of women ageing and approaching death.

This was presented in such a real, grounded and sensitive way.”

Carole Crowe, Punter, White Night Ballarat

CREDIT LIST

Commissioned by David Atkins for White Night Ballarat

Concept proposed by Christine Tammer

SOUND Christine Tammer 

FILM Erin M McCuskey – Yum Studio

INSPIRATION Dylan Thomas Author

HANDLER Sam Redston DAE White Night Pty Ltd

DANCER Robyn Sedgwick

ELDERS

  • Aunty Marlene Gilson
  • Dulcie Corbett
  • Robyn Sedgwick
  • Liz Blizzard
  • Linda Franklin
  • Julianne Everleigh
  • Marg Dobson
  • Frances Salenga
  • Debra Lord
  • Anne Baxter
  • Christine Hickson
  • Vicki Coltman
  • Lynden Nicholls
  • Christine Tammer
  • Vikki Nash
  • Shirley Baxter
  • Rosalind Lawson
  • Jill Blee
  • Annie Drum
  • Patrice Braun
  • Lynden Baxter
  • Dona Pentland
  • Katheleen McLean
  • Monica E Langford
  • Jean Laing
  • Colleen Filippa

ARCHIVAL MEDIA

Dylan Thomas Recording BBC World Wide Learning.

Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division.

McCuskey Family Archive.

Tammer Family Archive.

THANK YOU

Michael Gwyther Yum Studio

Jim Austin & Julianne Everleigh Federation University

Dominic Monea & Vikki Nash Oxygen College

Alexander Herbert BBC Worldwide

Kat Pengelly Koshka

Loretta Hyland

Angela Robinson

Mitty Chibnall

Mayor Samantha McIntosh City of Ballarat

Sharon Knight MP State Member Wendouree

Catherine King MP Federal Member Ballarat


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Luxville Citizenship