All music written/performed by Michael Shirrefs 2006-2012
Histrionics Vol.2
Asia+Europe=Australia?
In 2010, Australia joined the Asia-Europe Meeting. Australia has strong cultural connections with Europe, but our geographic location puts us in Asia. So were we invited to join the ASEM as part of Asia or Europe? Many may perceive Australia as a portal between the two continents – particularly where trade and business are concerned. But when it comes to arts and culture it’s a different story, with criticism that Australia doesn’t exploit its potential.
In May 2012 a public forum was held in Melbourne to discuss the idea—Does Asia+Europe=Australia? The provocative question was tackled by a panel consisting of H.E David Daly, EU Ambassador to Australia; H.E.Patrick Renault, Belgian Ambassador to Australia; Lesley Alway, Asialink Arts Director; the event’s organiser, David Pledger, Artistic Director of Not Yet It’s Difficult; and the panel was chaired by Radio National’s Michael Shirrefs.
Art on a Twig
There’s an old tradition in parts of rural Australia of the ‘Twig’ or ‘Twiggy’—suddenly deciding, on a whim, to stop by the side of the road, light a camp-fire with some friends and sit around for a chat. Now the idea’s being revived, with an artist-in-residence staging Twigs on farms along the Victorian/NSW border. And it’s giving farming communities, who’ve been through a lot in recent years, a strong sense of their own cultural identity.
An artist-in-residence, Trevor Flinn, has been staying for a week at a time with the farming families—with a Twig being held at the end of the week for a small group of invited guests. And the impact on these small communities has been surprising.
But if you’re still unsure about what a Twig really is, Michael Shirrefs has travelled to see Peter Redfearn, who hosted the first Twig at his property—a farm called Farnley, just south of Moulamein in NSW.
India: Future Traditions
This week on Creative Instinct Michael Shirrefs meets two very modern and creative Indians, championing the power of tradition in an India that’s grappling with a global identity.
There’s an idea that’s been percolating for a while in the minds of many people in India. What’s the price of change? Will Indians still recognise their country as it hurtles into a larger arena of influence and economic power?
For many Indians who understand the risks of global homogeneity, the myriad crafts and artistic traditions from across the vast Indian subcontinent are the very things that will help India survive the future with its Indian-ness intact.
Michael’s first port of call is with a designer called Ishan Khosla. He’s based at a place in southern Delhi called Hauz Khas Village, on the edge of a massive water tank or reservoir, built in the 14th century. The Village is a tangle of narrow streets that, over the past seven or so years, have increasingly become gentrified, housing a mix of creative businesses and boutique shops.
From there, Michael heads to another part of South Delhi called Greater Kailash Part 1—simply known as GK1—to meet a woman everyone seems to be talking about. Her name is Minhazz Majumdar. She’s one of a breed of very strong, capable and influential women in modern India.
Both Minhazz and Ishan are powerful advocates for the importance of traditional artforms and regional voices in India’s future.
Broadcast on Creative Instinct, ABC RN, on 30-6-2012
© 2012, Michael Shirrefs & ABC RN
Tales of Persia
This week, a Creative Instinct illuminated by the poetry of Persia, and the exquisite work of ancient Persian artists and calligraphers.
Over the past few months, Australia’s been the fortunate beneficiary of an exhibition driven by some quite original scholarship from local curators, and by the deep knowledge and finest treasures from the Bodleian Library in Oxford. And the result has been a rare glimpse into some of the earliest and most beautiful Persian manuscripts—lush works of art and literature.
The exhibition, at the State Library of Victoria, is called Love and Devotion, and on show are works that illustrate the writings of familiar Sufi poets, like Rumi and Hafiz, and grand storytellers like Omar Khayyám and Abu’l Qasim Firdausi.
And this story really begins with Firdausi, because his epic verse tales of rulers and heroic deeds are the earliest example we have in book form. It’s called the Shahnama—The Book of Kings—and Charles Melville, Professor of Persian History at the University of Cambridge, sees the creation of the Shahnama as a crucial moment.
Broadcast on Creative Instinct, ABC RN, on 9-6-2012
© 2012, Michael Shirrefs & ABC RN
The Pinjarra Massacre
The story of colonial Australia is as much a story of dispossession as it is of settlement, and dispossession often went hand in hand with terrible brutality. As a result, a great many regions of Australia have massacres of Indigenous peoples woven into their story—some are widely acknowledged, some will never be fully known, and others are sources of historical argument.
And so today we’re looking at a violent incident that occurred in Western Australia 178 years ago, in which 21 Nyoongar people were killed in a raid by mounted troops.
The place was Pinjarra, about an hour’s drive south of Perth—and the event is variously known as the ‘Battle of Pinjarra’ or the ‘Pinjarra Massacre’. And this is the point, because language and labels are powerful, and an event’s meaning in history can be summed up in a single name.
Only in the last 15 to 20 years have the circumstances of the killings in 1834 been scrutinised and the evidence makes the conventional white story look very shaky.
It’s the basis of a website and of a stage production called Bindjareb Pinjarra which is now on a national tour of Australia.
Broadcast on Creative Instinct, ABC RN, on 2-6-2012
© 2012, Michael Shirrefs & ABC RN
कुम्हार Potters Recaste
An enduring collaboration between Indian and Australian potters is featured on Creative Instinct this week.
Michael Shirrefs is on a journey to the outskirts of Delhi, to enter a labyrinthine series of pottery colonies.
In a city of more than 16 million people, the need for functional and ceremonial ceramic objects is endless. But being a potter, or Kumhar, in India is not a choice. In a world of traditional hierarchies and castes which dictate the lives of millions of individuals, families and communities, it’s a life that you’re born into.
However, in a modern India, this sort of collective fatalism is being questioned. The word ‘caste’ is increasingly out of favour, and things are changing … slowly.
Michael Shirrefs is heading to an area called Vikas Nagar—off the main drag, and into the narrow, dusty, unmarked streets—to find a potters’ colony called Kumhaargram.
It’s an endless chaos of auto-rickshaws and trucks and people and cows and dogs, and he’s looking for one person in particular—an Australian potter called Sandra Bowkett.
To listen to the program, click here …
Broadcast on Creative Instinct, ABC RN, on 14-4-2012
© 2012, Michael Shirrefs & ABC RN
Gautam Bhatia’s India
There is no singular view of a country like India, either from within or from beyond. However, someone like Gautam Bhatia has a better perspective than many, having spent many years abroad, and then returning to his native land.
Michael Shirrefs wandered through the streets of New Delhi to meet Gautam Bhatia, who’s a writer, an architect and an artist and a very articulate observer of change. In fact he returned to India precisely because he saw his country was in an amazing state of flux.
Gautam Bhatia represents a class of India’s intellectuals that’s attempting to see the way forward for their country, for their culture and for the people—all the people across all the vast cities and regions.
To listen to the program, click here …
Broadcast on Creative Instinct, ABC RN, on 24-3-2012
© 2012, Michael Shirrefs & ABC RN
Rama Mani: Art in Extremis
How important is art in times of genocide?
Rama Mani, who’s worked in country after country, and across all continents, has seen that art reappears, phoenix-like, after the worst atrocities and inhumanity. Whenever societies are stifled with injustice, and crushed by physical and cultural violence, remarkably the human spirit of creativity refuses to die.
She saw that wherever injustice and destruction struck its deathly hand, art seemed to arise from the ashes, defying injustice, defying death itself.
This program is a tribute to Art in all its myriad forms, however and wherever it can exist. Openly or furtively—loudly, with collective voices and stomping feet, as in South Africa’s anti-apartheid music—or unobtrusively, as in the poetic ballads of the Somalis.
Sometimes it is both surreptitious and brazen, like the graffiti on the walls of Palestine or East Timor or Kosovo, where inhabitants are trapped within battlefields.
Rama Mani is a senior research fellow with the University of Oxford and a member of the World Future Council, and on Creative Instinct, Rama Mani speaks with Michael Shirrefs.
To listen to the program, click here …
Broadcast on Creative Instinct, ABC RN, on 3-3-2012
© 2012, Michael Shirrefs & ABC RN
One Pig : One Matthew Herbert
This week the sonic biography of One Pig, from the studio of Matthew Herbert.
He’s one of the most prolific composers in the UK, but not in any conventional sense of the word. Because Matthew Herbert has increasingly made his name as the master of music made from the audible world.
For many years now, Matthew’s been exploring the range of musical possibilities from using ‘found sound’—real-world recordings that have their own intrinsic musicality and can be coaxed into forms that we hear as having a musical structure.
Matthew has performed and recorded for many years. He’s written film music—most recently for the remarkable Ridley Scott production called Life In A Day.
But the project he’s just finished is a trilogy of recordings all with the prefix of One—One One, One Club and One Pig.
One One was made from sounds sourced solely from himself. One Club was created from sounds, recorded in one night, in a Frankfurt nightclub.
And the final recording, One Pig? Well, it’s represents the life-cycle of a single pig … and beyond. From birth to the table.
To listen to the program, click here …
First broadcast on Creative Instinct, ABC RN, on 25-02-2012
Guests
Matthew Herbert—UK composer, musician and producer
Miyuki Jokiranta—Sound artist
Further Information
Life in a Day—YouTube movie
Produced by Ridley Scott and with soundtrack by Matthew Herbert
Credits
Producer—Michael Shirrefs
Sound Engineer—John Jacobs
© 2012, Michael Shirrefs & ABC RN