Lorne

The Living Stage, Lorne 2018

A centre piece of the Lorne Sculpture Biennale, the 6th Living Stage project provided a platform for celebrating Lorne’s vibrant and eclectic mix of flora and fauna, as well as hosting performances by local artists and musicians in coastal Victoria, Australia.

The Lorne project has been created in collaboration with Ashlee Hughes, assistant designer Pia Guilliatt and the local community. Lorne residents, Helen Smith and Colin Leitch have been particularly instrumental in procuring soil, plants and objects for the stage, with more than 45 boxes of plants actively growing in preparation for the Lorne Sculpture Biennale Opening on the 17th of March.

Live Performances

The Living Stage included a series of performances by local artists, including Mountain Grey, Randall Forsyth and Helen Duncan & Sofie Burgoyne.

Saturday 17th March: Mountain Grey (live music) 3-5pm

Complete with vintage guitar tones and bluegrass/ragtime style, this local band combined environmental themes with character and pizazz that had us tapping our feet and asking for more.

Sunday 18th March: Randall Forsyth ‘In search of an acoustic shoreline’ (live music) 1-3pm

Drawing on the natural sound elements of wind, ocean and forest, Randall created a beautiful soundscape with a series of acoustic guitar loops composed and created in real time.

EASTER Weekend: 31st March & 1st April: Helen Duncan & Sofie Burgoyne (Dance performance) 9:30-2:30pm (final performance: 2pm)

Two local dancers were invited to grow an original performance piece over a two-day creative development period specifically for The Living Stage. Sculpted live during the Easter Weekend, Helen and Sofie developed a site-specific, experimental work in response to lush design of living plants.

Credits:

Producers: Lorne Sculpture Biennale with support from the Thrive Research Hub (Melbourne School of Design, The University of Melbourne), the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee and Graham Blashki & Evelyn Firstenberg

Lead designers: Tanja Beer and Ashlee Hughes

Community support & growing team: Helen Smith, Anne Nadenbousch, Colin Leitch, Sue Grant and Grace Nicholls with the Lorne Kindergarten

Assistant Designers: Pia Guilliatt and Milton Perks

Set builder: Tim Denshire-key

Performers: Mountain Grey, Randall Forsyth, Helen Duncan & Sofie Burgoyne

Plants donated by: Batesford Nursery, Bushland Flora, Flinders Nursery, Tavistock Nursery, Tree Growers Advanced (TGA), Warners Nurseries and Rhodo Glen Nurseries

Photo credits:

Community workshops in Lorne. Photos by Tanja Beer and Grace Nicholls. 

Helen Duncan in The Texture of It by Elanor Webber. Photography by Gregory Lorenzutti’