Down / Under

Down / Under is a Sydney based project space established in 2017.

Located in a basement space underneath Freda's, a small bar in Chippendale, Down / Under is focused on supporting emerging practitioners with a program spanning visual arts, performance, dance, music, film and print media. Run in its first 6 months by a team of young artists, curators and film-makers lead by Anna May Kirk, Down / Under endeavours to provide space and opportunities to a generation of emerging artists who are too often overlooked. In a 6 month program of exhibitions, screenings, talks and performances Kirk engaged over 100 predominatenly Sydney based emerging artists.

Down / Under is committed to diversity, provocation and experimentation. In providing a completely free space for artists to work and exhibit and by rejecting commissions for sales, Down / Under places itself at odds with many commercial spaces in Sydney. Moreover, being a basement space and not having street front visibility, Down / Under depends upon social media, word of mouth and community support to draw people to the space. We reject the elitism and exclusivity that underpins many contemporary art spaces in Sydney and hope to draw a diverse array of people from across Sydney and Australia to the space.

Deep Dreamy, image by Matt Cornell



Cloud 9, image courtesy of Lisa Twomey and Verity Mackey



Zin presents: SwiftKey, image by Lucian Alperstein




No / Vacancy, image courtesy of Amelia Skelton and Tango Conway 



An-Architecture co-curated by Anna May Kirk and Yarran Gatsby, image by Dimitri Tricolas



morphē curated by Nanette Orly

Projects included:

Exhibitions

An-Architecture
An exhibition co-curated by Anna May Kirk and Yarran Gatsby
Featuring works by Kalanjay Dhi, Grace K Blake, Shivanjani Lal, Talia Smit, Drew Connor Holland, Leila El Rayes, Danny Wild and Flin Sharp.

No / Vacancy
A solo exhibition by collective Mil Skelton and Tango Conway, this show transformed the basement into a Motel room, playing with the notion of vacancy within transitory spaces.

morphē
This exhibition explores the possibilities of the masculine form by bringing together the works of Zoe M Robertson, David Collins, Aimee Gardyne and Andrew Haining to offer their own personal interpretations through a diverse gaze. Curated by Nanette Orly.

Re-Luxe Re-Luxe is an attempt to disrupt the concept of portraiture as a luxury experience, projecting queer identities upon its exclusive and stale terrain. Featuring photographs by Joe Brennan and a corresponding soundtrack created by CandleLyte. All proceeds from this exhibition were donated to community non-profit Twenty10, providing essential services to young LGBTQIA+ people in NSW.

Re:Map
A solo show of maps by Matt Cornell, the works offer a complex history in hope that we may build a comprehensive, nuanced and inclusive shared future narrative/memory.

Render
Render was a curated exhibition by Sebastian Henry Jones unpacking rendering as a pluralistic practice of performance, translation and of making. The exhibition featured works by Celeste Stein, Mark Mailler and Harrison Witsey.

Performances

Zin presents: SwiftKey A new performance presented by zin. An excerpt of a larger work currently in development, SwiftKey is a multidisciplinary performance where human and algorithm collaborate and wrestle. Written by Roslyn Helper using SwiftKey Note (an automated text prediction app) and Directed by Harriet Gillies, the result is a poetically absurd series of thoughts and reflections on humanity. This SwiftKey generated script forms the basis of a performance takes us deep into a world where algorithms make personalised decisions for us based on our clicks, our likes and our Google searches.

Deep Dreamy
Deep Dreamy is a sink-hole into materiality from which the dreaminess of performance can surface. Plunge down and bubble up, then snuggle up, and buckle up to dream together. The inaugural Deep Dreamy is a program of performance, dance, and music featuring Angela Goh, Ivey Wawn, Emily Galicek and Tru, curated by Angela Goh.

Splinter Orchestra + Nick Keys
An improvised experimental audio performance event featuring writer Nick Keys and large-scale electro-acoustic improvising ensemble Splinter Orchestra.

Danny Wild & 3 Projectors & a PA
Experimental artist and musician Danny Wild presented live collages of video works made between the years of 2007 - 2017.



Screenings

Women in the Arts present French Girls + Vivre Sa Vie
Women in The Arts premiered FRENCH GIRLS a short film by Sydney director Hyun Lee. Showing as part of the Down / Under Space film program, FRENCH GIRLS was accompanied by a screening of feature film My Life to Live (Vivre sa vie) by Jean-Luc Godard and a sound performance by Megan Alice Clune.

CACHE
A screening of an eclectic collection of digital media from a range of practicing queer performance artists based in Sydney, Melbourne and abroad. Through the inclusion of documentation of live performance, personal archives as well as unseen material from works in progress, the show explores the ways in which digital mediums can expand the way live queer performance can be constructed, remembered and celebrated. Curated by Al Joel.

Terra Firma From the Pages to the Screen
Terra Firma is a magazine following the desire to try and do something new and original in the form of printed matter. Terra Firma presented a selection of video works artists from their fourth issue Speed = Distance/Time.

Parties

Cloud 9
Cloud 9 was a fashion exhibition and party curated by Lisa Twomey and Verity Mackey which coincides with Sydney Fashion Week. Cloud 9 aimed to provide an inclusive platform for Australian labels and fashion inclined artists to celebrate their work. The event included live performances from individuals inhabiting the various garments, soundscapes, video installations and a photography exhibition.