Arts House presents Gift Back Melbourne

Performed by Jason Sweeney, Julie Vulcan, Fiona Sprott, Caroline Daish, and Kerrin Rowlands

Gift/Back is the third 'audience project' from Adelaide-based Unreasonable Adults. In the lead up to the performances, the public is invited to submit gifts in the form of text, sound, video, song or film requests, demands, second-hand clothes, objects and wigs. Unreasonable Adults give back in the form of live performance, projections, sound installation and online material. That is their gift to the audience.

Gift/Back comprises two parts: a two week residency in which the Unreasonable Adults team accept and log all gift submissions; and six nights of free performances.

From Monday 20 August, gifts will be accepted via the Unreasonable Adults' website. Old dolls and toys are also requested in order to make monstrous dolls that will be exhibited in the studio.

From Monday 10 September, Unreasonable Adults additionally ask for meal donations to sustain their four-week residency (preferably vegetarian or vegan), so the team can document the process of eating and play it back during the performances. Food gifts can be delivered either to the studio up until midday from 10 to 29 September, or at a designated collection point arranged via the website.

/BACK: MELBOURNE
Throughout the residency period, the public can gain a sneak peek into the development of the shows by viewing images, listening to audio, watching video material and reading the blog online.

Unreasonable Adults is a hybrid performance/live art ensemble that is interested in the relationships between artists and audiences and how they view one another. The group uses accessible technology and devices in its works to explore their use (and uselessness). Through Gift/Back, Unreasonable Adults respond to our understanding of the artist as product or content provider and the audience as consumer, and twists this notion by asking the audience to gift the artists.

Gift/Back was developed in 2006 at Performance Space for the National Hybrid Arts Residency, funded by the Inter-Arts Office Australia Council and as part of This Is Not Art Festival/Electrofringe, Newcastle.

Unreasonable Adults' genius is in the material they coax from their audience. As many media as they are toying with and as dispersed the crowd, the Adults still work the audience with a captivating mix of childishness and wryness.
RealTime Magazine

Residency: Sunday 9 September to Saturday 22 September
Durational Live Event: Monday 1 October to Saturday 6 October:
3 x 60minute performances looped over three hours 6 - 9pm
Venue: Arts House, Meat Market: Studio B, 5 Blackwood St, North Melbourne
Tickets: FREE EVENT
Website: www.unreasonableadults.va.com.au

Arts House, Meat Market
5 Blackwood Street, North Melbourne Mel Ref: 2B A9
Bookings: www.easytix.com.au/artshouse or 03 9639 0096