Big West returns again in 2013 with a ten-day program of multi-platform arts events which constructively confront.
The western suburbs of Melbourne have for many years been seen by many as a place of gritty, working class ethics and environment, yet the area is changing. The level of construction going on is ruffling some feathers.
“I have seen so many buildings sold to the highest bidder in Sunshine, Footscray and across the Western suburbs,” says Baby Guerrilla, a prominent paste-up artist from Melbourne’s west. “There’s a lot of history that is just being bulldozed. It is an absolute outrage and it wouldn’t happen in the eastern suburbs.”
A rapidly changing skyline is not the only thing coming up from the inner west, however. There is a bustling arts scene as well as a blend of cultures drawn from and influenced by various migrant groups – something else that might not happen in the eastern suburbs.
There is a level of pride and solidarity that comes with living on the ‘gritty’ side of the city. Over ten days later this month, tens of thousands are expected to come together to celebrate the theatre, dance, art, literature and playfulness of Melbourne’s west. The area’s biennial Big West festival has chosen construction as its theme this year to put the reality of how the west is flexing, building and reshaping into a creative framework.
“Although the art scene is different there is a lot more support now,” says Andy Freer, the artistic director of Snuff Puppets, a group who have “stripped down to undies, put on a suit and partied” at every Big West since 1997.
“Big West grew out of an artist-run festival… people doing it for nothing. It has basically just grown and grown since but it still has the community at its base,” Freer adds.
Motifs related to construction and re-development are playfully woven through the festival’s program. Kids now accustomed to construction sites being part of their neighbourhood landscape are invited to help gather objects with a crane on opening night, building a community sculpture through joint efforts.
Other events celebrate up-cycling, the use of industrial spaces in theatre, and how residents and artists can bring new life to dilapidated buildings.
“Many of the works explore what it means when the boundaries are constantly shifting between public space and private space,” says Marcia Ferguson, Big West‘s festival director.
Ferguson has made a conscious decision to incorporate street art and media into events to add an element of interactivity. Her roadside haiku initiative sees members of the community emailing through three-line haiku poetry which will illuminate street signs and flash across roadside traffic boards.
The ever-present mobile radio is another way for people to get involved and to reach out further into the community. While Footscray and Yarraville lure visitors regardless, it’s events like Braybrook’s Big Day Out which help communities have their voice heard. From the sculpture-strewn community gardens of Braybrook, mobile radio will broadcast bush tucker recipes and let locals tell their own stories and secrets.
As everywhere, the western suburbs are constructed, above all, of families. Wyndham is the fastest-growing suburb in the southern hemisphere and its streets are being swiftly filled with basketball hoops and three-bedroom houses.
There is a thirst for togetherness in a community which craves both integration and the right to maintain a sense of individual culture. Arts initiatives and institutions like Footscray Community Arts Centre encourage Polynesian children to keep weaving, young Sudanese boys to attend spoken word nights and kids to make their outlet a creative one. While encouraging others to come over and explore, Big West aims to be a carnival of ideas for and by the people of the western suburbs.
From Williamstown to Werribee, one thing especially unique about the arts scene in the western suburbs is the overwhelming amount of physical performance naturally forming and continuing to grow.
Director of Albinos (Colourless), Tesfaye Gebrehana, says the volume of dance, theatre and circus being produced in the western suburbs is “because it is in our cultures. We grew up singing and dancing for almost every occasion. We had story tellers and music and it is a part of who we are.”
Gebrehana’s comedic play depicts the everyday lives of three different migrant families, touching on topics relatable to their intended audience.
The Ethiopian writer and director hopes the play will provoke discussions around “how to resolve problems peacefully, how to communicate, respect for one another, how to integrate with the rest of the society… how to keep and maintain our culture and our identity.
“We particularly aim to educate the youth to focus on their education and future. Show them that family, community and school are important aspects of their lives, because they are our future and responsible for running the country.”
Although the so-called ‘debate’ around asylum seekers is so topical in Australia, another theatre director from the festival, Kevin Hopkins, struggled to find an Australian play which looked at the human side of the argument. The side which, to Hopkins, is too often left out of the politics.
Hopkins found his play, The Container, in England. The performance sees two Somali women, two Turks and two Afghanis in a very real, very cramped shipping container sharing their stories with the audience as they pretend to be smuggled across a border.
“It is a challenging production in a number of ways,” says Hopkins. “Physically it is not going to be easy for the audience; it’s cramped and hot… We don’t want to make it a comfortable theatrical experience.”
Just like The Container’s confronting approach, the Big West festival has labelled itself ‘radical and spectacular’, wanting to challenge preconceptions of the west by sharing and feeding the energy of its arts scene.
One of many premiere performances this year is the Women’s Circus’ Soar; the story of a lower-class woman living in Victorian-era Little Lonsdale Street. What was affectionately known by locals then as ‘Little Lon’ was a slum-like district rife with prostitution, working-class migrants and alcohol. The Women’s Circus explores this historic CBD site through their physical techniques blended with traditional storytelling. The more the troupe learned of the history of Little Lon, the more they fed the theatrical elements of their piece. Little Lon was eventually shut down and torn apart by the strong temperance movement and conservatives of the day. The generally poor, laneway-framed neighbourhood was ethnically diverse, culturally rich and is now largely remembered as a thriving community.
In the context of a different time and place, the messages in performances such as Soar and The Container can be appreciated and applied nation-wide.
If Melbourne specifically is to remain the most liveable city we need to see the west as big, bold and a place for opportunity to flourish. The Big West festival drives that idea, making a whole range of arts practices accessible through a mostly free program of events.
The Big West festival will be held at a range of venues across Melbourne’s west from November 22 to December 1. Tickets, full-program and more info online.