Joanna Dudley
Performer, Director, Artist
Joanna Dudley is an internationally renowned director, performer and singer creating performances, choreography and installations and is originally from Australia. Her work includes WE WILL SLAM YOU WITH OUR WINGS, a seven-screen operatic video installation for an army of 6 girls and one war mistress and is touring worldwide. For over a decade she has been a close collaborator with the visual artist William Kentridge and composer Philip Miller. She has appeared at major venues and festivals including Carnegie Hall, ArtBasel and ArtBasel Miami, The Paris Philharmonie, GropiusBau Berlin, The Metropolitan Opera New York, The Louisiana Museum, The Louis Vuitton Foundation, The Turbine Hall TATE Modern London and The Park Avenue Armory, New York.
Other collaborators include Rufus Didwiszus, Seiji Ozawa, Damien Jalet and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Joanna Dudley has worked as a guest director and performer at Berlin’s Schaubuehne and studied music at the Adelaide Conservatorium, Australia and the Sweelinck Conservatorium, The Netherlands. She also studied traditional Japanese music in Tokyo and traditional music in Indonesia with the national treasure and pop icon, Waljinah.
She has taught at prestigious insitutions including the ECAV Academy for Arts Sierre, the F+F School for Art and Media Design Zurich Switzerland, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, LASALLE College of the Arts Singapore, Adelaide University, Australia and the Academy for Arts in Berlin.
WE WILL SLAM YOU WITH OUR WINGS
WE WILL SLAM YOU WITH OUR WINGS is a seven-screen video and sound installation. Each screen depicts a 19th-century colonial imperialistic portrait but with one noticeable difference. Instead of the lavish depiction of white powerful men, a young girl between the age of 8 to 16 stands in her own regalia and commands her own stance of power. These young girls combined are the leaders, the army, the chorus, the pack, the collective, and the future voice.
Joanna Dudley with
William Kentridge
Joanna Dudley has collaborated with the visual artist William Kentridge and composer Philip Miller since 2012 as a co-creator, singer and performer in staged concerts, opera, performance and film. Works include the performance Refuse the Hour, produced by the Holland and Avignon Festivals which toured internationally for six years. Paper Music premiered at Carnegie Hall New York and has appeared at major venues and festivals such as ArtBasel, Paris Philharmonie, Gropius Bau Berlin and The Holland Festival.
The Head And The Load
The Head & the Load is an overwhelming music, theatre and filmic performance set on a film 50 metre long stage about Africa and Africans in the First World War. It was commissioned by and performed at The Turbine Hall at London’s TATE Modern. Dudley played the role of Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II.
A Guided Tour of the Exhibition:
For Soprano and Handbag
William Kentridge and Joanna Dudley created The Guided Tour of the Exhibition: for Soprano and Handbag for the Gropius Bau in Berlin. Joanna Dudley is a Dada-esque tour guide who takes the audience through an exhibition of Kentridge's work. The piece allows the artworks to defend themselves and to resist interpretations and is both an accompanying programme to the exhibition and its contradiction.
LULU
An opera by Alban Berg and directed and designed by William Kentridge. The opera tells the story of a young woman known as Lulu, who follows a downward spiral from a well-kept mistress in Vienna to a street prostitute in London, while being both a victim and a purveyor of destruction. Joanna Dudley with Kentridge created a solo silent role as Lulu's alter ego. Lulu was presented at the Metropolitan Opera New York.Joanna Dudley with
Rufus Didwiszus
Joanna Dudley and Rufus Didwiszus are long time collaborators creating unique performance work that draws on Dudley's music and performance background and Didwiszus' background as a designer (Schaubuehne Berlin, Deutsches Theatre, Zurich Opera House, etc.). The result is a style of performance, which while having a strong dramaturgical centre, draws mainly on sound and image to convey a story.
Colours May Fade
A music theatre installation where two characters are placed in a room that is tipped at an angle of 90°. It was created and performed by Joanna Dudley, with the dancer, singer and choreographer Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola, and co-created and designed by Rufus Didwiszus. It was produced and premiered at the Schaubuehne, Berlin.
LOUIS & BEBE
An electro noise music theatre performance and installation using the story of how Louis and Bebe Barron created their infamous sci-fi film scores as inspiration. Whether evil twins or fated lovers, the non-linear life lines of LOUIS & BEBE are punctuated by many deaths, and accompanied by their own soundtrack of song, pop and noise. It was created and performed by Joanna Dudley, with the electro noise musician SchneiderTM, and co-created and designed by Rufus Didwiszus. Performances were given at Dark MOFO, Australia and Kulturhuset in Stockholm.
Photos: Dudley/Meyburgh, Stella Oliver, Žana Marović, Ken Howard, Joel Benguigui, Alexander Gnædinger, Jens Sethzman