Joanna Dudley
Performer, Director, Artist
Joanna Dudley is an internationally acclaimed director, performer, and artist from Australia, recognized for her pioneering interdisciplinary work. For over a decade, she has collaborated closely with South African artist William Kentridge and composer Philip Miller, creating groundbreaking projects that continue to tour worldwide.
Her performances have been presented in major venues and festivals worldwide, including Carnegie Hall, Art Basel (Basel and Miami), Paris Philharmonie, GropiusBau (Berlin), The Metropolitan Opera (New York), Louis Vuitton Foundation (Paris), Turbine Hall at Tate Modern (London), Avignon Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Louisiana Museum, Park Avenue Armory (New York), and The Holland Festival.
Joanna’s video installation We Will Slam You With Our Wings—a seven-screen operatic piece featuring an army of six girls and one war mistress—remains a major international touring work.
As a choreographer, Joanna has collaborated with renowned conductor Seiji Ozawa on opera productions, premiering her work at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan and the Vienna State Opera. She has also worked with prominent artists such as Rufus Didwiszus, 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 institutions such as the ECAV Academy for Arts (Valais, Switzerland), 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 of Arts (Berlin).
WE WILL SLAM YOU WITH OUR WINGS
WE WILL SLAM YOU WITH OUR WINGS is a seven-screen operatic 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. Showings include Berlin's Fotografiska Museum, on digital billboards throughout Melbourne’s Federation Square with the Australian Centre for Moving Image and at the Victorian Symphonic Hall for the International Singapore Festival.
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. Early works include the performance lecture 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.
Works touring now
The Head And The Load
The Head & the Load, set on a 50 metre long stage, combines music, dance, film projections, mechanized sculptures and shadow play to illuminate an untold story of Africa and Africans in the First World War. It was commissioned by and premiered at The Turbine Hall at London’s TATE Modern. Dudley played the role of the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, Kaiser Wilhelm II. This rich and multi-layered performance features an international cast of singers, dancers, and performers, from South Africa, Guinea, Europe, the USA and Australia.
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