A day of performances, artist talks, discussion and networking opportunities with our 2022 Tantrum Residents, Alana Mcgaughey, Kar Mun Phoon, Meg O’Hara and Phoebe Turnbull. 

By providing our selected artists with space and the opportunity to forge professional connections, and by partnering them with industry mentors (Deborah Kelly, Wajun Carpenter, David Williams and Dan Koop), the Tantrum Residency (in partnership with Shopfront Arts and Critical Stages Touring) supported these four emerging artists to develop their own new work and to help them develop sustainable careers in the arts. 

The artists’ work and progress was showcased through the 2022 SHOWROOM, which was held on-site at Tantrum’s studio in Merewether. The residents and Tantrum’s wider community was also given an opportunity to attend a Producing Masterclass, courtesy of Chris Bendall of Critical Stages.

Alana McGaughy’s Dead Men Don’t Rape is an exploration of male violence and women’s resistance. It finds focus in statistics and women’s learned behaviours of protection. It looks to help ‘flip the script’ in discussions of male violence against women, ask what and why, and place the aim of threats, violence and death at men. 

*This work deals with male violence against women. 

If this piece has affected you, please find support. Talk to a safe person or call one of the following helplines: 

1800 RESPECT: 1800 737 732 

Lifeline: 13 11 14 

UNTITLED I (TALKING ABOUT FOOD IS EASIER THAN TALKING ABOUT FEELINGS), UNTITLED II (OBJECTS THAT ARE BURDENSOME)

Untitled I speaks to the experience of resettling in a new country and finding footholds and comfort in food. For first-generation immigrants, food holds a dual survival purpose – keeping one tied to oneself and being physically nourishing. Grocery stores that rely on the different utilities of ‘ethnic’ food products become a rallying point for diasporas hungry for a taste of nostalgia and solace. Untitled I places the familiarity of consumables against the absurdity of made-up food products in an attempt to animate the offerings that give life and hope. 

Untitled II is a performative interaction focused on heritage loss, echoing Ai Wei Wei’s Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, 1995. The title addresses objects that are seemingly valuable, but only in sentiment, such as ceramics from a Salvation Army store that reminds one of a place once called home. Inscriptions on the ceramic pieces symbolise a banishment of the past into the new life, representing a spiritual vandalism and destruction of the self. 

Customer Service Conundrum is a work that explores the way that retail workers are treated, and the effect that customer abuse has on our mental health. It poses the question of why this happens and what can be done about it. It’s an honest account of what we experience on a daily basis and what we want the general public to know, that sometimes the customer isn’t always right, that sometimes they are just downright abusive. This work is dedicated to all retail workers who somehow managed to survive the past few years of customer craziness. 

Inspired by Hope in the Dark by writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit, Hope in Waves aims to explore how we face hope in seemingly never ending disaster. Guided by research, conversation and reflection, artist Phoebe Turnbull will take participants through an examination of hope’s role in facing the climate crisis and healing country. 

Based on the beautiful shores of Awabakal Country, participants are invited to explore the landscape, listen to and share stories, and reflect on their place in cultural justice. Come and listen to the stories of those who befriend and battle with hope’s role in their life and work. Drawing from the work of artists such as Bianca Hester, Lara Thoms and Rimini Protokoll, Hope in Waves is part meditation, part conversation and part guided wander. Hope is hard, angry and possibly our only way back towards each other. 

*Contains mentions of climate disaster and hopelessness. Brief allusions to the cultural genocide of Indigenous cultures. 

2022 Tantrum Residents:

Alana McGaughey, Karmun Phoon, Meg O’Hara, Phoebe Turnbull

2022 Tantrum Mentors:

Deborah Kelly, Wajun Carpenter, David Williams, Dan Koop

Production Support: Tom Griffiths

With many thanks to Chris Bendall of Critical Stages Touring for his Producing Masterclass.