GABAN: Art Gallery NSW + Opening of Sydney Modern 2022

GABAN
Theatre Work for the Opening of Sydney Modern
By Brook Andrew
Composed by Benjamin Skepper
2-4 December 2022
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (AGNSW)

I was invited by lead artist Brook to compose the score for this provocative theatre work, GABAN, not only as a musician, but to assume the role as a performance artist meets actor, within the work. My assigned role was “TIME”, both as an expression of linear western time (the metronome) and indigenous or sacred time: conceptual, non liner, cyclical and spiritual.

For the sound design, I approached the project from multiple angles: traditional western classical compositional constructs, referencing classical themes, rearranging baroque motifs from J.S Bach, blending my sound design with free improvisation, experimental electronics and electro-acoustic noise elements. I featured on electric cello my custom built electronics.

As a structured improvisation, I responded directly to the Museum environment and its colonial history, channeling moments past, fellow performers and their movements, the words, their voices, opera singers and the audience, to create a reactive, immersive and interactive live performance spectacle.

The sound design also considered multiple performance locations within the AGNSW exhibition halls as the participants and audiences moved throughout the Museum. We made great use of  cutting edge wireless technologies as well as clever stage design to create a seamless sonic landscape for this ambitious 90 minute work.

contrapuntal co-produced the sound and acoustic design with AGNSW production teams.

A message From the Artist:

Written and directed by Brook Andrew, GABAN is a post-traumatic play that was premiered within the Grand Court Galleries of the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney. Gaban is a Wiradjuri word that means ‘strange’ and it describes the disconcerting experience that is the museum for many First Nations and Indigenous peoples. Summoning a number of interlinked stories concerning the mess of the colonial fall-out, the protagonists of GABAN are personifications of Powerful Objects – cultural objects retained in colonial collections – in dialogue with other characters who personify the institutional power of the museum. There are actions of amnesia, violence, repatriation and revenge in this story of re-awakening ancestral memories.

The House of GABAN company comprises of Rosell Flatley, Brian Fuata, Katy Green Loughrey, Dimitri Kleioris, Kameron Locke, Akala Newman, Budi Miller, Aaron Reeder, Red Rey, Benjamin Skepper, House of Slé (Davina, Fetu, Talo and Xuela), Georgia Taia, Latai Taumoepeau, Kilia Tipa and Olivia Xegas. Creative and production team include Paschal Daantos Berry, Jessica Neath and Cherie Schweitzer.

Benjamin Skepper Image credits: Karla Dickens