Music, Media and Masks!

Once a month, Gallery ONE Three is proud to present The Smoking Owl. An evening that promises to stimulate the viewer with a variety of performances and installations by Melbourne based artists. The Smoking Owl will present works by fresh local talent seeking ways to develop exciting and innovative concepts in their art practice. The Smoking Owl is a fusion of music, art and festivities.

November’s Smoking Owl is presenting video art, Memory & Absence by Nicholas Polson and Eamonn Connor. This exhibition of video art explores the intersection of matter and memory through a reworking of archival and original footage. These images manipulate the presence of bodies in various spaces, both imagined and real, examining the way in which we orientate the present through the insertion of relevant memories. The works construct a space of confused temporality: a visual field that is lodged in the past, contemplating the present.

On the same evening of the Smoking Owl performing alongside the video works are Ricochet, a collaborative project formed by four improvising Melbourne musicians. The quartet investigates the concept of performance-based composition, where music is constructed and arranged in the context of a live performance. Compositional elements such as rhythmic cycles, functional harmony, atonality and abstractionism are used to blend the group's influences (contemporary minimalism, free jazz, hip hop, rock and other world folk music) into a cohesive musical experience. The resulting performance pieces are unrepeatable, a unique product of the time and place in which they are made.

Upon arrival to The Smoking Owl each guest will be given a mask to wear throughout the evening. The mask allows audience members a chance to feel part of the performance/exhibition. Inviting them into the theatre of the evening and creating a unified masquerade of like-minded people.

LISTEN: https://soundcloud.com/ricochet-melbourne