Pinnaroo Faces (2023), And Then, Vic McEwan
Shoulder to Shoulder
A Pinnaroo Project and Cad Factory Collaboration
Come down to the Pinnaroo main street for a family friendly event full of art, storytelling, projections and performance.
Sunday 17 September
Pinnaroo Main Street and Village Green
Free Event
5:30pm: Picnic and enjoy the sunset
6:30pm-7:20pm: Performance
Bring along camping chairs and picnic rugs
Food and drinks available: Lions BBQ, Frankie & Tobe or BYO
Please wear enclosed shoes as you will be required to walk around the site
Artists
Vic McEwan
Artistic Director, Artist, Public OfficerVic McEwan is an interdisciplinary artist working with sound, video, installation and performance with a particular interest in site-specific work. He is interested in creating new dynamics by working with diverse partners and exploring difficult themes within lived experience. Vic aims to use his work to contribute to and enrich broader conversations about the role that the arts sector can play within our communities.
Sarah McEwan
Sarah McEwan is an artist, musician and an artist-curator who lives and works on Wiradjuri country in Birrego and on the Eora Nation in Sydney.. She is interested in feminism and social change and is passionate about 'onto-ethics'; how to make the present world different from the past. Sarah creates solo work, installations and sometimes works under the pseudonym Her Riot. Sarah collaborates with other artists, community members and young people in gallery spaces or site specific locations.
Sarah Penicka-Smith
Versatile, perceptive, and a passionate advocate for music as a force for change, Dr Sarah Penicka-Smith is a unique and innovative voice in Australian music. Currently, Sarah holds the positions of Artistic Director & Principal Conductor of River City Voices, Head of Creative Arts at St Andrew’s College, Principal Conductor with the Macquarie Singers & Macquarie Chamber Orchestra, and Artistic Director of Pacific Pride Choir. She founded the Lifehouse Volunteer Orchestra, bringing music to patients and their families at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse. As an alumna of the Hart Institute for Women Conductors at the Dallas Opera, Sarah made her international debut in Dallas in 2018. Sarah’s current projects include libretto development for The Klein-Arkinstall Project, a new one-woman opera about living with OCD, Festival Choir Director for the Blackheath Choral Festival, and a recording/performance project with Club Weld and River City Voices.
And Then
Hannah Robinson and Melanie Muddle are the founders of And Then, a social-arts agency. They engage in photography as a social-practice, inviting participation and connection with communities to help them tell their own stories.
Hannah and Melanie are experienced photographic practitioners, project developers and facilitators. They employ socially-engaged practice to connect with diverse communities and together they explore ways to question and challenge existing narratives through participant-led photo-storytelling.
Amber Silk
Amber Silk is a Lighting Designer and inter-disciplinary collaborator whose practice centres itself around site specific work, and the sustainable integration of modern technologies in order to engender a re-connection with the natural environment.
Presenting designs since 2009, her work has included collaborations with: Latai Taumoepeau (Stitching Up the Sea, 2015; Repatriate, 2016, 2017 and 2022; The Last Resort, 2020); Black Birds (Black Birds, 2018; Brown Skin Girl, 2019; Exhale, 2019); The Second Woman (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2023). Other recent works include: Kalaga Atu, 2023; Pangala: Returning Home, 2023; and K'ainga: CommonWealth & Klub Measina , 2024.
Amber is passionate about work that challenges and interrogates Conventional Western modes of performance and site activation, by drawing on local and ancient knowledge systems. Bringing these discoveries to bear by generating new creative languages around the use of dramaturgy and technology.
Michael Petchkovsky
Michael Petchkovsky is an artist, organiser and technician who divides his time living between the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, the Snowy Monaro region in South East NSW and Henty in the Riverina. His practice in contemporary electronic media stems from an undergraduate training in Jewellery and Object Design at Sydney College of the Arts in the 1990s. He completed Master of Studio Art and Master of Fine Art postgraduate studies at SCA in 2012 and 2016. With a strong focus on community oriented, collectively implemented, DIY solutions, his work aims to explore and facilitate discourse around social change at the meeting points of our sciences, arts and cultures.
Melanie Penicka-Smith
Melanie Penicka-Smith is a Producer, Production and Stage Manager, International Tour Manager and Event Manager.
With a passion for working with community, Mel and her wife Sarah run Pacific Pride Choir, a touring choir founded to travel to regions where LGBTQIA+ rights may be legalised, but not accepted. Together they began the Lifehouse Volunteer Orchestra, bringing music to patients and their families at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, a Sydney oncology hospital.
Mel is the co-Producer of OCDiva, a new Australian, one-woman, autobiographical opera about one woman's struggle to do life, art and mental health. She regularly works as a Stage Manager for River City Voices and recently joined the team at Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.
Joshua de Gruchy
Although working with a variety of materials, Joshua's love is for painting. Influenced by the colour and energy of the landscape, he recognises behavioural patterns shared between its organisms, and questions how one who observes these patterns can better understand the ways we operate on collective and individual levels.
Karenza Ebejer
Karenza is a socially engaged documentary filmmaker, producer, educator and community storyteller based in the Northern Rivers of NSW. She collaborates with a range of creatives in producing content for Indigenous, arts, youth and disability communities. Her work explores themes of art practice, community, connection to place and social justice.
In 2017 and 2018 she produced and directed two short films profiling artists for the Createability series on ABC iView. Her creative practice uses the moving image in as a means of expression to explore the intersection of spirituality, creativity, nature and humanity.
Martin Fox
Martin Fox has a thirty-five year career span as a video artist, professional editor, sound recordist and director, mostly for film and documentaries as well as for a number of dance productions. Martin has been video artist for De Quincey Co’s 'Metadata' and Linda Luke’s solo 'Still Point Turning', and edited video for several dance works, including Margie Medlin’s dance film 'Morphing Physiology'.
Other Contributors
The Pinnaroo Project Committee, Staff & students from Pinnaroo Public School, Morrison Polkinghorne, Allan Edwards, Paul Daniels, Birva Patel, Elise Kennedy, Ros Lloyde, Todd Niejalke, Brad Wallis, Giles Oster, Max Wurfel, Campbell Michell, Holly McEwan, Via Byrne, Anthony Moyle, Pinnaroo Ambulance Volunteers, Pinnaroo Museum Craft Group.
Singing with Sarah Penicka-Smith
Have you ever wanted to explore the sound your voice can make? From experienced singers to beginners, these workshops are about collaborating and voice exploration in a safe environment.
3 and 4 April: Pinnaroo Public School from 1:40pm – 3:20pm and The Hub from 6pm – 7:30pm
12 – 14 September: Pinnaroo Public School from 1:40pm – 3:20pm and The Hub from 6:30pm – 7:30pm
Portrait Making with Photographers Melanie Muddle and Hannah Robinson
Do you love taking selfies? Then come down and try out MIRU for the ultimate selfie experience where professional equipment will be set up for you to explore taking your own image. Feel empowered in representing yourself how you feel.
Thursday 11 May: Lameroo Netball Courts and Football Oval from 5pm
Friday 12 May: The Hub from 3:30pm – 7:30pm
Public Programs
Digital Storytelling with Karenza Ebejer
Do you want to take your digital skills to the next level? Create a one minute ‘Portrait of Pinnaroo’ video that you write, film and edit based on an aspect of Pinnaroo that you would like to share.
Saturday 13 May: The Hub from 2pm – 6pm
Paste-ups with Melanie Muddle
Year 6 and 7 students from Pinnaroo Public School will work with artist Melanie Muddle to curate portraits of community members onto boards for a giant installation in the park for ‘Shoulder to Shoulder’.
15 September: Pinnaroo Park, 12pm – 3pm
Video documentation by Martin Fox.
This project is supported by The Cad Factory, The Pinnaroo Project, Create NSW, Australia Council for the Arts, Southern Mallee District Council, Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal, Rabobank, Pinnaroo Primary School and the Pinnaroo Community
