News and Events
previous events
JITIAN LIVE ART PROJECT, Han Tao Art Museum, Jinan, Shandong Province, China / 19-25 September 2024
19 September 2024 09:00
This will be an International event comprising 12 Chinese and 12 International artists , of whom I am the only Australian participating artist. The curator Cai Qing, is a Singapore-based intrepid organiser of festivals globally. The host and Producer is Han Tao and the event will take place at his Han Tao Art Museum in Jinan. Han Tao himself is an established and prolific artist and film-maker. I plan to present two existing works at the festival, Black Reamer (Parramatta, Sydney 2019) and 500 Breaths (Melaka, Malaysia 2018) each has been performed only once. Immediately following we will travel to Xi’An in Shaanxi Province for the Guyu Action International Performance Art Festival produced by Xiang Xishi, himself a participant in the Jitian event.
LIVE ART TOUR - 9, 2024 | ART IS EVERY WHERE a festival of performance art
05 March 2024 11:00
I am a participating artist in Live Art Tour 9 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. An International Performance Art event curated by Cai Qing and Efat Razowana Reya. 5-9 March 2024.
Performance for the 3rd Australian Biennale of Reductive Arts Sydney
29 October 2023 15:00
A performance titled In the Land of Milk and Honey, part of the one day exhibition of Reductive Arts.
Kree House, Woodford, the Blue Mountains NSW, Australia.
POP-UP and PLAY Arts Trail, Maitland NSW
15 July 2023 10:00
For POP-Up and Play I’m presenting “You Don’t Know Me From a Bar of Soap”, a work in which I discuss soap and its associations and ramifications with the public. Come and see a display of a wide range of new and used cakes of soap and discuss the deeper meanings of cleanliness with me !
Performance at NO-W-HERE #2 Performance Art Festival 2023
09 June 2023 16:00
I’ll be giving an artists’ talk and performing at this small International Performance Art Festival in Goslar, Lower Saxony, Germany. There will also be a photo and video display of past works by the artists. Artists’ talks Friday 9th June 4-7PM. Performances Sat 10th June from 1pm. Participating artists from Thailand, Germany and Hungary. Curator Beate Linne.
Together, or Otherwise a(part)
06 May 2023 15:00
Modern Art Projects Blue Mountains Group Exhibition , features the work of 19 MAPBM member artists. I am participating with a 3D work on paper.
Details: dates/times: Saturday 6 May to Sunday 21 May 2023, open Friday - Sunday, 11:00am – 5:00pm. Artist Talks: 2:00-4:00pm Sunday 14 May Closing Drinks: 3:00-5:00pm 21 May
Venue: Articulate Project Space, 497 Parramatta Road Leichhardt, Sydney
Blue Mountains Portraits Exhibition
04 February 2023 10:00
A portrait of me by photographer Michael Shirley is exhibited in the Blue Mountains Portraits Exhibition at Blue Mountains Cultural Centre Gallery, Katoomba, NSW, Australia.
Dates 4 February - 2 April 2023.
The Punk Studio
09 October 2022 13:30
As part of the series of ‘PUNK STUDIO’ Performances, for “What is Post Formalism - La Vie Ensemble” by Billy Gruner and Sarah Keighery : Sun Oct 9 1.30pm, Alan Schacher (performance) 2.30pm, Ben Denham (sound - Alvin Lucier homage). Articulate Project Space, Leichhardt, Sydney
Sweet Separation, Durational Performance
01 October 2022 10:00
I will be performing my work Sweet Separation on Saturday 1st October as part of Newcastle’s The Little Festival. It’s going to be a big weekend in Newcastle with the New Annual Festival as the hub for many activities. If you are going to be in Newcastle this weekend swing by and say hello ! This will be the third time I have performed this work. Sweet Separation is a durational work in which I use my own body weight in Turkish sugar cubes to construct a tiny separation wall between myself and the public. Thinking of the bitter walls that divide lives such as between Israel and Palestine and the USA and Mexico, I am constructing a sweet folly over which we can discuss migration experiences. You are welcome to help build the walls too.
Location: Kuwumi Place, 666 Hunter Street, Newcastle NSW.
Hours : 10am to 4pm / Date: Saturday 1 October 2022
Memory Walks workshops and procession
05 September 2022 10:00
Following undertaking walks with a series of volunteers, Alan Schacher and WeiZen Ho will lead a short series of 2 x 2-day workshops at Springwood Theatre in The Blue Mountains. To be held on Monday and Tuesday 5th + 6th and 12th + 13th September 2022 (10am to 4pm each day). These workshops will assist walker-participants to transform the walking experience and the memories that have surfaced into movement and object based motifs. This process will be assisted remotely by renowned artist Mella Jaarsma, based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The workshops will culminate in a public talk and participatory procession outdoors from 1pm at the Springwood Theatre Hub on Saturday 17th September 2022.
We are also asking previous walkers to lead a group on a walk on Saturdays 3rd and 10th September.
Find the program MEMORY WALKS DOC here
Evaporative Body, Multiplying Body
23 June 2022 19:00
For the 2022 Keir Choreographic Award Alan Schacher and WeiZen Ho are performing a new work Evaporative Body, Multiplying Body in an exploration of tremulous bodily states, liminal thresholds and shimmering auras which asks : What will happen if the things we are pretending to do actually manifest? They are collaborating with video artist/lighting designer Fausto Brusamolino and noise/sound artist Hirofumi Unchino. To be performed 23-25 June at Dancehouse, Melbourne and 30 June - 2 July at Carriageworks, Sydney. https://carriageworks.com.au/events/keir-choreographic-award-2022/
Memory Walks
14 February 2022 10:00
Alan Schacher and WeiZen Ho have been awarded a 2022 Research Residency by Critical Path, a Choreographic Research Centre based in Rushcutters Bay, Sydney. Together with researcher Dr Phillip Mar they have initiated a community engagement and artistic project that is very much grounded in the Blue Mountains, where they live. As part their research project titled What Persists, they are inviting local residents to share a favourite walking route in nature or town. It could be around a few local streets, a bushwalk, or perhaps a walk further away where they grew up or used to live. Somewhere that has meaning for them and has significance in their lives. Talking with people about the significance of their walk will be the beginning of investigations into place and public space, and how place can be engendered through community. Further discussions and working groups will focus on ways of devising a social choreography based on symbols that persist in the individual’s memory. Memory Walks will explore walking in the different ways that it activates body memories. In parallel they are working in an exchange process with collaborators in Indonesia : Artist Mella Jaarsma and curator and researcher Mira Asriningtyas.
For more details or to volunteer for a walk please contact us and we will call you to discuss further:
Alan Schacher [email protected]
WeiZen Ho [email protected]
Further information on What Persists :
https://criticalpath.org.au/programs/alan-schacher-weizen-ho/
Performance Decade Show per.doc
05 February 2022 14:00
Decade Show | per.doc Opening Event Date: Saturday Feb 5th 2-5pm Performances 3pm : Alan Schacher, Kit Bylett, Katya Petetskaya
Exhibition from Feb 4th until Feb 20th Open 11am - 5pm | Fri-Sun
Venue: Articulate Project Space 497 Parramatta Rd, Leichhardt. Sydney
I am exhibiting an installation titled Disrupted Histories and will present a performance at the opening of Articulate’s fourth Decade Show, which features some of the performances and associated projects artists have undertaken at APS over the past 10 years.
Exhibiting artists include:
Alison Clouston and Boyd, Elizabeth Hogan and Leisa Sage, Emma Wise, John Gillies, Katya Petayeska,
Kit Bylett, Linda Luke, Molly Wagner, Rakini Devi, Renay Pepita, Sydney Art Exchange
(Corinne Brittain, Eleanor Er, Kerry MacAulay, Anya Pesce, Elke Wohlfahrt), Tom Isaacs
Performature : Performateur #3
06 May 2021 14:00
A temporary artists’ collective based around WeiZen Ho’s thematic including:
Chris Caines, sound
Damian Castaldi, audiovisual percussive installation
WeiZen Ho, concept initiator and performance deviser
Naomi Oliver, digital video, animation, sound and performance
Michael Petchkovsky, electronic media
Alan Schacher, installation and performance/activation
PLUS Laura Altman (clarinet) with guest artists
Venue: Steep St. 84 Bathurst Road, Katoomba
Open Studio (visit and chat and view the installations) Thurs, Fri, Sat 6, 7, 8 May 2-5pm
Installation Activation, Performance and Action Events: Friday 7 May 8pm Saturday 8 May 10pm
$15 entry [https://performature-performateur-3.eventbrite.com.au]
Archiving Project:Our Unspoken
01 January 2021 00:00
In 2019 Critical Path invited me to join the 2nd year of the Dancing Sydney Archiving Project. I called for “unspoken” contributions and am still assembling them into an audio/video work for online presentation. This research project seeks to address ephemerality – its potentials and its problems – by finding, creating and reinvigorating old and new, public and private dance archives: not only the kind that exist in ephemera, text and objects, but also those that are produced and maintained within/through the body dancing. I attempted to find a common thread in the unspoken spaces that connect and differentiate us.
Supported by Critical Path, Sydney. Collaborating sound artist: Ash Baker.
Recalling the Picnics of Old
31 December 2020 00:00
This video project celebrates the picnic heydays of Blue Mountains tourism. The scenes are staged inside some of the historical faux rock shelters of Katoomba and Leura, built around 1935 by Tom Adam.
Initiated by Alan Schacher with video by Sam James. Performers: WeiZen Ho, Phillip Mills, Katia Molino, Phillip Mar, Nathan Robinson, Alan Schacher. This project is supported by the Blue Mountains City of the Arts Trust.
all of a flutter
01 December 2020 00:00
In this performance I perform with reams of white A4 paper in a set where everything is lost and nothing is retrievable. A 360VR video work made for and with Theatre Kantanka for the New Realities series. Invited to make a work during the Covid lockdown I thought of a vertical tunnel of swirling paper. A new series will be posted online soon ! Best viewed with occulus headset.
Produced by Theatre Kantanka ; Director : Carlos Gomes ; Video artist : Sam James ; Sound : Gail Priest Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and Blacktown Arts Centre
SOLO Group Exhibition
28 November 2020 13:00
In this exhibition artists show documentation of past single-installations made at Articulate over the past decade. For Dividing/Line I introduced steel site fencing to dissect and disrupt the venue’s function as gallery and workspace. Channeling all walls that separate, I patrolled the site as a security guard. Articulate Project Space, 497 Parramatta Rd, Leichhardt, Sydney. 28 Nov - 13 Dec 2020 , Fri-Sun 11am - 5pm
Alan Schacher : Dividing/Line 2018
Documentation: 12 photos (by David Brazil, Peter Murphy, Alan Schacher), steel fence panel & base
Black Reamer
19 October 2019 14:00
In this performance I will hand shred A4 sheets of black paper into a mound at my feet, reducing the black square. Conjointly, WeiZen Ho will perform “A Kind of Divination”, performing throughout the venue with lengths of red string. Performance for the opening event of WEST Projects Parramatta, and as part of the opening exhibition: 1st Biennale of International Reductive and Non-Objective Art, Sydney. Venue: The Stores Building, adjacent to Old Parramatta Gaol entrance, via corner of New & Dunlop Strees, then down left side lane top Darling Mill Creek.
Held in conjunction with the 5th Biennale of RNOA in Grenoble. Curator: Dr Billy Gruner. The Stores Building is supported by the Deerubbin LALC.
DELTA at The Wearable Art Prize
12 October 2019 12:00
NEWS UPDATE: I was the winner of the 2019 edition ! I am performing DELTA as an entry in Stonevilla Studios’ annual wearable art prize. This is a windy outdoor event held in a popular party-like atmosphere on a catwalk in the backyard of an old two storey villa. Venue: rear entrance, 19 Railway Parade, Sydenham, Sydney.
DELTA is a performance using 300 metres of black crepe paper rolls.
Thanks to the Judge Mark Titmarsh and to all the hardworking Stonevilla artists and volunteers!
A Kind of Divination
29 September 2019 19:00
A performance for The Moon Bar, part of the Willoughby Visual Arts Biennal 2019 - The Tenacious Realm.
We weave and collide between shifting realities, employing subtle tools to navigate between realms. Cleaving to dreams, hopes, fears and diverse realities, our method of divination seeks to make visible the images that persist. The glass walls of the Concourse serve as veiled passages through to other worlds.
Performed by Alan Schacher, WeiZen Ho and Hirofumi Uchino. Curated by Cassandra Hard-Lawrie for Willoughby City Council.
You Don't Know Me from a Bar of Soap
03 August 2019 11:00
I am performing You Don’t Know Me From a Bar of Soap a durational 6 hour work for [dis]connection Performance Art Event at Scratch Art Space, Sydney. I’m working with a new topic around soap and what it means to us. As always there is a deeper thematic. Its essentially a one-on-one work, though I’ll also be carving soap. So if you wish, I will soap you, literally, wash any part of your body you choose to offer. But here’s the rub: I only deal in used soap. So what is it that we shall attempt to wash away today?
16 artists over 6 hours : 11am to 5pm
Scratch Art Space, 67 Sydneham Road, Marrickville, Sydney. as part of The Edge Creative Arts Trail supported by the Inner West Council
Speaking With Your Mouth Full
14 March 2019 18:00
A live performance for Art Month as part of the Waterloo-Green Square precinct night.
Venue: Green Square Library,
355 Botany Road, Zetland
Thursday 14th March 2019
6pm-8pm
Featuring: Jim Denley : wind instruments Luiz Gabriel Gubeissi : double bass WeiZen Ho : performer Linda Luke : performer/ dancer Phillippa Murphy-Haste : clarinets and viola Alan Schacher : performer Hirofumi Uchino (Defektro) : handmade instruments and electronics
Curated by Alan Schacher and WeiZen Ho, this event brings together performing artists and musicians who will lead a journey through the library, examining the book as device, language as a medium for conveying musicality, and reading as a choral communion. The library will be open to explore after-hours for this special 1-night event. Drop into the library anytime between 6pm to 8pm. However, to experience the entire performance journey please be at the top of the outside Ampitheatre stairs entrance at 6pm.
Impro-Exchange Showing
10 March 2019 14:00
I have participated in several of deQuincey Co’s Impro-Exchange Laboratories. I am joining again on the weekend of 8th-10th March 2019. If you are free, come along to the improvised performance showing on Sunday 10th March at 2pm with drinks and casual discussion after.
Venue: Glebe Town Hall, 160 St John’s Road, Glebe, Sydney.
Buffalo Field Bangkok
27 November 2018 12:00
A new pilot site-specific performance event in Bangkok, Thailand. Curated by Dr Mike Hornblow and Ploy Yamtree. The event is situated in the historic Nang Loeng area of Bangkok, facilitated and produced through a collaboration of local community leaders, artist group E-lerng, and Bangkok-based community architecture office, Openspace.
10th Melaka Arts and Performance Festival, Malaysia
23 November 2018 20:00
I am again returning to petrform at Melaka Festival in the old town on St Paul’s Hill.
The First Yelang Valley Live Arts Week, Huaxi, Guizhou, China
25 October 2018 12:00
Performances for this new festival 25-27 October 2018. The festival is held at the historic limestone park near Doupeng Mountain. Curator Dong Jie.
The 6th UP-ON Live Art Festival, Chengdu, China
12 October 2018 00:00
My Lecture at 14:00h Sun 14 October ; venue: Luxehill Art Musem, Chengdu My Performance Colour Bleed at 14:00h, Fri 20 Oct; venue: Southwest Jiaotong University Campus, Chengdu
This 10 day performance art festival is curated by Zhou Bin. The Sixth UP-ON art festival will be held in Chengdu from 12th to 22nd of October, 2018. A total of 25 artists (10 from abroad and 15 from China) will participate. Organized by UP-ON Live Art Space, it is coorganized by College of Architecture and Design of Southwest Jiaotong University,the Art Museum of Sichuan University, Gao Xiaohua Art Museum of Soutwest University for Nationalities, Sculpture Department of Fine Art Institute of Sichuan Music University. Sponsors include the LUXELAKES · A4 Art Museum.
Sweet Separation
29 September 2018 12:00
A durational performance building miniature walls with sugar cubes for Bundanon’s Siteworks 2018 themed MICRO. Venue: Bundanon Trust, 533 Bundanon Rd, Illaroo NSW 2540 Saturday 29th September , performance 12noon-6pm (event continues into evening with overnight camping available)
Delta
22 September 2018 19:00
A repeat performance of Delta for Mortality Performance Night, Sydney Festival of Death and Dying
- Venue: The Drill Hall (Critical Path) 1C New Beach Road, Rushcutters Bay, Sydney.
Dividing / Line : Residency
31 July 2018 10:00
A 3-week whole space residency at Articulate Project Space, Sydney. During this residency I will divide the space in many ways to create divisions between the viewing public. In this I am considering the ways that we divide, separate and segregate people, thinking of The Israel-Palestine Wall and The USA-Mexico Barrier and even The Great Wall of China. This project is supported by funding from the Inner West Council. Dates 31st July - 20 August 2018.
Evaporative Body, Multiplying Body : Residency
04 June 2018 09:00
This 6-day residency (4-9 June 2018) is supported by Critical Path and will be undertaken in partnership at The Creative Practice Lab, School of Media & Arts, UNSW, Sydney
Alan Schacher and WeiZen Ho collaborate with media artist Mike Leggett & lighting designer Fausto Brusamolino. We will be researching ways in which the body can evaporate and multiply, change its very substance, transmute, relocate with the augmentation of lighting, projection and media. This new work questions transitional boundaries between life & death, spirit & sci-fi, scepticism, faith & superstition.
Collabathon : Performance
24 February 2018 12:00
A 5-hour collaboration/ improvisation for base-metal’s In Between Program. Alan Schacher will collaborate with a sequence of artists, each of whom will bring a provocation in the form of materials, objects, sounds, images.
- Artists : Gary Warner, Kraig Grady, Hirofumi Uchino, Ryuichi Fujimura, Sue Callanan, Rebecca Cunningham.
- Venue: AIRspace Projects, Marrickville, Sydney. (12noon to 5pm)
- Image: Alan Schacher & Kraig Grady . Photo : Gary Warner.
Delta : Performance
04 February 2018 14:00
opening performance for the exhibition Push the Medium
- 2pm Sunday 4th February 2018
- Narrandera Arts Centre, 141 East Street Narrandera, NSW, Australia
- Photo: Liana Magrath