AUSTRALIA – Naarm (Melbourne)

Artist Snapshots 1 – 03.27.2023
8am PT / 11am ET / 5pm GMT

 
 

An artist living in Naarm (Melbourne), Joel Bray is a proud Wiradjuri man whose practice springs from his cultural heritage. His works are intimate encounters in unorthodox spaces, in which audience-members are invited in as co-storytellers to explore the experiences of fair-skinned Aboriginal people, and the experiences of contemporary gay men in an increasingly digital and isolated world. His body becomes the intersection site of those songlines- Indigenous heritage, skin-colour and queer sexuality.

Joel trained at NAISDA and WAAPA before pursuing a career in Europe and Israel with Jean-Claude Gallotta, Company CeDeCe , Kolben Dance, Machol Shalem Dance House, Yoram Karmi’s FRESCO Dance Company, Niv Sheinfeld & Oren Laor and Roy Assaf. He returned to Australia in 2015 to work with CHUNKY MOVE.

Joel’s first work as a choreographer Biladurang won three Melbourne Fringe Awards in 2016. Since then Joel has created solo and ensemble dance works including Dharawungara, Daddy, Considerable Sexual License and I Liked it BUT…

Joel is currently developing a new large scale work Garabari, which premieres in Melbourne in December 2022.

During the pandemic Joel created a multichannel video installation Giraru Galing Ganhagirri. This 7 channel work premiered at the National Gallery of Australia’s 2022 Ceremony exhibition curated by Hetti Perkins.

 
 

Artist Snapshot:

 

Daddy

Joel has daddy issues.

And his insatiable cravings for father figures always leave him wanting more.

Don’t tell his dentist, but Joel Bray’s cravings are getting out of hand. He’s looking to live the sweet life, yet the sugar hits of nostalgia and fantasy are all too short-lived, and behind it all there’s a need that can never be sated.

Daddy is the latest work from one of the most electric new figures in Australian dance. Here he probes one of the paradoxes of our age: when so much is on offer, why are we left so hungry?

From the sugar-coated idyll of childhood reminiscence to the glazed excesses of queer adulthood, Joel’s story proves that a sweet tooth is a dangerous thing. Short-lived highs give way to the inevitable comedowns before the cycle begins all over again. And like a kid in a candy store, an imperial hunger for Aboriginal Australia consumes all it encounters – land, women and children – like fistfuls of sugar.

Hilarious, provocative and heartfelt, this DADDY tickles the nerve endings of desire whilst prodding the cavities left by colonisation. Featuring Joel Bray’s trademark confection of conversation, dance and all-you-can-eat audience participation, Daddy is a sweet feast with a deadly aftertaste.

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