Cultural Centre
Perth Western Australia 6000
(08) 9227 6288
http://www.fringeworld.com.au
Three and a half weeks of entertainment, fun and cultural activities featuring Australian, European and American artists In boring Perth? Perth? Boring?
The FWF has dramatically transformed Perth's cultural scene for good, with a varied, interesting and independent (stress independent), offer of Music (all styles indie!), Theatre (comedy, drama, burlesque) and Films (independent & World films). The Cultural Centre really comes alive when the "Fringers" set their feet in our city and with the many activities and temporary spaces set and come alive in this space.
It is remarkable that the festival, despite its quality, has decent pricing. From the medium-high (mostly for music events) to gratis (free!) for some open-air shows. You could attend an event for less than the price you expend eating out. Is that for real? Yes! Yelp!
The festival attracts a great number of people of all ages, allured by a cultural offer that is relatively new in suburban Perth and allows us experiencing what is happening beyond our shores. We like it because we are citizens of Planet Earth, right? Aliens also like it. So good it is.
The colourful vintage ticketing caravans, the super-friendly staff, and the program were excellent in 2012. I went to four shows this year, and I reminded myself that I should had gone to many more.
DOWNS
I find a disrespectful towards Artists and the public locating their shows in places that are not well prepared for a paid show. Example - the Treasure Chest Chamber was especially opened for some of the FWF shows, and the event much publicised. I attended a theatre function there. The place did look ugly, the antithesis of an artistic-minded place, did not have any ventilation (being a Southern girl I always have a hand fan with me, that was the only ventilation I got), the room was really hot for the public, can you imagine for the actresses under the lights? Moreover, the movable grades were not steep enough, so people looked like a bunch of geese swinging their bodies to see over other people's heads. I hope they are a bit more mindful next year.
I am looking forward to next year's program and to Perth becoming, again, a cheery princess with a fringe.
Cultural Centre Plaza
Northbridge Western Australia 6003
Programme
The giant LED screen came to live at the end of year 2011 and has completely transformed the life and atmosphere of the Cultural Centre since.
It must be the magnetic field of this humoungous electronic device mixed with the subtle whisper of the free wi-fi in the square, but there is something about this screen that attracts a heterogeneous mix of people like flies to a bulb.
In spite of being part of the reality of our cities, big flat screens are very futuristic, part of an imagined future that is already here. Science-fiction movies and literature have helped to attach an aura of negativity to big public screens, and they are often portrayed as tools used by dubious corporations and governments to send subliminal messages of individual submission, political control, personal brainwashing, and commercial utilisation. Those images, and the fear they have infused in the collective subconscious are the root of the rejection that they generate among some people, who ask themselves: Can't we live without screens? Isn't the screen too big? Is TV the new God? Are our minds being controlled?
I can tell you just one thing - The LED screen is not going to control you brain, or affect it negatively unless it is already damaged. You will surrender yourself willingly if you want to have a 24/7 free cultural programme without having to pay a subscription to a dubious corporation called Teleestrash or Foxytell, which connect you through your phone and charge you a lot of money for it. That is perfectly acceptable, right?
The LED screen shows short films, both animated or non animated (some of them Internationally awarded), short travel and nature docos, Music and Dance pieces, motivational speeches, segments showcasing some of the photographic treasures of the SLWA, experimental images and material that you do not find in your normal TV program; they will certainly expand your mind, not dominate it. There are scheduled and seasonal feature films coinciding with public and school holidays, and local and international events.
Having a giant TV screen in a square does not mean that you have to watch it if you do not want. Simple, no? You can use the screen as a focal point to munch your thoughts and muse on life and eternity. You can fake that you are watching something, while you eyes fully focus on that cute sexy human approaching the steps. You can practice and synchronise your lunch mastication with your eyes and ears movement and have an out-of-body experience. You can look at beautiful intriguing images if you are deaf. You can listen to stories and sounds if you are blind. You can get an excuse to seat and have company if you feel lonely and need of human proximity to make your days more bearable. You can use the screen as an excuse to have a seat and rest. You can even, watch the programme and enjoy it, for one minute, five minutes or one hour.
The world is imperfect and also this LED screen. The sound is often muted, making the watching of pieces that are not silent an annoyance. On the other hand, the segments are showed repeatedly, day after day, during weekdays, so, if you seat in front of the screen regularly, you might find yourself watching a piece for the seventh time. A bit of more rotation of the pieces, and regularly adding new ones, should be the target of the Cultural Centre. We are humans and get bored easily.
One can criticise the
obsession of our modern world with images and flat screens, which I share in some degree, but this is an educational and
culturally-oriented tool. And it is free. No news or manipulating channels.
Let
us rejoice while our brains decide on their own whether they want to to be absorbed by the big flatty or not. Besides, Perth is one of those
cities in which everything costs too much, Culture specially. Can't we
be happy at having entertainment and culture gratis?
Perth Cultural Centre
Perth 6006 WA
http://www.perthculturalcentre.com.au/What%27s-Growing/About-Urban-Orchard/
Photo Courtesy of the Perth Cultural Centre Website.
The Urban Orchard is a green area developed after refurbishing the fringe space beside the Art Gallery and Perth Train Station, of which only the sculpture "Before 1978-1980" remains.
I have a mix of feelings about the Orchard. On one hand, it is great having a public edible garden in the heart of the city used as an educational area, with seedbeds containing a mix of seasonal vegetables and herbs, and scheduled free activities for school children and adults to learn and improve their gardening skills. The harvest & planting days, organised at the start of the summer and winter seasons, are perfect for that. It is also great having a wide green space with a seating area in Northbridge for your lunch, ciggie or coffee breaks, to use as a meeting point, or for the Fringe Festival to set their colourful caravans and vans.
So much thought put into the concept and so little into the design, which is not creative at all. The orchard doesn't feel as an orchard, not even earthy, but more like a lawn and concrete seating area similar to the one in Forrest Chase (now being redeveloped). Besides, and practically speaking, the shading is very limited and the place not good for seating during hot or rainy days - it is perfect for the lettuces and the herbs to look at the sky and enjoy the natural elements.
Perth Cultural Centre
Perth 6006
http://www.perthculturalcentre.com.au/About/Wetland/
The Wetland [sic] is a fresh water pond located in the Cultural Centre, in the space connecting James St Amphitheatre and the Art Gallery of Western Australia, and created by redeveloping the previous water fountain but still including Stuart Green's beautiful sculpture.
The place recreates one of the swamps that were part of Perth natural environment at the arrival of the first European settlers. The area is very small but it is beautifully done. It has a great layout and a terrific mix of native greenery and wooden and metallic elements, a large colourful seating area, and a wooden deck stage. A bunch of happy frogs, native fish, and insects consider the pond home, as well as many seagulls, which come here to perform their bath rituals or have a swim. The fact that the central focal viewpoint of the Wetland has no human movement, but a stone façade as a background really helps to immerse yourself in this little artificial micro-cosmos. The world is left at your back, and it feels far away from the hectic urban surroundings.
The place is a favourite with quiet lunchers and coffee sippers, small children wanting to spot frogs, school groups, loners, and people attending some of the environmental talks and performances that take place at the central stage.
The Wetland is a beautiful special spot, perfect to relax in the middle of the city.
Between Francis Street, William Street and Roe Street
Northbridge Western Australia
(08) 9222 8000
http://www.perthculturalcentre.com.au/
The soul of the city - this is the Cultural Centre. An under-appreciated free heart, taken for granted, by many Perthites. In a five-minute walk you will have free access to the State Library (the most visited public building in WA), the Art Gallery and PICA, two theatres (The Blue Room and the State Theatre), the Museum of Western Australia, a musical playground, an urban orchard, and a wetlands pond, and some nice sculptures. We should be clapping out of joy!
The central plaza with its colourful steps has become a modern sort of agora for concerts and festivals, and also a favourite among open-air lunchers since the setting of the big screen in the middle of the square, which showcases great shorts all day long. You can watch the shorts, read your magazine or book, or watch humans pass by in their colourful dresses, hairdos, and attitudes.
There are gazillion coffee shops, eateries, cafés and pubs in Northbridge and in his area, which is another bonus to stay around.
The only thing lacking for the place to be world class is, a more impacting architecture and sculptures, and, above all, the monetary patronage necessary to bring bigger shows and exhibitions to the city, and to provide better funding for the functioning of these institutions. Hopefully, when the redevelopment project is finished, the place will have a more edgy aura.
The vibrancy of the place is not always evident, as the place has also become a passage way from William St to Beaufort St to the CBD and vice versa, and many of the beautiful spots in the area are passed unnoticed. Still, some of the new developments are attracting an increasing number of people coming to the Cultural Centre to stay, not to pass by.
