This series of ceramic clothing featuring cut outs that would leave a body exposed explores and complicates these ideas challenging the notion that clothing (which conforms to modesty norms) is a safe space.Īlice Lang is an Australian artist currently based in Los Angeles. Clothing and fashion are a form of social communication that is often perceived to play a key role in encouraging the objectification, dehumanization and denial of agency for female bodies. These sentiments are echoed in a series of ceramic works that explore the body as a site of objectification. Shown alongside a series of feminist slogans and a cascade of curse words, the meaning of the smiley shifts again to reference the oppressive use of speech that objectifies women through catcalling and asking them to smile. Initially created as a symbol intended to boost the morale of employees, it has since morphed to represent various counter cultural movements, drug cultures and emojis. The smiley is a symbol that regularly surfaces in Langs work. The labor-intensive process of tracing around these marbled collaged letters over and over again is a meditative act that stops language in motion and fixes it in place on a page outside of the body. The use of marbled paper within the work makes historical reference to decorative cover pages within books. This work taps into the fraught historical relationship between women and swearing and the rich history of using such language as a means of challenging oppressive social and cultural norms. For more information on the next show, visit Big Fork Theatre on Facebook.Cool Story Bro is a new body of work by Alice Lang which incorporates text, symbols and slogans from recent history and popular culture, to explore ways in which language, speech and text can be used to oppress or liberate a body. ‘Cool Story, Bro’ is a monthly show held in Room To Play Theatre in Paddington, Brisbane. ‘Cool Story, Bro’ is a unique experience for those who want a different kind of edge to their comedy. Each month will see new guest storytellers, equipped with different stories and more improvised madness. Thanks to the temporary nature of improvised comedy, audiences will never see the same show twice. Each performer utilises their strengths no matter their level as a performer. It is also inspiring to see the mixture of experienced and inexperienced performers working together. Jenny’s story of pregnancy difficulties is re-imagined as a bet on whether the 40 Hour Famine is harder than giving birth.
Luke’s hippie ex story turns into a scene about a parent meeting her daughter’s friendly nudist boyfriend. Jenny’s babysitting story became an infomercial for the ‘Hell’s Angels Guide To Child Rearing’, with advice on entertaining little ones and getting them to sleep, such as suckling on fingers which may have cocaine residue. What was amazing was some of the directions these scenes would take, while matching the hilarity of the stories. Rather than re-enacting the stories just told, the performers from Big Fork Theatre took inspiration from certain details within the stories, and built multiple scenes from there. Jenny’s stories delved into the trials of motherhood, from a particularly difficult birth, to her unawareness that the pretty women babysitting her children may also be ‘Pretty Women’ in the Julia Roberts sense. Luke delivers odd stories about his own strange mannerisms, and a particularly ticklish story about a hippie ex-girlfriend who believed recycling was “fucking bullshit” thanks to her garbologist father.
The stories these two performers deliver are funny on their own. For tonight’s show, guest storytellers are improv performer Luke Rimmelzwaan, and comedy star Jenny Wynter. The show is divided in two halves, with a different story teller and team of improvisers performing in each.
It is from this story that a team of improvisers take inspiration to create hilarious scenes, taking directions both obvious and unexpected. The show begins with a guest who tells a story from their life, inspired by a word suggested by the audience. The format of ‘Cool Story, Bro’ is inspired by American style improv, specifically The Armando. Big Fork Theatre produced the monthly improvised comedy and storytelling show ‘Cool Story, Bro’. Improvised comedy, however, is a team experience, where players work together to build a story from the audience. This might be due to the solitary, ego-building nature of traditional comedy, where every comedian is fighting for public adoration for their humour. Within the realm of comedy, improvised comedy seems to be the most maligned. Big Fork Theatre presents a unique night of improvised comedy and storytelling in their new home at the Room To Play theatre in Paddington.