Date: 7–26 January 2016
Venue: Vaucluse House Gardens, Wentworth Road, Vaucluse
Enquiries: CHE Melbourne (che-melb-admin@unimelb.edu.au)
“We’ve planted our music in bird boxes and flowerpots, nested in trees and dug into the soil. We’re inviting you to complete the composition, by entering the garden to listen. We hope that something in the combined spirit of this magical place, wreathed in soft, delicate music, encourages you to be quiet, move slowly, to look deeply, and then to leave with a little glow of contemplative beauty.” Genevieve Lacey, on Pleasure Garden
As an associate artist of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (CHE), virtuoso recorder player and outstandingly imaginative artist Genevieve Lacey will transform the beautiful Pleasure Garden at Vaucluse House into a place of musical play, repose and delight. Inspired by the story and music of the seventeenth-century musician, composer, improviser and nobleman Jacob van Eyck, Pleasure Garden combines excerpts from his work, set within newly composed music by Genevieve Lacey and Jan Bang, in collaboration with Jim Atkins, Robin Fox, Peter Brundle and Sera Davies.
You’re invited into the music and natural architecture, to play the garden, to stroll or recline with friends and strangers as the environment is transformed into a listening garden.
Researchers from CHE will be present to encourage audiences to report their emotional responses to the work.
The work will be exhibited during The Sydney Festival at Vaucluse House, 7–26 January 2016. Genevieve will give a free dawn performance at 6.30am on 9 January.
Find out more about the Pleasure Garden Project and the ABC Music Recording Pleasure Garden by Genevieve Lacey here.
Find out more about Pleasure Garden and Vaucluse House.