Skye Gellmann

Subjective Spectacle
2019 - 2020

Subjective Spectacle explores our relationship to spectacle through performance, installation, visual art and the moving image. Over one hour, watch performance artists Naomi Francis, Skye Gellmann and Rockie Stone alongside visual works by Kimberley Brewster, Lowana Davies and Mindy Davies, draw out questions in relation to what is spectacular.

Curated by Skye Gellmann. First hosted by Sidesault Festival.

Featuring artwork by: Kimberley Brewster, Naomi Francis, Lowana Davies, Mindy Davies, Skye Gellmann & Rockie Stone.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

End Grain
2017 - 2019

End Grain is a sculptural performance by artist Skye Gellmann that draws out our relationship to landscape through the manipulation of timber planks. Utilising acrobatics, movement and practice-based performance, we see the artist on the ground and also in the air. A hypnotic space is carved out where themes of trauma, grief and internal darkness are explored.

This work is iterative and has existed in many different contexts: As a 20 minute work, video, installations, improvisation, walking tours, full length stage work and also gallery pieces.

_ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _

Bodies Over Bitumen
2015 - 2017

A site-specific circus piece about time spent with a road, its ghosts and shadows.

Three interdisciplinary performers guide the audience through a 60-minute meandering through the urban landscape. With histories spanning homelessness and squatting, Bodies Over Bitumen's creators use their lived understanding of spaces to bring our focus to the streets; creating a journey that deeply engages both performers and audience with the site. Through this quiet and meandering collaboration between audience, performer and site, a space is carved out for reflection and new understanding.

"No spangles or frills… Even the best of 'new circus' often boils down to a sequence of thematically related 'acts,' failing to create emotional immersion. By contrast, Bodies Over Bitumen places us in direct relationship to the surface of the road, making the space of the streets subtly dangerous, but also a place to play… —Gellmann, Francis and Gellmann, with off-stage creative collaborator Kieran Law, have created something quietly extraordinary." - Realtime Arts Magazine

INNOVATION IN CONTEMPORARY CIRCUS, 2016 Green Room Awards.

BEST EXPERIMENTAL PERFORMANCE, 2015 Melbourne Fringe Festival.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Snow
2014

The Melba Speigel Tent is transformed into a non-whimsical landscape that 'mines' the imagination.

"Snow's high point is the 'snowball fight' that Gellmann orchestrates: the audience balls up paper into rounded clumps and goes for it with the abandon of several dozen primary school kids let loose in their thermals and mittens. Faint giggles, ripping paper and the thud of feet on the polished floor seep through the earplugs." - Realtime Arts Magazine.

_ _ _ _ _

Blindscape
2012 - 2013

Our personal technologies have become an extension of ourselves.

Blindscape looks to exploit that connection to engage its audience in a visceral environment that collapses real and imagined boundaries. Using a provided iPhone, pre-loaded with the specially designed Blindscape App, you enter the virtual world as you enter the performance space. The Blindscape App is a 3D audio-virtual reality. Coloured in by an unseen hand, perception and reality fold over as you explore corridors, doorways and landscapes – four unique stages of discovery moving to a final place of reflection. The light from your phone helps you to view fragments of circus which are spectacular but elusive, in this performance experience.

"The work itself is by turns lyrical, powerful and humorous.. this was an incredibly fun experience!" - Artshub.

"Blindscape is a truly remarkable piece of theatre.. Many times I found myself watching a performer, then being distracted by the stunning soundscape that would lead me to another mini performance only a few steps away." Four and half stars - After Dark Theatre.

"Innovation and excellence in Circus." Nomination: Green Room Awards 2012.

Time Out Magazines 2012 Theatre Awards "Honourable Mention" to Blindscape, in Hybrid and Experimental Theatre.

Specifications
Promenade Performance (30 audience) 1hr Circus / iGame Performance.

Seasons
Blindscape premiered at the 2012 Next Wave Festival.
La Boite Indie.
PACT Center for Emerging Artists.
Junction Arts Festival.
Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Artists: Skye Gellmann, Kieran Law, Thom Browning, Dylan Sale, Gareth Hart.

__ _ __ _____ ____ _______

Mothlight
2010 - 2020

The audience is led one by one into a spider-web landscape.

Within this world, an electric performance of physical extremes and dangerous intimacy takes place. Acrobats Skye Gellmann and Naomi Francis take us out of our comfort zones and reveal the essence of our primal dreams, desires and destructive tendencies. Mothlight is an on going collaboration between Skye Gellmann and Naomi Francis.

Since 2010, they have toured to 7 venues around Australia and overseas including the Stockholm Fringe Festival.

"Illuminated by a mere light bulb and buried within a labyrinth of strained plastic reeds lies Skye Gellmann's Mothlight world: a constructed space within which physical prowess is tested and the inner psyche investigated. Mothlight quickly descends into an intense and captivating performance, made up of just the right amount of elusiveness and directness so that the end result is a piece that encourages discussion rather than denies it." - Beat Magazine.

BEST CIRCUS, 2011 Adelaide Fringe Festival.

Specifications
40min circus show and installation
120 Audience Max. (Audience varies depending on space size)

Seasons
Brisbane Festivals 'Under the Radar.'
Melbourne Fringe Festival.
Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Art.
Adelaide Fringe Festival.
Stockholm Fringe Festival.
Crack Theatre Festival.
Hoopla Festival.

Artists: Skye Gellmann & Naomi Francis.

__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Retinal Damage
2009 - 2010

A body moves acrobatically in syncronisation with the shutter of a slide projector.

Tricks are concealed, reveled and disorted in this hypnotic performance that is as much about what you don't see as what you do.

BEST CIRCUS, PHYSICAL THEATRE OR BURLESQUE PERFORMANCE, 2010 Sydney Fringe.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Scattered Tacks
2008 - 2010

An anarchic vision of circus.

Far from the sensory-overload of much contemporary performance, Scattered Tacks leads audiences into an anarchic and absurd vision of circus. Award winning trio (Terri Cat Silvertree, Alex Gellmann and Skye Gellmann) take us back to the very essence of the circus; the circus behind the popcorn, the frills and the grand gestures.

"The Gellmann's and Silvertree bring Australian circus, traditionally rough and bawdy, closer to its conceptual and elegant French sibling, but in a way that is absolutely authentic." Jana Perkovi, Realtime Arts Magazine

"One of the most challenging and significant pieces of New Circus to emerge in years." Advocate and Artistic Director of Circa, Yaron Lifschitz.

AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION, 2008 Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Seasons
Melbourne Fringe Festival.
Village Festival, Melbourne.
'New Circus Now' at Judith Write Center for Contemporary Art.
Brisbane Powerhouse, Visi Theatre.
Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival, Netherlands.
Artshouse, Melbourne.

Artists: Skye Gellmann, Terry Cat Silvertree & Alex Gellmann

__ _ _ _ _ _

All text, images and content (c) Skye Gellmann 2007 to 2023

Back to home ^