Belinda Locke

– Performance, Saturday 14th November 2009

Belinda Locke is an emerging artist in her final year of study for a Bachelor of Creative Industries in Drama at the Queensland University of Technology. In the past she has worked on projects with directors Anna Yen, Liz Skitch, David Fenton, Benjamin Knapton and Nic Vogelpoel. Belinda is also the General Manager of QUT’s student theatre company, Vena Cava Productions. She began training in physical theatre at the age of 14 through the Young Physical Actor Training run by Zen Zen Zo. In 2007 Belinda was one of the co-creators of the Stop Violence Against Women Project directed by Anna Yen in association with Amnesty International and the Queensland University of Technology. Now she is interested in using her bodily awareness to devise contemporary performance artworks that address both personal and existential issues. Belinda has been influenced by performance artist Janine Antoni, the practice of Robert Lepage and postdramatic theory. In the future she would like to produce work that further fuses the boundaries between visual art and performance and the real and the fictional.

Lemon Untitled is a solo performance artwork that offers an insight into the concerns and struggles of a young woman trying to establish her identity. The work encompasses issues such as the tedium of everyday tasks, resent for housework and the sometimes uneasy balancing act played by women in contemporary society. Lemon Untitled operates on the limin between comedy and seriousness with a sensitivity of action that is both sensual and unique.

Traditional notions of character, narrative and style are abolished as Locke performs a multi-faceted version of her own life. She pushes her body to its physical limits with an intensity of movement that highlights the absurdity of banal activities such as sweeping. Using a symbolic method of communication she performs seemingly pointless tasks with objects in a bid to illuminate tasks that are apparently devoid of meaning in my everyday life. The silence of the piece draws attention to every breath and twitch the performer utters. Lemon Untitled is a show with humour, delicacy, sweat and guts.