From Mr. Goya Saturn devouring his son and the same name King Lear to Thenardier setMaple And the invisible but terrifying Carl Jones in a Lee Daniels movie valuableArt is replete with examples, over the centuries, of fathers committing terrible and even horrific deeds.
Affirmative expressions of fatherhood, such as being a good father, a parenting father, and a loving father, are much less common.
The new work by Canberra-based composer, musician, photographer and videographer Creswick (aka Liam Budge) aims to restore balance.
Performed in street theater and developed through an early-stage commissioning program, His Words: The Voice of Fatherhood An immersive event designed to celebrate modern fatherhood, combining pre-recorded interviews with live music.
“When I started coming up with this idea, my son was a year old, we had just returned to Australia, just before the bushfires, and just before lockdown. I realized that I couldn’t work or create with other people, so I started looking inward,” Creswick explains.
I wanted to delve deep into serious themes, so the idea of creatively exploring being a father immediately caught my imagination.
“The theme of being a father came naturally to me. It allowed me to be creative in my home environment, and it made me think about my relationship with my father, and the relationships with other fathers around me. I felt like it was a very important subject to get into creatively,” says Creswick. art hub.
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Many of the Canberra fathers who have agreed to be part of Creswick’s creative process have agreed to share their lives, experiences and different perspectives through a series of filmed interviews, The interview will be screened as part of the film. in his words.
“There are nine fathers in this film, and I feel like they are all on their journey to be the best father they can be. will share similar sentiments, but while there will be some failures along the way and some learning that happens at the same time as being a father, what really matters is the quest to be a better father.. This project. is trying to have that kind of conversation so we can learn from each other and find common ground, but it also discusses the lack of fathers and male role models. And they’re part of the fathers in this show, and we’re also discussing what happens when you don’t have a good father as a role model, and the ramifications that can cause you. about life.
Issues of culture, masculinity, and role models are questioned in this compilation of modern fatherhood, with live music from Creswick and his collaborators, all of whom are fathers.
“So the video that you see on the screen is an interview with the father, and also a B-roll of the father interacting with his children. is interspersed with seven songs that correspond to themes that appear in the work, so we very deliberately capture the moment when the focus shifts from the on-screen visuals to the songs the band and I wrote. I’m shooting,” Creswick explains.
“So my intention and hope is that neither art form competes with the other. , that was a deliberate decision because I felt that it would allow them to really connect with the themes that existed in their work, and also connect with the music that I wrote,” he says.
Considering Creswick’s jazz training, it’s not surprising that the album’s musical elements include elements of jazz. in his wordsBut various other influences and styles also exist.
“I was trained as a jazz vocalist at ANU in Canberra. So there is jazz, there is folk, there is rock, there is pop, there is film score, It’s in the realm of music.” Olafur Arnals and Nils Frahm, so it traverses a really broad musical world. Because what I’m doing is intentionally writing music that responds to the themes of the fathers on screen and also to what’s happening in the visual landscape. Therefore, I feel that how it is represented musically is what the audience hears in the auditorium. “
Creswick is acutely aware of how some fathers have (understandably) been treated badly over the years, and the need to create space for storytelling from diverse perspectives, all of which serves to inform different elements of society. His Words: The Voice of Fatherhood.
“Being a father is inherently gendered, but I just really wanted to tell the story of being a father. There is discussion about the roles of partners and mothers and the role they play within a relationship, and there is also talk about gay fathers and the role they play in each other’s lives,” he said. says.
“But I hope that this work will platform a really important human experience, something that we can all relate to whether we are fathers, men or women, because these Because stories are really important to tell, and it’s really important to shed light on what is sometimes a little overlooked in the grand narrative that’s presented, and that’s certainly the story of art.”
His Words: The Voice of Fatherhood will run at Canberra’s Street Theater from 23 to 25 June.
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