If you haven't managed to catch a performance of Matthew Day's yet, this is an incredible opportunity, right here at The Lismore Gallery and Quad to do so as community, and better yet it is for free!

Construction and collapse's Premier with dancer and artist Matthew Day at The Quad will take place tomorrow, Friday 18th and Saturday 19th February.

In a statement from The Quad, we are told "it is thrilled to present a two-part dance installation by internationally acclaimed choreographer, dancer and conceptual artist Matthew Day". 

In each piece Matthew Day will perform for 3 hours, inviting audiences to experience his performances in a non-linear format, much like an art installation. There is no set beginning and end, audiences can engage with the work at any point and can freely enter and exit the space. 

“I’m excited about presenting these works in The Quad - a public, outdoor space where there is an element of the unknown, a space for the accidental encounter between artist and audience,” Matthew Day said.

“I haven’t presented a work in Australia since 2016 and I’m really looking forward to seeing how Lismore responds.

"This was inspired from when Covid began, I was living in a city, Berlin which is busy, and yet in two weeks, when you went out on the street it was completely different, it was deserted. It's about things we are used to falling apart and is about trying to hold familiar things together.

"I see it as more than dance, I see it as Sculptural Movement , and a great way to approach it without a beginning and an end, that's one of the reasons I love long-form medium"

Marissa Snow from The Gallery says "Interactive audience art forms which in times of Covid allow the audience to be interacted with in their own terms is important".

Matthew's performance includes a number of architectural elements creating the space and setting the tone. It is a captivating performance which allows the viewer to engage as long as they like, some stay to watch and interact the whole 3 hours, others come for an hour, leave for lunch and then return, it's entirely up to the viewer.

The first work which occurred last week was entitled Assemblage Series and was set to a soundtrack of bird calls, while Matthew explored the point at which everyday movement becomes dance and played with building materials and objects to investigate themes of construction, collapse and reconstruction.

The second work is the world premiere of False Idols, to be presented at The Quad tomorrow, Friday 18^th from 3pm to 6pm and Saturday 19^th February 11am to 2pm.

Matthew describes False Idols as the ‘underside’ of Assemblage. Whereas Assemblage is calm, contemplative and industrious, False Idols presents a dystopian, escapist and sometimes apocalyptic response to the pandemic performed to a driving, beat heavy soundtrack provided live by DJ Guy Grey. 

Matthew Day has presented works at Australia’s and the world’s leading festivals including Melbourne International Arts Festival, Mona Foma, Festival Faits d’hiver, Paris, Festival Antigel, Geneva and Perforacije Festival, Zagreb to name just a few. Pre-pandemic Matthew was living in Amsterdam and is now living in the Northern Rivers, NSW.

His choreography and performance continually challenge and re-invent a dance practice that has taken him from teenage ballroom champion to contemporary stages across the world.

Bring a picnic blanket, grab a coffee or a bite to eat at Slate Café and experience Matthew Day’s extraordinary performance installations in The Quad, 11 Rural St, Lismore, More info can be found at www.lismorequad.org.au