REW<<FF>>2020
In 2020 at the height of the pandemic and during a time of unprecedented social and political turmoil in the United States, dance artists Narelle Benjamin and Kate Dunn were invited by Chunky Move Artistic Director Antony Hamilton to reawaken roles created for Gideon Obarzanek’s seminal 1997 Chunky Move work, Bonehead.
Based in LA, both Kate and Narelle are iconic dance luminaries, lifelong friends, and pivotal members of Chunky Move's premiere ensemble in the mid 90s. In the film REW<<FF>>2020, they capture the bizarre and dream-like mood of the present time as they wander the empty dystopian streets of the city, reprising the 20-something year old Bonehead characters, Bag Lady and Assassin Gogo Girl. Shot on VHS, the film is a lo-fi nostalgic DIY portrait of two artists who carry traces of history in their bodies across time. They boogie down the vacant sun-bleached blocks of post-urban LA, bleeding between character, performer, past and present in a Lynchian amalgam, blurring reality with fiction. Within the theatre of daily street life, are they authentically themselves, or just characters? Who really knows. Their performances express the dichotomy that is at the heart of the construction of identity, and in the duality of every performer's invention of a persona.
It’s easy to forget just how oddball 2020 felt at the time this was shot. We urgently wanted to capture a faithful time capsule of the weirdness of the moment we were all in. REW<<FF>>2020 delights in that weirdness. It is a love letter to LA’s eccentric downtown scene and its mythological status as a refuge for artistic outsiders and vagabonds. It is a musing on the life of a dancer, reflecting on age, change, echoes of the past and invisibility. It is a demonstration of the importance of friendship and family over many years. Shot by Kate’s daughter, filmmaker Ava Doorley, with a musical score by Narelle’s husband Huey and son Eddie, the film is a poignant intergenerational affirmation of creative life branching out across family and across time.
REW<<FF>>2020 was commissioned as part of Chunky Move’s 25th anniversary year activities. Post-production and digital premiere has been delayed until now, due to the wider complexities of making stuff happen in the last 18 months.
Credits:
Choreographed and performed by: Narelle Benjamin and Kate Dunn
Cinematography: Ava Doorley
Editing: Narelle Benjamin and Antony Hamilton
Music: Huey and Eddie Benjamin
Original Bonehead characters: conceived by Gideon Obarzanek. (Thanks to Gideon for his blessing to reimagine them in this context).
Performer notes:
Narelle Benjamin
The portraits of these characters reflect on our past, as well as Kate and my friendship today, our journey continuing from the stage in the 90’s to the streets of LA in 2020: by chance us both living in LA, our paths crossing yet again as they have so many times over the last 25 years.
I’d like to thank Antony, for his generosity, persistence, and vision, into making this video come to life. It was so wonderful to all creatively collaborate and connect during these difficult times, rewinding back to the beginnings of Chunky Move in a creative dialogue today.
It was also wonderful to work with Ava, Kate’s daughter who shot the video, and for Huey my husband to compose the sound score with Eddie my son playing guitar and bass on the track. The lineage and continuity of time, family, friends and place.
Kate and I really enjoyed revisiting these roles and thinking about who these characters would be today. I wanted to hold onto Assassin Go Go Girl’s driven nature, but for her to have a stillness in contrast to the Bag Lady who was more physical and moving through space. Also to have an intensity, with the intention that she could spring into action at any time. I must say we definitely had a good laugh imagining where they had landed and their backstory, of which we had many. Go Go Girl, and Bag Lady, and ourselves, all finally meeting up in LA 25 years later for a final showdown.
Kate Dunn
It’s amazing what can grow out of a conversation.
Antony and I discussed the idea of celebrating Chunky Move’s 25th Anniversary in the foyer of the Roz Packer theatre back in 2019. Antony’s invitation, vision and support and a joint desire by myself and Narelle Benjamin to collaborate, led us to the burning question.
Who are those extreme cartoon characters from Gideon Obarzanek’s Bonehead and Fast Idol 25 years on? This was the start of our film’s journey.
This project has been an important experience for me, not only collaborating with Antony but also with Nellie, who is a brilliant and prolific artist and lifelong cherished friend.
We have collaborated on many projects over time, and I am so grateful for this documentation of our lived experiences, shared artistry, and incredible friendship over decades and during the momentous year of 2020.
I am honoured to have had the opportunity to work with my amazing daughter, Ava Doorley. Creating with your child and witnessing their own creative journey is both indescribable and awe inspiring.
Her creative aesthetic poignantly captures the character’s emotional and textural landscape along with the atmospheric space and time of LA in 2020.
Thank you also to Huey Benjamin who created the film’s indelible habitat with an ultra-cool, symbiotic score and to Eddie Benjamin who has the transcendent musicality of a virtuoso.
Lastly a note for The bag lady:
You will always be my most deeply loved character to portray.
You are hysterical, irreverent, street smart, scrappy, aggressive, emotionally challenged, authentic, ridiculous, intuitive, non-gender identifying, uber physical, activated and I f**king love you!
Bonehead image gallery:
