Melbourne University is doing something interesting with art.
They’ve given 30 emerging artists the chance to work across three locations, alongside some of the world’s most famous works of art – all without as much as a brief.
A challenge? Yes, but one the artists whose own take on creativity and the historical beauty of so many of the pieces they work alongside, have proven great inspiration for the projects they undertook.
Called First Commissions, the Uni’s project is purposed to present these 30 unique responses from the artistic troupe.
It asked them to reinterpret world-changing historical commissions for the present moment, all of which were pretty broadly reaching; Think, the Titanic to Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty, to Michaelangelo’s David, a vision of human perfection.
In fact, five of the 30 artists worked with David, working back from the finished product to create pieces that told the story of being a person in the modern day. Through each of their five disciplines, Esther Stewart, Aboriginal Australian visual artist Ashley Perry choreographer and dancer Jack Riley, interactive composer Samuel Kreusler and classical composer Danna Yun, churned out works that did just that.
The University of Melbourne was able to launch the project at the statue of David in Florence, from where the exhibition will then make its way to Melbourne, taking place over Open House weekend (27-28 July) in the Martyn Myer Arena on the University of Melbourne Southbank campus.
The exhibition will include 30 works responding to the 7 commissions and involve over 100 emerging artists and students working across film, dance, theatre, music, music theatre, visual art and design and production.
See more at the First Commissions website.