The Silent Dinner parties are heading to New York City and Mexico City in July and August 2012. The word is now out for potential hosts! If you are interested in hosting a Silent Dinner with me in your home, drop me a line real soon. If you would like to come to one in any of these cities, drop me a line as well, and I’ll be sure to keep you posted, otherwise just check back in here on the attend page in the coming few weeks as times and places get decided.
Category: Chronology
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Project Anywhere
The Silent Dinner Parties have been included in a great new project by Dr. Sean Lowry called Project Anywhere that supports art at the outermost limits of location specificity.
It’s a new approach to global curating for practice-based research outcomes in the arts. It doesn’t have many boundaries. It adopts a blind peer review system so should also have a hand at pulling apart a self referential system that makes art stars stars. This just means that the projects that are proposed to Project Anywhere are encountered without the reviewers knowing who the artists are, and so they can’t just take people on their past achievements – each proposal will be taken on face value.
aMaZiNg~**
It was launched through eFlux last month, and is accepting applications now for a 2013 season.
Check it out:
http://projectanywhere.net/
Nominated for AFF Award for Innovation!!
Fantastic news! The Silent Dinner Parties were shortlisted in the three events nominated for the Adelaide Fringe Festival award for Innovation! I’m honoured to receive the nomination, especially in the category of innovation. I love seeing hybrid arts concepts being presented in unexpected environments. Participatory and performative arts take some crazy directions, and it’s good to see unlikely audiences embrace them so wholeheartedly. So, once again Adelaide, thank you for such an overwhelming experience! Maybe see ya next year..
Adelaide Fringe SDPs
Well well Adelaide, there’s nothing like a fringe festival run to spice up this project. Let’s see what kind of antics we saw: One guy showed up with his arm in a sling, the cause of many a gesture, and after the dinner party on the street just took it off… We had a blind date! Self fulfilling prophecy at work here: the crew and I were talking that night about how funny it would be to take someone on a date to a silent dinner, like “babe, I’m really into you, I just don’t want to talk to you!” and sure enough that night we got a couple who weren’t just on a date, but had never met before. They didn’t arrive together so had to work out who each other were at the table. As luck had it they were seated opposite each other, and apparently picked each other out straight away. I’ve gotta admit, when I talked to them on the street afterwards, I wasn’t sure if there would be a second date, the lady didn’t seem convinced. I wonder if talking changed their opinions of each other. As a rule I find people much more agreeable without words, but that’s definitely a variable. The guy in this duo had stitches in his forehead, and since I had sliced my finger to the bone the night before, granting me an episode in emergency and six stitches along my knuckle, I had pretended throughout the night that I had punched him in the head, resulting in both our wounds. Love a bitta charades. There were people equipped with photos of their pets, grandchildren and favourite flowers – that’s prepared! Podium dancing around the swimming pool, the neighbour hanging his washing out on the line, only to gaze over the fence and see 25 people sitting around a dinner table together in silence! ha! He must have thought we were mad. We had a group of talkers. 4 women who came as a group for one of their birthdays. They hit the juice pretty hard, and were mouthing words from the start, which quickly became a whisper. Mouthing words to me goes against the request: Please do not use words – however I don’t like to police things too much. These events are for me more about creating an environment for people to play in. However, when the mouthing became a mumble, I did intervene. I wasn’t sure how to do it, so I got on my knees and begged them to zippit! The unfortunate thing here was that this made them feel a sense of defiance and they preceded to ignore me and continue talking, even though I repeated this action a few times. I guess this is ok, sometimes it’s good to rebel right? And I guess if willingly participating in an event gives you the opportunity to go against the grain, then I guess I’m happy to have provided that opportunity too. The only problem is that the people sitting around them didn’t really get to play fair. Ah, it’s kinda like disturbing class in primary school!
Overall it was an amazing experience. The run was sold out, so we had full tables each night. Opening was touch and go at the start, with a sudden storm crashing our outdoor setting an hour before the guests arrived, and blowing the marquee ‘smoking area’ into the pool! Wow, I wasn’t sure we’d get it together but sure enough by the first knock on the door, we were set to go.
My biggest thanks go to all who helped make it happen, Antonietta and Ayesha for the love that poured out of the kitchen, that was one seriously amazing menu! I will have the recipe section of this site up soon, and desperate to share some of that food with you. It was a middle eastern influenced menu, and the desert was a certified love potion… To Rod and Coomba for their splendiferous service and all four of you for some [ineffable] kitchen antics – olive oil will never look the same again! To Marg and Jahan for being such gracious hosts and adding so much personality to the events. To my mum, Trish, for showing up to one event, realising how much help I needed and staying and working on the whole run, thank you x To the Adelaide Fringe Festival for completely supporting a project that didn’t fit in the box, and helping me to realise it my way at every stage of the game. You guys really are supporting new and different ideas, and hybrid art forms, it’s amazing and I’m proud to be a part of it. And most of all, to every single participant, each and every one of whom became the work, embodying it, and filling the silent space with themselves and their interactions, thoughts, responses and (sometimes outloud) laughter. Cheers guys, that run was a truly amazing experience for me.
Cameras were banned so I have no pics of the madness to show you, but oh how lovely to attend an event where you know you won’t be captured and posted online in the morning doing that certain something after two bottles of wine…
I did however sneak a few in the hours around the events, so here’s a bit of behind the scenes for ya:
Adelaide in the making
Adelaide Fringe has been a blast the past coupla weeks, and the dinners are now approaching! The wonderful possie getting this bonanza together have come together in force, and we’re stirring it up. Menus are in the making with Middle Eastern tunes. Seasonal and cooking by colour, it’s kinda like paint by numbers! And… go!
Dubai Silent Dinner Party
Dubai Gamesters :: Let the games begin Dubai!! Real-Space games, who plays them anymore?
We were 14 people, and the meal was a certified British bake off. Owen, Helena and I took it in turns to rotate the contents of the oven with cheesy bake after cheesy bake. Following a starter of cheese plates it certainly was a cheesy affair far from my normal vegan meals! I took some halawa there from Lebanon, and sprinkled it over ice-cream for desert as Dei had shown me in Beirut, and once again it won people’s hearts and perplexed their minds. Those who had never had halawa wondered what that nutty honeycomb stuff was and those who knew it marveled at the idea of mixing it with ice cream! Good one Dei.
So back to the games. We had all sorts from levitation, to murder winks. There were choreographed routines performed by a trio to the music playing in their heads. It was the kind of stuff that comes from a group of people who know each other, and have a shared history to refer to. Although having said that, I did not share their history, and I still picked up the rules of engagement without too much fuss, so they were pretty good at getting the point across. I was completely astonished at the complexity of communication and group organisation that this lot achieved.
I think we went for 2.5 hours, and it was action packed, not a dull moment. We had a complete mixture of nationalities, Palestinian, Russian, British, Canadian, Australian, South African, American and Chinese. Looking back it was one of the only ones I have been to where we did not go through a period of awkwardness at the beginning before people settled into it. I guess that awkwardness was squandered by Darren, one of the people who had so graciously lent us his apartment to host in, appearing dressed in a floral frock with a soft toy on his head. A sure ice-breaker. He had asked me earlier if he could come to the dinner nude, me being a nudist at heart, and in his house, I don’t see how I could possibly deny him, but he chose the frock instead! People were in the moment and jovial from the start – it was a really fun adventure. I mean, check this lot out, they don’t look quiet at all, but believe it or not they were!
Dubai SDP tonight!
… writing menus today with Owen and Helena. Looks like we’re around 15 people. If you haven’t secured your place, text me today! Looking forward to going to the giant palm on the water!
There’s a lot of sand in Dubai!
Beirut Silent Dinner Party
Prandial Passion
It was the largest Silent Dinner Party to date with 40 or so people in the room. Most definitely one of the more passionate dinner parties I’ve ever been to.
In the lead up, I sensed more anxiety around the concept than I have experienced before, but simultaneously there was an overwhelming curiosity and playful approach.
The cooking was a fantastic experience. I learnt some traditional and contemporary Lebanese methods and recipes from Firas, an inspiring individual who studied conflict resolution and has chosen to use food as his medium. Perfect. Dei also contributed a couple of her spectacular and serendipitous dishes.
There was heaps of laughter and many who sat peacefully in it. People playing games, and there were tears as well. After the dinner party, one lady commented that as she is a shy person, she usually feels detached from the group in environments like this, however in Silence she felt that she could be be completely herself and feel much more a part of the group. Beautiful!
It was lively and the noise levels were pretty high, but there were a lot of people, and for the first time ever we had a bar where people had to purchase their drinks as opposed to BYO. The Bar tenders were amazing, and Firas (the bartender not the cook) embraced the concept, saying that he regularly has days of Silence himself in the throws of his life. Wikid! I do however think there was quite a bit of whispering happening at the bar, it can be hard to communicate Rose Wine without words if there is nothing pink around to point at, as participant Marie Bassil confessed later!
We had vocal interventions with one lady shouting across the table “what is the purpose?” “We are humans we are not Silent” !! She also tried to read a book. That was the first time I’ve ever actively tried to stop something happening at a silent dinner party. Dei and Zico took the book off her and wrapped it in masking tape, the object that came of it was beautiful! It was a very strong response, I quite liked, the only thing I don’t understand is why she chose to interrupt the silence like that when she had consciously agreed to come along and experience it. Some of the other guests found is disruptive and she persisted in taking even after people asked her to ssshhh. She was screaming thoughts at me and I was gesturing to her to let it all out, she understood, and said to me “Let my anger out?”, to which I nodded. The lady I’m talking about : if you are reading this, please do get in touch, I’d really like to talk to you about it but I have no idea who you are!! Email me!! Anyone from the event who I have not been in email contact with, please drop me a line, I’d love to hear about your experience.
My biggest thanks to all who helped make it happen, Dei El-Ayoubi, Patrick Mitri, Owen Ryan, the amazing Good Food bonanzas from Firas Abi Ghanem, Zico and all at Zico House x x x x
SDPs in a month of Australian art at Zico House, Beirut
During the month of January, the fabulous Zico house in central Beirut has a focus on Australian art supported by the Australian embassy in Lebanon. As apart of this, a Silent Dinner Party is set to take place at the artists residence at Zico House on Jan 19th from 8.30 pm. We are now taking bookings, so drop me an email if you would like to come.
I will need to be in touch with all guests before the night, to find out if you have any food allergies or dietary requirements. The event is ticketed and costs 15,000 LP or $10 USD and you can get your tix over email. As always, if you would like to come and help out instead of buying a ticket, wonderful, give us a holler. Myself and the wonderful Ms Dei El-Ayoubi will be hosting the event with the help of Zico. It’s going to be a blast. The food in Lebanon has been aMaZiNg so far, I can’t wait to get amongst it in the kitchen with Firas from the good food collective. There’s lots of space at Zico’s so we can host more than normal for this one! I can’t wait ! ! What a great city too!
There is a FB group that you can drop into and stay in touch with updates etc
http://www.facebook.com/events/173584419410322/
Or check out Zico House at
http://www.zicohouse.org/history.html
Won’t chat with you soon :)
Silent Dinners head to the Middle East!
Exciting news, the Silent Dinner parties will tour in Beirut and Dubai in January 2012. There are some pretty exciting host venues on the horizon – and some skeptical locals thinking that it just aint possible to be quiet for that long!! Even suggesting that I impliment fines for people who talk!! ha! That’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard. The SDP requests are ‘requested guidelines’, not even rules let alone laws punishable by fines, but hey, should prove for some colourful dinner bonanzas. Colour doesn’t make noise, does it?
The Silent Dinners 