Amplify: On the 23rd Day, Mars Was in Gemini

An evening of multi-disciplinary performance-art by creatives with roots in the Western suburbs

Venus in aloof Aquarius knows how to keep you wanting, topped by gruff rebel boss Saturn strong in his fixed-air home sign. Fixed signs are about holding on, so hold on only to what's right for you. Deep connections are impossible without deep investments. Beneath the spiciest of truths, half-truths and lies Mars finds in Gemini, it's time to bare the skin you've got in the game. You don't need game when your feet are honest.

On this Midsumma evening, body- and soul-based local creatives Mohamed Chamas, Daniel R Marks, Scotty So, Piano Punk, Chichi Nwokocha, Cher Tan, and Angelita Biscotti respond to the latest updates in planetary motion. Through music, words, and gesture, they transform this former church into a celestial spectacle, a place for inclusive community and loving holiness.

On the 23rd Day, Mars Was in Gemini is part of Maribyrnong City Council’s Amplify program: an evening of multi-disciplinary performance-art by creatives with roots in the Western suburbs. In this Midsumma edition of Amplify, guest curator Angelita Biscotti brings community together for an astrological-themed arts celebration.

MOHAMED CHAMAS
Mohamed Chamas is an artist, independent game developer and poet based in Naarm (melbourne). Mohamed’s work holds mystic practices in synergy to emerging technologies. It appears as hybrid forms of audio-visuals, writing, utterance, virtual reality installation (VR/XR) and performance.

CHER TAN
Cher Tan is an essayist and critic. Her artistic practice is driven by an interest in late capitalism and class mobility, and how these intersect with new media/technology, politics and/or popular culture. She is an editor at Liminal and the reviews editor at Meanjin.

SCOTTY SO
Scotty So is a Hong Kong born Melbourne-based multi-media artist. Through camp, he explores the often-contradictory relationship between humour and sincerity. So’s work has been shown and acquired in Hong Kong, China, and Australia. So is represented by MARS Gallery.

CHICHI NWOKOCHA
Chichi Nwokocha (aka Cheech) is a Nigerian-British artist and educator specialising in spoken word and theatre. A Theatre Works Board member, Cheech was a recent People of Cabaret mentee, and a poet in Candy Bowers' Green Room Award-winning TakeBack cabaret.

DANIEL R MARKS
Daniel R Marks (DRM) is an interdisciplinary artist and PhD researcher based in Naarm. Their practice entails a queer post-productive approach to to performance work, enveloping collusions of live actions, experimental writing, sculptural installation, and accumulative digital archives.

PIANO PUNK
Kip Mac does PIANO PUNK shows that are hardcore, metal, grunge, and punk for classical piano. Showcasing the melodies beneath the distortion, Piano Punk is for metal heads, classical aficionados, and those who know nothing about either.

ANGELITA BISCOTTI
Angelita Biscotti uses writing, visual art, performance, sound design, and astrology to explore unconventional intimacies and tease the border lines between illegitimacy and authenticity. Angelita is a Filipinx-Melburnian multi-disciplinary artist and sessional academic on unceded Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung Country.