Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Article from Yogya Daily

 


Article Text:

SLEMAN - Richard Pettifer, seorang sutradara dan artis pertunjukkan dari australia menunjukkan kebolehannya bermain pantomim di Warkop Lidah Ibu, Jalan STM Pemangunan, mrican, Selasa (20/2), Tampil dihadapan belasan penonton, Richard mengusung tema People Spoke atau orang berbicara.

Dalam pementasan berdurasi selama 40 menit itu, Richard menyuarakan jeritan orang orang yang tertindas. Tema tersebut diambil Richard karena merasa prihatin dengan orang yang merasa dirinya merdeka. Menurut dia, kesejahteraan yang dimiliki oleh orang sejatinya belum menjamin kemerdekaan sosorang. "Di Australia orang orang berpikir dirinya merdeka namun bagiku itu keliru. Misalnya, mereka berpikir kesejahahteraan adalah kebebasan. Tapi bagiku kesejahteraan bukanlah sebuah kebebasan. Kadangkala kebabasan seseorang hadir dengan konsekuensi tidak bebasnya orang lain" terangnya kepada Harian Jogja.

Pandangan Richard perihal kebebasan itu direpresentasikan dengan melakukan berberapa gerakan unik saat melakukan pertunjukan pantomim. Ia bakan memasukkan aksi para biksu Tibet membakar diri dalam melakukan perlawanan terhadap pemerintah tiran. Dalam aksinya itu, ia sempat menyalakan korek gas untuk ditempelkan kepakaian yang ia kenakan. "ide ini sebenarnya spontan karena aku dapat ide waktu sehingga tidak sempat latihan khusus. Api itu kemudian sempat mengenai tubuhku" ujarnya sembari terkekeh.

Kebatangan Richard ke Jogja tersebut merupakan salah satu rangkaian turnya ke beberapa salah satu rangkaian turnya ke beberapa negara dunia. Setelah tampil di Jogya, secara berurut ia akan menyambangi Iran, Turki, rumania dan terakhir Jerman.

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Translation to English

SLEMAN - Richard Pettifer, a director and performance artist from Australia showed skill in pantomime at Warkop Mother Tongue, Jalan STM Pemangunan, Mrican, Tuesday (20/2), Shown in front of dozens of spectators, Richard’s theme is People Spoke.


In a staging lasted for 40 minutes, Richard voiced the cry of the oppressed. The theme is taken as Richard was concerned with people who feel themselves independent. According to him, the welfare of which is owned by someone does not guarantee freedom. "In Australia people think themselves free, but for me this is wrong. For example, someone might think prosperity is freedom. But to me, prosperity not a freedom. This liberation comes with consequences for both the individual and for others and these are not independent" he told Daily Jogja.

Richard's view is about freedom represented by a unique couple of movements when performing pantomime. He even put the action of the Tibetan monk burning himself to take the fight against government tyranny. In that action, he had struck a gas to be attached to clothes he was wearing. "This idea is actually spontaneous because I have no special training. The fire was all around me" he said as he chuckled.

The arrival of Richard to Yogyakarta is one of a series of his tour to several countries of the world. After performing in Yogyakarta, sequentially he will be visited Iran, Turkey, Romania and finally Germany.

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Comment:

This is only a brief overview of the work I was doing and, as usual with the media, sometimes does a disservice through simplification (necessary because of those pesky ever-reducing column sizes). I particularly like the line "This idea is actually spontaneous because I have no special training. The fire was all around me" It brings to mind a kind of devilish amateur appropriation that I hope I was not guilty of in the performance, especially of something so personal as the suicide of a Tibetan monk, which is not a chuckle. Having said that, the journalist bothered to engage with the idea rather than fetishising me with 'foreign superstar' status, which is more than can be said than many Australian media sources in the way they report on visitors.

Many thanks to Kurnianto for penning the article.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Glenn Beutel

In early February I visited Glenn Beutel for 4 days. Glenn lives in Acland, Queensland, where he has lived all his life. His average day involves mowing the lawns in the town, cleaning up any rubbish, chatting to the workers about their movements, speculating on the activities of any foreign vehicles lurking about town, and writing submissions to council and the Queensland government.

Glenn is the only resident of Acland.

In 2004, New Hope Coal bought some surrounding areas of the town and began to mine. By 2008 they had started making submissions for stage 2.

By 2009, the population of Acland had dwindled from 240 to 1.

I stayed with Glenn for 4 days, and wrote a play entitled "A Visit from Opportunity" for submission to the Toowoomba short play festival.

Excerpt below.

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Monday, February 18, 2013

Failure






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Lowest Prices!! Best Service in Australia!!!
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Take your pocket knife from you!! Comfortable seating!!!!
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Force you to book travel out of Indonesia when you arrive at check in counter even though this is not a visa requirement!!! And they haven't told you in the booking!!!!!!
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The Best Planes!!! The Best Prices!!!
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Land in Denpasar airport and flee from touts!!!!! Walk 5km looking for a bus in the rain!!!
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Cooling towels provided!! Voted Best coca-cola of any airline!!!!!
etc

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Sunday, February 17, 2013

Swimming to Indonesia - Day 6

Pelni Indonesia runs a fleet of 23 passenger ships linking the various islands of Indonesia (but not Australia).

For example, the ferry from Jakarta to Batam Island (near Singapore) is 894km
...and costs 263,000 rupiah, or $26.30.



Saturday, February 16, 2013

Swimming to Indonesia - Day 5

Out of 10, how do you rank Australia's humaneness? Like, do we care about other people, or not? Do you know what I mean?


Friday, February 15, 2013

Swimming to Indonesia - Day 4

Both major Australian political parties promote official public policies of sending people who arrive on boats back to South East Asia. They also promote 'closer economic ties' with the region.



Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Swimming to Indonesia - Day 3

With Climate Change comes an increasing need for effective migration strategies.


Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Swimming to Indonesia - Day 2

What's turning back the idea of a boat to Indonesia?
It's about 830km from Darwin to Kupang.
Couldn't we do that overnight? It's like a 10 hour journey, right?


Monday, February 11, 2013

Swimming to Indonesia - Day 1

It impossible to get to Indonesia without flying. If you ask the companies that take boats there, they will um and ah and then say something like "just fly, mate". After 6 months of research and various rebukes, I am staging a project over 6 days trying to hitchhike on a boat from a Darwin marina in a place called Cullen Bay Marina. Each day my collaborator Charlotte is taking a photo. I will add them day by day.

Bashed in Caboolture

Recently, I was involved in a bashing in Caboolture, which is north of Brisbane. Below is the letter I wrote to the Caboolture News attempting to get published.

Letter to Caboolture News by

Letter to Myanmar VP

This letter I wrote to the Myanmar Vice-President Dr. Sai Mauk Kham, outlining the reasons why I should be permitted to travel overland between Thailand and India.