Matthew Sleeth's A DRONE OPERA Opens Next Month At Carriageworks

Carriageworks announced that multi-disciplinary artist Matthew Sleeth's A Drone Opera will be shown as a three-channel video installation, free to the public from 22 June - 28 July.

A co-presentation from Experimenta and Carriageworks, A Drone Opera by Melbourne-born Sleeth is a multi-channel video installation featuring surveilling drones set to an original libretto performed by opera singers. It is a cinematic and poetic work reflecting on the new reality of constant surveillance and our love affair with technology. Loosely structured around the myth of Icarus, fragments of Ovid's 'The Fall of Icarus' are sung throughout the work to drive a narrative of desire, fear and destruction.

Sleeth's most ambitious live work to date A Drone Opera had its world premiere as a live theatre show at Melbourne's Arts House in 2015, where the audience were caged to protect them from the drones.

Carriageworks Director of Programs Daniel Mudie Cunningham said, 'Carriageworks is proud to present with Experimenta this bold video installation by Matthew Sleeth. The conceptual and technical artistry of this work offers a unique insight into how spectatorship and surveillance is rapidly evolving as technology mediates contemporary life. With A Drone Opera, Sleeth and collaborators offer a distinctive immersive experience.'

'Experimenta is thrilled to be working with Carriageworks to present the premier of Matthew Sleeth's installation - A Drone Opera. The work brings together an electrifying combination of purpose-built drones, lasers and transcendent arias, providing the viewer with a visceral experience of both the sublime beauty and terrifying reality of flying intelligence. A Drone Opera speaks to the complexity of our times driven by startling advances in technology', said Jonathan Parsons, Artistic Director, Experimenta.

A Drone Opera's artistic collaborators include producer and dramaturge, experimental artist Kate Richards, composer Susan Frykberg, laser set designer Robin Fox, sound designer Phil Samartzis, lighting designer Bosco Shaw and choreographer Shelley Lasica. The libretto is performed by three vocalists - Judith Dodsworth, Hamish Gould and Paul Hughes.

Sleeth's practice is conceptually driven across a range of media, including photography, video, sculpture and public installation. His work has been widely collected and exhibited throughout Australia and internationally including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Cologne, Berlin and Venice. Sleeth's Development Video [A Drone Opera] featured in RMIT Design Hub's exhibition The Future is Here co-­curated with the Design Museum London in 2014 before A Drone Opera premiered at Arts House in September 2015.

Join Matthew Sleeth in conversation with Carriageworks Director Programs, Daniel Mudie Cunningham at 11.30am on Saturday 22 June.