Collaboration despite the tyranny of distance

Abstract

In his influential book historian Geoffrey Blainey coined the term The Tyranny of Distance (1982) as a descriptor that continues to influence the Australian psyche. For the first time in 2019, the three leading performing arts schools in Australia approached the design for the Australian student exhibition at the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space (PQ) as a collaborative project. The theme of isolation and its influence on current Australian politics shaped not only the conception and development, but also the curation and realisation of the exhibition. The student exhibition presented the opportunity to explore the creation of a site-specific installation rather than a folio-based work, but required the navigation of distance in conception and realisation as installation of the various elements could only occur once on site in Prague. Distance also needed to be negotiated between cohorts, timelines and requirements of the programs at the different institutions. The tyranny of delayed international shipping was overcome, as with all other obstacles, by the application of a distinctly Australian sense of humour in the formation of a temporary installation -ShippingWrecked -to hold our place until the full exhibition arrived. PQ presents the opportunity to overcome our physical isolation but also test the benefits that isolation extends to our artistic practice.