Luke George and Daniel Kok work through experimental processes with collaborators and publics across different contexts where they increasingly highlight the need for robust intercultural cooperation and deeper social engagement.
Their project, Still Lives is a performance-installation series that captures (with ropes) significant moments or movement in relation to specific cultural contexts. Each edition of Still Lives is a durational, site-responsive and context-specific process of binding cultural objects in their place. This allows new conversations to emerge and unveils narratives about local history, political tensions, social connections and personal attachments.
During their residency at Museum of Brisbane, Luke and Daniel will be undertaking social and cultural research about Brisbane, discovering the stories and threads that entwine objects and people to this place.
MoB’s Artist in Residence program is supported by Tim Fairfax AC.
Presented by Museum of Brisbane in partnership with Melt Open.
Luke George (he/they) is a multidisciplinary artist creating work that spans performance, installation, craft and curation. Intersecting with their art, Luke is a sex worker, intimate bodyworker, kink practitioner and educator. Luke was born in Lutruwita/Tasmania and resides on Wurundjeri Country in Naarm/Melbourne. Through their work, Luke examines the dynamics of intimacy and collectivity to create ‘safe spaces’ that allow for care as well as risk. Luke’s works have persistently nudged ideas of ‘expanded choreographies’ involving co-performers and audiences into communities.
He seeks to queer intercultural, intergenerational and interspecies relationships, recognising the ripples of power and interconnection in our intimate, social and performative lives. A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Luke has been Co-Artistic Director of Stompin Youth Dance Company, Artistic Associate of Temperance Hall and studio artist at the Collingwood Yards. Over his career Luke has received four fellowships including, Australia Council for the Arts Fellowship and a Chloe Monroe Fellowship.
Daniel Kok studied Fine Art and Critical Theory (Goldsmiths College, London), Solo/Dance/Authorship (SODA, HZT, Berlin) and Advanced Performance and Scenography Studies (APASS, Brussels). In 2008, he received the Young Artist Award from the National Arts Council (Singapore). His artistic work deals with the politics of Spectatorship and Audienceship through ‘figures of performance’ such as the pole dancer, the cheerleader, the military commander or the bondage master, who each has a specific and complex relationship with an audience.
As Artistic Director of Dance Nucleus (Singapore), he develops capacities for other artists and sets up trans-local partnerships across the Asia-Pacific. Annually, he curates the ARTEFACT and ELEMENT residencies, [CP]3 online academy, VECTOR exhibition, and da:ns LAB (in collaboration with the Esplanade, Singapore). He is based between Singapore and Berlin.
