Horsing around: Michael Zavros takes BLEACH* by the reins
Acclaimed artist Michael Zavros is guest artistic director of this year’s BLEACH* on the Gold Coast – with horses and Greek dancing and delicious food among the treats he has on offer.
There had to be horses. That’s a given with Michael Zavros. When they asked the acclaimed Brisbane artist to step in as guest artistic director of the Gold Coast’s premiere arts festival, BLEACH*, they might have expected as much.
Zavros grew up with horses and is a talented equestrian in his own right. Growing up on the Gold Coast he worked weekends at the Gold Coast Turf Club and in his teens competed in equestrian sports. Dressage and show jumping are among his passions and horses have figured in his art over the decades.
But how to get horses into an arts festival? In Cavalcade, a festival finale event created by Zavros for BLEACH*, which unfolds over 11 days from July 31 to August 10, he manages it.
“Cavalcade will feature horses, live opera and an orchestra performing two shows at sunset on the beach at Kurrawa,” he explains. “It will be a full moon so it should be spectacular. It’s beautiful there and there is a flat sandy plain that looks very much like a dressage arena.”
Presented by The Star Gold Coast, Cavalcade, will be a fusion of opera, classical music and dancing horses featuring opera singers Katie Stenzel, Cassandra Seidemann, Carlos Barcenas and Sam Hartley and champion dressage riders John Thompson and Katharine Farrell.
Cavalcade will explore the concept of “control to freedom” by delving into the remarkable bond between humans and horses, revealing how trust transforms control into connection and discipline into freedom. It will be directed by visionary choreographer Gavin Webber and will be performed at dusk.
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This whole horses-on-the-beach thing takes me back to 1991 with Daryl Braithwaite’s hit The Horses – and that film clip with horses on a beach. So I wonder if Zavros had thought of this. He smiles. “Well, we will be on the beach but we won’t be playing that song,” he says.
Zavros got involved in BLEACH* through former artistic director, now AD of Brisbane Festival, Louise Bezzina, who is on the board of Experience Gold Coast, the organisation that now oversees HOTA (Home of The Arts), BLEACH* and other cultural events on the Glitter Strip.
“I think Louise said to them – let’s do something different and give this guy a go at art directing,” Zavros says. “I have a very visual arts focus so they may want to take it in a different direction next year. I’ve been working on it mostly from home with lots of Teams meetings. I have now figured out how to do a Teams meeting on my phone and turn the camera off so I can keep painting.”
Because as well as having a festival to deliver, Zavros has a major exhibition coming up at Philip Bacon Galleries in October. No pressure. Well, maybe just a bit.
Bezzina and Zavros worked together at Brisbane Festival a few years ago with Dionysus Redux, a Dionysian feast replete with “an ancient oracle to tell your fortune, decadent morsels to devour, ancient beats to swoon to and acres of bronzed flesh and erotic surprises” – nas the festival blurb promised.
On that occasion Zavros transformed Lina’s lush rooftop in South Brisbane into a hedonistic acropolis, caught somewhere between Ancient Athens and contemporary Mykonos. I remember reaching for some snacks at that event only to look up and see a naked man doing an impersonation of Michelangelo’s David looming above the platters of food. You can’t unsee that.
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Zavros’s art has always been a visual feast and he’s enjoying expanding his horizons. His wife, respected art curator and editor Alison Kubler, are both well connected and are using their networks to make this BLEACH* special.
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Jeff Koons
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Michael Zavros
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Ladies Lounge’s Kirsha Kaechele
One of the highlights early in the piece will be Jeff Koons – In Conversation With Alison Kubler, featuring the famous American artist. Zavros was influenced as a young artist by Koons’ giant topiary sculpture Puppy, which was displayed outside the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney in the summer of 1995-96.
“He hasn’t been here for 30 years,” Zavros says. “Seeing his work all that time ago had a profound effect on me and it’s wonderful to be able to invite him back as artistic dfirector of this festival. This is a partnership with the National Gallery of Australia and he will go to Canberra after the Gold Coast. He’s bringing his whole family, his wife and five children.”
BLEACH* will kick off at sunrise on July 31 with Patricia Piccinini’s much-loved giant inflatables Skywhale (2013) and Skywhalepapa (2019-20), also presented in partnership with National Gallery of Australia, which will take to the skies in a stunning aerial performance.
And in a first, Australian artist Kirsha Kaechele will take her provocative installation Ladies Lounge outside of MONA to the HOTA Gallery. This living artwork blends live performance, poetry and talks in a boldly feminist space – and, yes, some boys may be allowed in for domestic arts lessons and reparations. (There was a Tasmanian Supreme Court case about not allowing men in at first, but Kaechele and her supporters won that.)
Zavros has Greek heritage and is getting his Greek on for OPA! A Night of Greek Delights on the lawns of HOTA’s Outdoor Stage for an ultimate celebration of Greek culture, feasting and fun.
This event includes live traditional and festive performances, a 50-member Ellinikes Fones Choir and lots of dancing. Ten-piece band Essence of Greece will perform a vibrant repertoire from across the regions of Greece, blending the old with the new in a powerful musical journey. There will be Greek folk dancers in full costume and a Greek feast. This is a free ticketed event and, unlike Zavros’s Brisbane Festival rooftop show, this one is suitable for the whole family.
And in a high-energy tribute to the Sunday sessions that put Fisherman’s Wharf on the map in the ’90s, Drum As You Are will transform the HOTA Lawn into a family-friendly celebration with professional and community drummers reimagining the raw energy of Nirvana’s Bleach, Nevermind and In Utero. Zavros’s daughter Olympia plays the drums so we can see where the inspiration for this event comes from.
There will be more than 100 events spanning 11 days with a fresh curatorial vision from Michael Zavros and new performance sites including HOTA, Home of the Arts, Kurrawa Beach and Emerald Lakes. There will be art, music, spectacle, storytelling and food-driven experiences. With an equestrian finale, but no song by Daryl Braithwaite. Oh, well.