Created and performed by Throat Pleats (Solomon Frank and Niki Johnson)
Costume by Milo Michell
Lighting design and operation by Annika Bertinat
Audio description by Steve Wilson-Alexander
Creative produced by Malcolm Whittaker
This project was supported by Vitalstatistix via the Adhocracy 2023 Program

A SOUNDTRACK FOR YOUR CARDIO WORKOUT IN THE YEAR 3000

What does it mean to exercise as a cyborg who has consumed three tonnes of microplastic? 
Do devolved former human Neanderthals still go to the gym? 
What’s the soundtrack to your cardio workout in the year 3000?
Ready to sweat the BIG, global stuff?

Join The MacroPlastic Workout! A ‘fitness’ class for posthuman ecologies, made and performed by Throat Pleats.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Throat Pleats is the musical collaborative output of Solomon Frank and Niki Johnson. They have performed at Liveworks 2020, as part of the Dots+Loops (2021 Brisbane), at Cementa (2022 Kandos), and at the Canberra International Music Festival (2022). They have also released a full length album titled the Lizard (2021).

Throat Pleats is a vehicle for navigating the intricacies of Solomon and Niki’s queer platonic relationship amidst impending environmental doom. Historically, Throat Pleats has been a musical collaboration involving extended clarinet and percussion, with performances in nightlife and music spaces. In The MacroPlastic Workout, they come together with costume and props designer Rachael Guinness, as well as producer Malcolm Whittaker to develop a show length ‘opera’.

SOLOMON FRANK is a queer performer-composer. He creates 'dystopian nostalgia for the present’ in order to navigate the precarious place of art music in a world dictated by corporate technocrats, TikTok algorithms and celebrity deification.

NIKI JOHNSON is a queer percussionist and composer-performer whose experimental musical practice incorporates interdisciplinary collaboration, improvisation, contemporary classical repertoire, sculptural musical instruments, and performance art. 

RACHAEL GUINNESS is a creative whose career spans the corporate and creative sectors, evolving from the playful nature of installation art to pursuing complex problems within our society.

MALCOLM WHITTAKER is an artist, writer, researcher and performer. He does this in both solo pursuits and in collaborations with other artists and non-artists. His work is mostly made and executed through the engagement of participants and collaborators in the framing of play spaces that adopt social forms and rituals from popular culture and the everyday. His projects have taken the form of theatre and gallery situations, site-specific and public interventions, performance lectures, film shoots, phone calls, support groups, radio programs, elevator rides, teeth-brushing services, walks in the park, games of chess, gift shops, letters in the mail, library book borrowing, and the digging of holes in the dirt. He has made and presented work extensively across Australia, as well as in the UK and Finland.

TICKET INFORMATION

Dates: Friday 16 February and Saturday 17 February @ 8pm

Price: $25 or $20 with an Artist Pass (contact access@brandx.org.au for financial hardship and Mob Tickets)

Running time: 60mins

CONTENT WARNINGS:

Adult themes, occasional loud noises

ACCESS REQUIREMENTS

If you have access requirements for attending the show, please complete the access requirements box during the booking process. This includes booking companion card tickets. 

A Brand X team member will then be in touch to confirm your requirements.
For access information on the venue, please CLICK to watch this video explainer.

HOW TO GET THERE

Car: On-street metered parking around the venue.
Bus: Oxford Street 2 minute walk (333, 373, 399, 392, 394 and M10 buses).
Train: Museum Train Station 10-minute walk.

PLEASE NOTE

Saturday night will be a Relaxed Performance, with Auslan Interpretation, Audio Description and a Tactile Tour.