White Noise

Touch Compass is a leading professional disability-led arts group from Aotearoa/New Zealand. They aim to produce bold performances that amplify the voices of disabled artists. Their new piece, White Noise, made its world premiere for Undercover Artist Festival at Brisbane Festival. White Noise highlights the perspective and perceptions of performance artist, Alisha McLennan Marler, who uses her wheelchair and aerial work, with music, projections, poetry and sound effects to create an abstract modernist work that encompasses dance, movement, voice, and visual art. Alisha’s theme is motherhood and the frustration of communication. The sonic landscape includes fantastically meditative electronic music and Alisha’s recorded voice as a soothing repetitive poem: “Sometimes I feel like I am talking through water. Sometimes I feel like I am talking through bubble wrap”. The message is clear. It is warm and funny, but also insightful. Alisha’s dance work is physical to the point where you worry about her safety on stage, but this is part of her point – to shift our comfort zone and challenge our perceptions of what she is capable of.

Touch Compass creatives are all about collaboration. For White Noise, Alisha worked with choreographer, Jessie McCall (Footnote Dance Company, Auckland Pride Festival, and co-founder of feminist dance collective SOFT), and composer Andrew McMillan, a disabled sound artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland, who also designs accessible musical instruments. The Auslan interpretation by Undercover Artist Festival performers added an extra layer to this performance too. Audiovisuals were part of the set design, with giant mirrors reflecting lighting designed by Bradley Gledhill (Filament 11), with costumes by Eve Gordon, who was also the ariel consultant for Alisha’s brave foray into moving beyond the space of the stage. The aerial rigger for Undercover Artist Festival was Ricky Olfacius, a crucial backstage part of this piece. The metallic soundscape was enhanced by Alisha scraping the microphone across the floor and then the wheels of her wheelchair to echo the visual scrawls she had made on the mirrors – illustrating her wider frustration perfectly. But after she is enveloped in the white fabric of the ariel harness, Alisha slowly returns to the stage. A calming, and a connection has taken form, and her poem shifts gear to “Sometimes I feel as if you hear me through bubble wrap... And through the white noise.” The triumph of Alisha’s maternal instinct cuts through in a moving ending. This was made even more emotional by Alisha’s daughter running to the stage to give the performer a congratulatory balloon! White Noise illustrates why disability-led creation and performance are so important in bringing new perspectives to the stage – and illuminating audience perceptions. 

Beth Keehn

Photographs: Jade Ellis

Find out more: undercoverartistfest.com/events/white-noise