Pulau (Island) is a site-specific response to Yayoi Kusama’s iconic body of work. Commissioned especially for Asia TOPA and the National Gallery of Victoria’s landmark Yayoi Kusama exhibition, Pulau is performed in the NGV’s Great Hall, beneath Kusama’s seminal installation Dots Obsession 1996/2024.
On the floor below the installation sits an island. In this dark, inky haven, three bodies appear. With eyes glowing, they perform a ritual of metamorphosis and endurance; merging and transforming into mythic figures to embody acts of resistance, pleasure and protection. Pulau draws on the notion of the island as a place of secrets: an abundant source of metaphor, fantasy and allegory.
Pulau is a reflection on Melanie Lane’s encounter with the work of Kusama, whose obsession with the obliteration of the body and immersive world-building echo that of Lane’s own choreographic work. Seeking to forge a connection between the body and environment, Pulau highlights a tension between the earth as a site of resistance and Kusama’s ethereal cloud-like sculpture.
Obliteration vs transformation. In Pulau, the island is a blank slate; a home, a paradise, an escape. A postcolonial space and a site of resistance. Marginal. Vulnerable. Hazardous. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to experience the NGV after-hours, encountering Kusama’s works Dancing Pumpkin and Narcissus Garden in the NGV foyer spaces as you arrive, before being invited in to witness Lane’s site-specific performance.
Melanie’s recent commissions for Sydney Dance Company, Chunky Move, West Australian Ballet and Australasian Dance Collective have received critical acclaim. Collaborating with Director, Adena Jacobs, she has choreographed large scale works for the English National Opera (Salome) and Burgtheater Vienna (Nosferatu, Trojan Women). From 2001-15, Melanie was based in Europe. During this time, she was a performer with artists including Tino Seghal, Arco Renz / KOBALT Works, Eun Me Ahn and Club Guy and Roni. She continues to work regularly in Europe, recently commissioned by Dance Theatre Heidelberg, National Dance Company of Wales and Nagelhus Schia Productions. Melanie has collaborated extensively with UK producer CLARK (Warp Records / Deutsche Grammophon).
Melanie was a recipient of the 2024 Creative Australia Fellowship for Dance and 2023 Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship. She is the 2023/24 Choreographer in Residence at Chunky Move; a Resident Artist at The Substation and Associate Artist at QL2 (Canberra). In 2022, she was the inaugural Established Artist in Residence at University of Canberra x Belco Arts; was Resident Director at Lucy Guerin Inc in 2015 and is currently the Chair of the board of Melbourne’s Dancehouse.
Artistic Team
Choreographer Melanie Lane
Sound Rama Parwata
Set & Costume Design Eugyeene Teh
Performers Katherine Hegememan, Te Francesca and Tyrel Dulvarie
Producer Freya Waterson, VISIONS
Commissioned by Asia TOPA, Arts Centre Melbourne. Co-produced by NGV.
Special thanks to Dancehouse.
This presentation is delivered through Corps Conspirators. This initiative, supported by Creative Victoria and led by Melanie Lane, is a project exploring collaborative choreographic practices, multi-artform experimentation and transcultural experience.
