“There is no artwork by Frida Kahlo. This is an event the loosely interprets her life and times through words and technology.“ – Kate Gaul 3 /5 stars
The Cutaway, Barangaroo
A Sydney Festival Event
This exhibition-come-experience is dubbed as a ”journey through the life of one of the most influential artists of all time.” It is co-created by the Frida Kahlo Corporation and the Spanish digital arts company Layers of Reality. Described as a multi-sensory experience featuring nine transformational spaces, from collections of historical photographs and original films, captivating holography, 360º projections and a virtual reality system that promise to transport you inside Kahlo’s most famous works.
The Cutaway at Barangaroo is decorated as a kind of Mexican cantina and you know you’ve arrived for a festival event when a potent cocktail can be purchased at 10am! Coffee, snacks, authentic Mexican musicians greet audiences when waiting for your entry time to come around you can create your own flower crowns, have a drink, or just enjoy the abundant ambience. I am told that for some sessions there is even dancing.
It’s the kind of event where you can linger inside the exhibition for as long as you like. Once granted entry a shrine to the dead. In Mexican tradition, the altar of the dead is a space where the living is reunited with deceased loved ones. It heralds a wall of text that tells Frida Kahlo’s life story, some dubious descriptions of how she longed to be a mother and a smattering of historic images accompany the texts. There is no artwork by Frida Kahlo. This is an event the loosely interprets her life and times through words and technology.
Things get interesting when you arrive at the large video installations. Firstly, walls and floors of moving flowers and then a room of 360-degree projection. It contains some historic photos and film material but is mainly contemporary renderings of motifs from her work, Mexican signage, and tributes. Audiences are permitted to sit in this environment for up to 30 minutes. Its cosy and peaceful but I am not sure it told me anything more about Frida Kahlo’s life, or her art.
In this “immersive biography” one of the installations, The Accident, is a multi-layered holograph of the critical incident – a tram slamming into the bus in which she was travelling, and a handrail skewering her pelvis – that in addition to her childhood polio, defined her physical life. Fun for the kids is the chance to turn your drawings into Frida-esque artwork and immortalise yourself through a souvenir illustrated photo.
But the best moment must be the 10 minutes of high-res Virtual Reality. I am not a huge fan of the “inside the art” renderings encountered on this wild ride, but it got me thinking about the application of VR for accessible, sustainable, and cheap travel of the future.
The SMH has an insightful story from the curator here. There is also a comprehensive document available through QR code on site. The walk to the Cutaway along Barangaroo is a delight. I was all up for becoming fully immersed in the colourful inspirations and pivotal moments of this 20th century icon. But I am not sure who the audience is for this event. On leaving the exhibition I paused to watch the looping video on permanent display at the entry of the Cutaway – Wellama. Wellama means ‘to come back’ in the Sydney language. This 10-minute audio visual artwork, by Alison Page and Nik Lachajczak, is a celebration of ritual, ceremony and story practised on Country since time immemorial.
It creates a haunting juxtaposition to the Sydney Festival exhibition. Perhaps the link is perseverance, rebellion, and ritual – three qualities that know no time.
Kate Gaul, Theatre Now
