Ivan Cheng – Strathfield
Artist and curator, Ivan Cheng, has been working as part of a small, dedicated team of musicians, sound and installation artists to create the enchantment that is 2015’s week long Now now Festival. Tucked away in Marrickville’s creative hideaways, The Red Rattler and SNO Contemporary Art Projects (above Marrickville’s Mitre 10), exploratory forms of music have been tinkering along with more than a few questions thrown their way. A program dispersed at the Friday-night session of The Now now asked, “Will this stop global warming?”
Ivan says he is most interested in the questions the music at Now Now provokes. Dedicated to experimental, improvised, noise, and generally ‘othered’ musics, while lining up sets between international, rural and local artists, he wonders why, as a collective, musicians and people in general are saying what they are saying now.
“We are making our own language to make music with. I am not personally interested in whether it is good or interesting, but more about the approach and openness and how we can negotiate understanding between people in different contexts,” he said.
You can find out more about The Now now festival at: www.thenownow.net
The panel says…
Kynan – Redfern
“The Now now is a truly multifaceted experience of sound, as well as a close-knit, critical and supportive community.”
Ella – Bondi
I went to my first Now now in 2003 and I keep coming back because it is an artist run initiative that has been maintained and transformed over the years.
Marcus – Paddington
Now now is the biggest, extensive and most interesting festival of improvised music in the city. It’s a diverse, mixed bag that challenges forms.
