The Tulse Luper VJ Performance – GOMA
What can I say? Peter Greenaway, live at GOMA. The thought itself was enough to get me all tingly. The Tulse Luper Suitcases, as a new installation: again, tingly. But when it came down to it, we really were there to listen to THE MAN speak. And speak he did. All about cinema being dead, which we had already heard, from other people. All about how the internet and television killed cinema. Yawn. All about the interactivity of the new technologies. Uh huh. Could have told you that one. So, what did we get?
Asynchronous projections onto the walls of GOMA in its atrium, accompanied by some techno. Fun, yes. A nice rehash of the Tulse Luper Suitcases, yes. Innovative and fresh, no.
Sorry Mr Greenaway. I love you and all that but…having seen A Life in Suitcases and wandered through the initial installation back in 2005, plus having seen all the other versions of it all… I was left wanting something new. Something less laboured. Something that wasn’t another different cut of the same film. Something completely different.
Instead, we got the same image on three screens on one side and on three screens on another side. Not simultaneously, but more or less concurrently. As far as shows go, it was ok. Peter Greenaway? Just ok? You bet. I was disappointed.
I have been a fan since that fatal summer of ‘93 when Gav and I saw Prospero’s Books at The Regent. And it is only now that I have begun linking all the different characters from his previous films to the latest productions. As a feat of scriptwriting and character development it is unique, but it does not really delve into the psyche of each character. We are still eternally observing, not emoting, definitely not empathising.
That I am afraid, is my review of what was for me the most awaited event of The Brisbane Festival.