Leading Australian contemporary dance company Chunky Move has announced Time Remaining, a powerful new dance work by critically acclaimed Artistic Director Antony Hamilton, set to premiere at Melbourne Town Hall as part of Now or Never this August.
Running from 19 to 20 August, Time Remaining presents a sculptural, meditative installation of scanning and tracking laser light that complements Hamilton’s signature choreographic language, exploring the tension between human agency and machine control. Created in collaboration with award-winning technical designer Nick Roux and sound and video artist Nicholas Moloney, the piece positions motorised winches as choreographic agents in their own right – lasers, lights and suspended objects hovering, floating and descending through space in precise geometric dialogue with the dancers.
The result is an atmospheric and immersive work that is both mesmerising and menacing – inviting audiences to consider how emerging technologies shape the way we move, interact and exist.
Performed by a dynamic cast including Madeleine Bowman, Melissa Pham, Samakshi Sidhu, Lee Serle, Jayden Wall and Jareen Wee, this premiere work brings Hamilton’s vision to life through physical precision and presence. Through shifting patterns of movement and light, the performance evokes a world in which technological systems quietly weave themselves into every aspect of our lives, exerting a subtle yet pervasive influence over human behaviour.
Costume and material design by Melbourne-based designer and long-time collaborator Paula Levis draws on the aesthetics of archetypal performers from past eras. The result is an unsettling image of the performer as an endangered figure in an ongoing contest with the new technologies tightening their grip on the world.
Speaking about Time Remaining and its inclusion in Now or Never, Hamilton said: “I’m humbled that Chunky Move’s new work Time Remaining has been commissioned by Melbourne’s premiere festival of art, ideas, sound and technology – Now or Never. Artistic Director Elise Peyronnet has been an incredible champion of my work. The festival platforms artists and thinkers who probe the urgent questions of our time and Peyronnet’s nuanced curation is ambitious and courageous. I look forward to sharing Time Remaining as part of the performance program with festival audiences.”
Marked by formal and structural maturity, the work’s restraint offers a striking new vision from Hamilton and Chunky Move. Both captivating and unsettling, Time Remaining presents a bold evolution in the company’s artistic practice and is set to resonate with long-time audiences while providing an accessible entry point for those discovering one of Australia’s most celebrated and genre-defying dance companies for the first time.
“It is a privilege to support the commissioning and presentation of Time Remaining, a major new work from Chunky Move, one of Melbourne’s most celebrated and internationally recognised contemporary dance companies.” said Now or Never Artistic Director Elise Peyronnet,“In Time Remaining, Chunky Move brings together movement, sound and technology in a work that speaks directly to the questions shaping our time. Ambitious, innovative and deeply human, it reflects the spirit of Now or Never and the extraordinary creative talent that continues to emerge from Melbourne.”
Tickets are available to purchase via nowornever.melbourne.vic.gov.au/event/time-remaining.
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