Panther is an ongoing performance collaboration between Madeleine Hodge and Sarah Rodigari. Based in Melbourne, our collaboration is compact, adaptable and open, extending across disciplines to create live art events specific to each space, every encounter.
Panther create work across documentary, performance, improvisation, video and site based intervention, through our work we are seeking to create a space for cultural enquiry, audience activation and social critique. We produce work that is rigorous, engaging and often funny, whilst also testing new possibilities for live performance.
In 2008 Panther will create new works for video and performance spaces. We will be in residency through A Month in the Country in Albury to create Elephant Island, a sequel to We will leave our pursuers with nothing but our capes. In December we will work with Tape Project Artists to create a new work for video and performance We Don’t Want To Shop Anymore.
In November 2008 Panther will travel to Perth to present work at this is the time a symposium presented by PICA and Artrage as part of PVI’s ten-year anniversary celebrations.
In 2007 Panther were recipients of the Australia Council Inter-Arts Runway grant, enabling us to spend five months touring Europe and Asia. In September 2007 we were commissioned by ANTI Festival of Contemporary Art in Finland to develop and present a site-specific interactive work in the Uppo Nalle Childrens Park, Kuopio called ANTI playground - a new world order. In October/November 2007 Panther were artists in residence at PACT Zollverein, Choreographic Research Centre in Essen, Germany for the first development of a new interactive video work about shopping; We Don’t Want To Shop Anymore.
In 2006 Panther was in creative development with performance installation Exercises in happiness at the Meat Market in Melbourne and the Performance Space in Sydney. This performance has since been presented internationally at Fresh Festival in England in September of 2007 and the Singapore Fringe Festival in January of 2008
In 2007 and 2006 Panther presented their short work We will leave our pursuers with nothing but our capes , internationally at Shunt in London, Bochum Theatre Festival, Germany and Pact Zollverein, Germany. This work has also been presented in Australia , as part of a Performance Space Showcase for Australian Performance at the Great Escape, Sydney, at Diretribe as part of Tape Projects Launch, at Loop and at the Village and Midsummer Festivals in Melbourne.
During our travels in 2007 we worked with Gob Squad on the making of a new work in Berlin. We participated in workshops with Forced Entertainment and Olaf Westphalen on the Nature of Disguise. We undertook a week long academy program as part of the Steirischer Herbst Academy with architects from IFAU in a workshop on ”Spaces of negotiation”, exploring the construction of public space through social participation.
In 2004/2005 we co-ordinated Strangers and Intimacy, an international exchange project between members of British performance group Reader, with outcomes in Melbourne at WEST SPACE and in Glasgow at the Centre for Contemporary Art.
Both Madeleine and Sarah are core members of Mimic Mass. Mimic Mass are a sound collective who have performed at Electrofringe, Liquid Architecture, Experimedia and the Next Wave Festival.