Splendour in the Grass 2017 has dropped one of the best festival line-ups ever seen in Australia. But Splendour isn’t just about great music. It also plays host to an innovative arts program that showcases some of the best arts and crafts practitioners from around the world.
Splendour in the Arts will once again transform North Byron Parklands into a 600 acre gallery space. A line-up of paintings, performance installations and mini-universes created by some of the world’s most innovative artists will feature as part of the annual festival line-up.
Leading Splendour’s Art Squad is internationally renowned installation artist Craig Walsh, curating a mind-bending batch of no-filter-needed moments from the second you hit the ground. Imagine an inflatable resting-bitch-face Kanye that needs your help to turn his frown upside down, prolific projections, monumental sculptures and interactive installations that trade in death and the afterlife.
Barcelona based art group Hungry Castle, featuring Dave Glass, create big, playful public art and are responsible for the formidable Mr Poopie at Splendour 2016. After exhibiting all around the Globe, they return to Australia with the 10m high inflatable Sad Kanye. After pondering why Kanye always has such a resting bitch-face, they want the public’s help to cheer him up. What can you put inside Sad Kanye to make him happy?
Pickle’s Funeral Parlour by Andy Forbes (A Tent of Miracles production).
Presented by performance and installation artist Andy Forbes, Pickle’s Funeral Parlour is a House of Horror audience walk-through featuring theatre, video, sound, performance, kinetic sculpture and installation. Let Gothic family, the Pickle’s, share with you all they know about death, the afterlife and all its mysteries as you explore three interactive environments. A Splendour mainstay since 2002, Andy captures the spontaneity and alchemy that occurs between artist and audience by blending raw comedy with satire on pop culture.
Optical Oval – Op art, Conceptual art and Minimalism.
Optical Oval is a site-specific projection installation of geometric designs that will be displayed across the Mix-Up stage grounds. The projected images are newly developed life-size optical designs and mazes, free for punters to explore. From a distance, they will look visually stunning. Up close they’ll offer up a new level of engagement for the audience. The ground will be transformed in a temporal installation playing with space and perception, drawing upon the traditions of Op art, Conceptual art and Minimalism – by artists Projection Takin, Nick Asides & Rose Staff.
Gateway, by Sam Songailo.
Artist Sam Songailo’s work takes form in painting, installation, video, sound and sculpture. Influenced by digital technology and electronic music, Sam adopts algorithms and the concepts from these disciplines to shape his approach to both physical and pictorial space. Highly immersive and realised on a monumental scale, Sam’s work accentuates the compositional elements of line and space in a form that recalls both the modernist grid and digital networks.
The Arch Tunnel Response returns! This site-responsive painting by Melbourne artist Ash Keating, was commissioned especially for the entrance tunnel to the Splendour in the Grass site to be exhibited over a three-year period. This project continues an ongoing investigation of site-specificity by the artist, the process guided instinctively by the shape and architecture of the tunnel itself.
SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS 2017
Friday 21 July, Saturday 22 July and Sunday 23 July
North Byron Parklands
Tweed Valley Way, Wooyung (15 mins north of Byron Bay)
splendourinthegrass.com
SOLD OUT
THE XX • QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE • LCD SOUNDSYSTEM • ROYAL BLOOD • HAIM • SIGUR RÓS • SCHOOLBOY Q (ONLY AUS SHOW) • VANCE JOY • TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB • PEKING DUK • RL GRIME • BONOBO • FATHER JOHN MISTY • CATFISH AND THE BOTTLEMEN • TASH SULTANA • PAUL KELLY • STORMZY • KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD • PEKING DUK • FUTURE ISLANDS (ONLY AUS SHOW) • BANKS • BERNARD FANNING • DUNE RATS • CUT COPY • ÁSGIER • ALLDAY • MEG MAC • RAG‘N’BONE MAN • THUNDAMENTALS • LIL YACHTY • SAN CISCO • CLIENT LIAISON • REAL ESTATE • DAN SULTAN • VALLIS ALPS • D.D DUMBO • MAGGIE ROGERS • TOVE LO • POND • BIG SCARY • THE SMITH STREET BAND • OH WONDER • A.B. ORIGINAL • DOPE LEMON • THE KITE STRING TANGLE • YOUNG FRANCO • JULIA JACKLIN • KINGSWOOD • AMY SHARK • LUCA BRASI • THE LEMON TWIGS • VERA BLUE • SLUMBERJACK • BAD//DREEMS • BAG RAIDERS • TOPAZ JONES • MIDDLE KIDS • OCEAN GROVE • CONFIDENCE MAN • BISHOP BRIGGS • LATE NITE TUFF GUY • JULIEN BAKER • KILTER • LANY • HOCKEY DAD • KIRIN J CALLINAN • AIRLING • COSMO’S MIDNIGHT • GRETTA RAY • MOONBASE • THE PEEP TEMPEL • TORNADO WALLACE • THE MURLOCS • MALLRAT • LUKE MILLION • THE WILSON PICKERS • ROMARE • JARROW • GOOD BOY • KUREN • ONEMAN • WINSTON SURFSHIRT • SET MO • HWLS • HARVEY SUTHERLAND & BERMUDA • CC:DISCO! • ENSCHWAY • DJHMC • NITE FLEIT • ALICE IVY • WILLOW BEATS • WILLARIS. K • MOOKHI • TRIPLE J UNEARTHED: WINNERS PLUS… SWINDAIL • DENA AMY • ANDY GARVEY • PLANÈTE • SAM WESTON • SUPER CRUEL • CHRISTOPHER PORT • LEWIS CANCUT • KINDER
