Another edition, another launch party, another stellar line-up. In the weeks leading up to our Pigeonholed launch we’re showcasing the outstanding performers who’ll be swinging by on Friday November 16 at Grub Street Bookshop.
Last, but never least, is Scott Wings.
Scott Wings is a physical, poetic performer. Most of the time you can see Scott on a stage making imaginary shapes come to life in a spoken-movement experiment of forms. At other times you can see Scott by looking through his window, but that would be weird, so don’t.
Tell us about the piece you will be performing at the launch, in ten words or less.
‘Sunflowers’ is a sci-fi short-story-meets-poetry-thing I wrote. It’s been edited to pop on the page so I might just interpretive dance the whole thing while someone reads it out loud in a bad Russian accent.
What have you been working on recently?
I just finished my one-man show Whiplash at Melbourne Fringe Festival, which went really well. At the moment I am concentrating on Ruckus Melbourne’s Art Party and Ruckus Slam, and pouring my energy into the local community to help people make and support projects. I just came back from Singapore where I was teaching theatre skills and showed Whiplash there too. So, um, I’m tired.
What is your favourite book that, in your opinion, doesn’t get much praise?
I’m a HUGE Ursula Le Guin fan. Huge. It wasn’t until I was in my mid-20s that I met people who were fans of her as well. Her Earthsea books have been my always-read since I was a kid. Tombs Of Atuan, on the other hand, is one of those sequels that taught me how continuing a story can be completely different from the original tale; I remember thinking ‘this isn’t like the other book’.
What courage for an author to present the world in her own terms, to tell the stories that need to be told; an artist who changes and shifts and makes ART (exploration) over a PRODUCT (stagnation). In a Le Guin book, she speaks of the before and afters. Might never equals right. There is no weapon that will defeat evil. And her play with gender, skin, stereotypes, cultural and colonial intersections has shaped the way I think of humanity in so many ways. Ursula Le Guin deserves to be held as high as Roald Dahl, Tolkien or Steven King.
If you were a pigeon, what person or thing would you most like to poop on?
There are so many individuals I would be petty to. I would just poop all over my ex-flatmate who was quite narcissistic and abusive. I would poop all over so many of these men that are righteous in their patriarchy. But that wouldn’t solve anything I think; they would just shoot at the sky.
I guess I just worry about men. Truly. We are frozen in our emotional intelligence, frozen in our self-awareness, frozen in our empathy. This is something I’ve tried to talk about and explore in my work for years, a never-ending conundrum, a self fulfilling prophecy of violence and power. Damn, that became a little rant. Sorry. My flatmate was a jerk. So many poops.
Pigeonholed lands at 6pm Friday November 16 at Grub Street Bookshop in Fitzroy. Entry is free but please RSVP via Eventbrite so there’s enough drinks to go around. Speaking of drinks, they’re by cash donation – think gold coins. Stay up to date on the Facebook event page.
Russell Wong is the Digital Marketing Intern at Going Down Swinging.
