Proximity is a national artist platform, commissioning intimate performances for an audience of one.
Proximity is a national artist platform known for commissioning intimate experiences for an audience of one. Proximity was co-founded on the unceded lands of the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation in 2012. We recognise their continuing connection to the land, waters and community and pay our respects to elders past, present and future.
Until 2017, the Proximity model included both artist development labs and a festival. For each iteration of the Proximity Festival a venue in its entirety is taken over, with artists from a range of disciplines to create new works that re-purpose buildings and seek out alternative uses for hidden, forgotten or negative spaces.
Curatorially, Proximity considers works that are experiential, challenge the notion of the audience/performer relationship and embody a sense of creative risk-taking.
Since 2012 our audiences have meditated on the breath, planned their remains after death, climbed rooftops in search of love, sat behind the wheel with a learner driver, learned to twerk, discovered what memory tastes like, stargazed, re-mapped their perceptions of boarders, created the sound of the wetlands, disappeared into cinematic imagination, sex talked, and sung karaoke full throttle to Whitney in public galleries.
Proximity was co-founded in 2012 by James Berlyn, Sarah Rowbottam and Kelli McCluskey.
Jen Jamieson, Let’s Make Love, 2014 Fremantle Arts Centre Photo: Peter Cheng