Pictures: Lucia Rossi
LIMINAL SPACES continues to receive accolades for its conceptual and production design of IHOS’ contemporary opera, ‘The Barbarians’, taking home the national Event Award atthe 2012 Interior Design Excellence Awards(IDEA) in Sydney on Friday night.
Jury member, Judith O’Callaghan, stated the design was “a very clever way of defining a space within a space, using minimal structural elements that also support the creation of atmospheric effect.”
LIMINAL SPACES’ collaboration withthe performing arts company, IHOS, explored the central theme of ‘otherness’ taken from Constantine Cavafy’s 1904 poem ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’.
“The themes and xenophobic attitudes explored still resonate with today’s political climate,” LIMINAL SPACES Principal Peta Heffernan explained.
LIMINAL SPACES transformed Hobart’s City Hall for The Barbarians. The design of the stage, 30m in length, allowed the performance to traverse between different worlds represented in the poem and in Cavafy’s life.
“Our aim was to produce maximum effect with minimum resources, by defining a space with elements that could serve multiple functions and create a completely immersive environment,’ Ms Heffernan said. “We created a framework to inspire creative interaction from the performers and the artistic director that supported and lifted the performance rather than competed with it.”
The opera was commissioned by MONA FOMA for this year’s festival in Hobart.
Widely considered the pre-eminent design awards program, the IDEA awards recognise national excellence in design and receive hundreds of submissions from across Australia.
LIMINAL SPACES was in a national short-list of 14 for the IDEA Event category.
LIMINAL SPACES was also short-listed in the Workplace (under 1000sqm) category for its innovative design of Tony Hill Dental’s new surgery in the Hobart CBD.
“Just to be finalists in two categories at the IDEA Awards is fantastic recognition,” Ms Heffernan said. “But to win the Event category is again a tribute to the quality of work that comes out of this State, acknowledging the calibre of the cultural contribution that is being made by our creative industries in Tasmania.”
“Our collaboration with the artistic director, Constantine Koukias, commenced in 2009 with Kimisis-Falling Asleep whichdelighted audiences, critics, MONA FOMA organisers and partners alike in 2010, and elicited a further invitation and commission for The Barbarians performed in January 2012. The partnership has created and delivered high quality contemporary productions accessible to national and international audiences.”
Other accolades LIMINAL SPACESand IHOS have received for The Barbarians include:
• Australian Business Arts Foundation’s City of Melbourne SME Award (Tas) 2012
• Nominated for a national Helpmann Award for Best Opera 2012
• National Commendation for Installation Design in 2012 Australian Interior Design Awards
• Best of State Commercial Design in 2012 Australian Interior Design Awards.
LIMINAL SPACES is one of the disciplines of LIMINAL STUDIO, along with LIMINAL ARCHITECTURE and LIMINAL GRAPHICS.
