Dark Mofo 2019: Slaughterhouse-15 could possibly be the strangest, most confronting artwork ever to be shown at Dark Mofo
Dark Mofo has a reputation for delivering strange and eccentric art. But just how unusual does a show have to be for the organisers themselves to call it “spectacularly weird”? SEE THE ULTIMATE GUIDE AND LATEST HIGHLIGHTS
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IT looks at first glance like the set of a children’s TV show, but a Dark Mofo art installation by Japanese artist Saeborg could prove to be one of the most confronting the festival has ever seen.
Opening at 5pm on Wednesday night at Melville St’s Avalon Theatre, Slaughterhouse-15 will see a litter of performers dressed as human-sized piglets birthed out of a giant blow-up mother pig before they frolic around a tecnhicoloured farmyard.
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The free, all-ages show sees the giant inflatable pig take centre stage next to an inflatable garden showing blow-up slaughtered animals next to inflatable faeces.
Dark Mofo executive producer Lucy Forge said the installation was one of the strangest things at this year’s festival.
“The artist is dealing with gender politics and the commodification of human and animal bodies,” she said.
“Saeborg’s really interested in animal husbandry and farming and the impact that has on animals and humans.
“It is spectacularly weird, beautiful and strange and just seemed like a gorgeous addition to the Dark Mofo program for those reasons.”
Five local Hobart performers will join a Japanese crew to perform as the birthed piglets who fight one another for a place at the mother pig’s teat.
The performance will then see the piglet actors pretend to be slaughtered by a farmer before they turn into zombies and engage in a Japanese-style dance party with the audience.
In previous years Dark Mofo has used real animals for sacrificial performances but Dark Mofo associate creative director Hannah Fox said organisers hadn’t deliberately gone down a “safe” path by exhibiting with inflatable animals in 2019.
“In similar ways, for some audiences it may be a little bit confronting – it’s certainly a bit more fun and joyful but I wouldn’t describe it as more or less safe,” she said.
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