This week we attended a meeting with artistic director Penelope Bartlau at the Womens Circus in Footscray. We sat down with her and took a moment to introduce ourselves and get to know one another before delving into the details of our projects.
On first glance, I took Penelope to be an eccentric woman who has a great name. She was extremely quirky, engaging and interesting to chat to; from the moment we shook hands I knew I liked her. Riley and I then went on to explain the basis of our project. We explained that we were making an interactive website which will feature photographic essays of willing participants from scheduled classes and a historical video on the formation and inner-workings of the Circus. We also explained the reason why we picked our focus to be the Womens Circus: as a group our beliefs align with the values that the organisation upholds, believing the Circus to be a successful worth while endeavour that is a gives a voice to an underrepresented part of society. We admire the healing process that the participants of the Circus go through in each of their classes and want to explore that side of operation as well as highlight the physical acts that the woman accomplish.
After explaining our intention to Penelope, we then liaised with the general manager of the Circus and set up a time to photograph women in class on the 17th of September. We will need to bring:
- release forms
- stickers for people who are unwilling to participate
- camera equipment
- lighting rigs
Penelope then gave us a tour of the space where classes are held. It was what one might expect it to look like, with thick padded mats, pennant banners, glittery objects, hoola hoops, neon lights and more. Attached below are a few photographs I captured from the tour.
