What’s Actually Happening

2022

“As Caroline Meaden collects herself and dons the attire, tone, and mannerisms of the quintessential art gallery guide, comfort is found. Meaden could be describing the inferno within Giotto, Jan van Eyck, or Fra Angelico’s The Last Judgement with its demons in pursuit, breaking mortal bones. Or the crimson glare of Cerberus. She could be describing the greed of present day. As Alice Will Caroline tell it, with their talk of serpents like ropes at your ankles, these strange visions are familiar places, but they’re funny too.”

- Gracia Haby, Fjord Review

Hey… We had a bad dream, we did a bad thing, and when we woke up da-da-de da-de da-da-da-da-dum… A number of states of emergency have been declared, with a few more in the pipeline. We’ll have to do something about it. So we’ll raise our right hands and we’ll raise the other hands and our hands will come together in front of our faces then the palms will turn together and we’ll bend at our knees and we’ll hinge our backs back and we’ll keep going down and our backs will hit the ground and our heads will be on the floor and our feet will be so sore.

What’s Actually Happening is a short parable about creation in an era of emergency, fragile civilisation, judgement and finality, commissioned by the Keir Choreographic Award. It held a balance of wry comedy, dramatic theatre and formal choreographic scenes. Baffling to some, it nevertheless possessed a distinct logic that tumbled out of the chaos. The final monologue evoked a gallery tour-guide describing ‘The Last Judgement’ painting, with God as a tired and unmoved woman who wondered why she had left her sick baby at home to come to this … Why do we make art at this time, and at the end of time?