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blackmarket

join the fight for survival.

about blackmarket

blackmarket invites you into a dark underworld of unlicensed street selling and entrepreneurial trading.

blackmarket is a participatory artwork situated on the streets of a city at night. a locative media app based work installed on pvi’s smart-phones, the work is highly immersive, audio driven and perversely fun. the world of the work is informed by the key philosophies of the occupy movement and recent financial bankruptcies in europe and iceland. blackmarket presents us with a global economic collapse that’s just around the corner with players charged with the task of surviving it.

audience members, are instructed to bring 5 items with which to trade. They will be hustling with shadowy figures down darkened alleyways, arranging rendezvous points and peddling their wares in order to get what they think they will need to cope with the impending disaster. audiences are joined on the streets by pvi traders who are equipped with their own services and encourage audience members to let go of what they don’t really need in exchange for experiences to equip them for survival once the economic clusterfcuk hits. from psychological coping mechanisms to physical training, urban survival skills to weaponising garbage, our blackmarketeers are ready and willing to meet all needs.

developed in consultation with economists, doomsday preppers and survivalists, blackmarket presupposes that our current economic structure has failed, that the money in your wallet no longer has value. what are the skills you might need? what are the services you can provide?

what are your chances of survival?

click image to view the project gallery

testimonials

rad, incredible, educational

blackmarket was one of the most rad, incredible, educational, exhilarating adventures of my lifetime… an original and unique concept executed masterfully. 5 sense star commendation for this creative endeavour!

nancy doll
tweet after blackmarket // sydney may 2015

pvi collective:

truly at the forefront of socially and technologically engaged performance in australia

blackmarket reader
performance space // sydney, may 2015

the front-end production work that has gone into blackmarket is impressively complex,

with the result that the multitude of scenarios are clearly explained and mapped out for the participant

stephen bevis
the west australian // perth, february 2016

creative team

devised by
pvi collective – kelli mccluskey & steve bull with steve berrick & chris williams
economic consultancy
by michael chappell
sound pieces by
jason sweeney
voice overs by
kate neylon
designed by
pvi collective
development and programming by
steve berrick & chris mccormick
branding and visual design by
chris nixon

perth season traders: chloe flockart, finn o’branagáin, jacob lehrer, joe lui, julia hales, laura boynes, loren kronemyer, maja liwszyc, moya thomas (trading floor), paul grabovac, rachel arianne ogle, ruud hendrikx, sete tele.

sydney season traders: aaron manhattan, dale collier, harriet gillies, julian woods, julie vulcan, kate cooper, leah shelton, liesel zink, scarlett o’claire. trading floor: kelli mccluskey, steve bull, chris williams, steve berrick.

creative development – vitalstatistix theatre company’s interdisciplinary hothouse adhocracy festival, port adelaide, south australia, june 2014.
local artists: michele fairbairn & lukus robbins

show info

performance history

season – perth international arts festival, west australia, feb 2016. co-presented by city of subiaco and perth institute of contemporary arts.

inaugural performance season – performance space ‘streetworks’ series, kings cross, sydney, new south wales, may – june 2015.

creative development – vitalstatistix theatre company’s interdisciplinary hothouse adhocracy festival, port adelaide, south australia, june 2014.

media

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