A unique performance on the bank of the Parramatta River in which visitors follow the performers around the site.

You are invited to descend the banks of the deceptively tranquil waters of the Parramatta River to embark on a boot camp of ambiguity. Bob for oranges for your salvation, participate in re-imagined clinical trials consisting of outdated unethical medical procedures accompanied by jargon filled with never-ending numerical scales exploiting fallibility.

Proceed to an online support service assistant who will cure your psychosis with step by step instructions to get better mileage from your white goods, then calm down by counting to ten in anticipation of the commencement of an official ribbon cutting event that never officially begins.

In Petition Never to Die Marian Abboud and Vicki Van Hout utilize performance video art provocations to confront interpersonal boundaries via artist and audience, public and private, consensual and nonsensical, abstract and virtual world realities.

Petition Never to Die aims to enable participants to glean ultimate truths hidden within the depths of the ridiculous, to develop a willingness to tolerate the sinister, free from the fear of mortality.

Festival Commission.

This project has been assisted by the Australian government through the Department of Communication and the Arts’ Catalyst—Australian Arts and Culture Fund.

This project is supported by Information and Cultural Exchange I.C.E and The Parramatta Artists Studios.

Image Credit: Marian Abboud

Marian Abboud

Marian Abboud is a multi-disciplinary Western Sydney based artist. She works across various technologies to create projected images that feed into performance, installation and site-specific works. Marian creates complex narratives from engaging with the community or artists to build multi-layered works.

Marian graduated from the University of Western Sydney with a Bachelor of Visual Communication in 2002. She has exhibited extensively locally and nationally and has collaborated on many dance and performance based projects. She is currently working on various projects across a broad range of disciplines including photography, film, performance, dance and public art.

Vicki Van Hout

Vicki Van Hout is a Wiradjuri interdisciplinary artist working in the mediums of dance, written and spoken text and recyclable sculptural installation and set design. Van Hout has danced with major Indigenous companies Bangarra and Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre before working as an independent with choreographers including  Hans Van den Broeck (Belgium), Tess de Quincey and Martin del Amo. Vicki has been a part of a collaborative team with Marian Abboud for ten years creating works which mediate cultural diversity in contemporary society including ‘Behind The Zig Zag’ and ‘Redfern as Refuge’.