For one night only on Thursday the 30 April, 18 artists transformed No 9 Karaoke Bar in Adelaide’s Chinatown into a multi-room contemporary art experience like never before. Curated curated by artists Kim Munro, Alice McCool & Yusuf Ali Hayat, the project re-imagines the familiar interiors of private karaoke rooms as intimate, site-specific art environments. Audiences encountered new and existing works created by local, national, and international artists and filmmakers that explore notions of place, space and belonging. Each playfully using a Karaoke room to deliver their messages. Each work creating encounters where new rhythms of cultural expression emerge within an unexpected setting.

Commissioned artists: Valerie Berry & Ben-Hur Winter, Jesse Budel, Saluhan Collective, Jazmine Deng & Helium, Ellen Steele, Astrid Pill & Jason Sweeney

Screenings by national and international filmmakers: Razan AlSalah, Bryce Kraehenbuehl, Komtouch Napattaloong, Ben Russell & Malena Szlam.

on-site aims to interrupt the day-to-day function of particular sites through a re-imaging of how familiar places are used and understood. Commissioned artists are invited to respond to the layered histories embedded within place and collective memory. Their approach to curating is grounded in the specificity of each location and emphasises the transformative potential of place.

This project is part of OSCA’s state-wide artist commissioning initiative, Projects of the Everyday, that seeds, develops and presents artist-led projects in innovative spaces of creativity, making and experimentation.

This project is supported by Create SA and The City of Adelaide.

Stay tuned for future iterations of on-site.