From Andreas Vesalius’ groundbreaking De Humani Corporis Fabrica to the drawings of Da Vinci and Dürer, the 16th century heralded a new fascination with the human figure. Human dissection transformed our understanding of anatomy, and the body became the subject of scientific and artistic fixation.
Of The Body marries a major new song cycle by Dan Walker with some of the most rabelaisian examples of Renaissance repertoire. Drawing on Buxtehude’s masterpiece, ‘Membra Jesu Nostri’, each movement of Walker’s Of the Body is devoted to an anatomical part: the eyes, the hands, the mouth, the feet, the blood, and finally, the heart.
A musical dissection of sorts, Of the Body traverses sex, sensuality, the senses and more, exploring what it means to be embodied in a digital age, our relationship to our corporeal form; our flesh and blood.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body.
