Matthew Prest

Whelping Box (with Branch Nebula and Clare Britton) presented an absurd embodied critique of conventional masculinity through a series of intense yet playful physical tasks, that saw the two performers attempt to transcend the limitations of their environment. This work was award a Helpmann Award for Best Physical or Visual Performance (2014).

Bounce was selected for the Rapid Pulse Performance Art Festival, Chicago, 2014. This involved a repeated action of running into a wall of sticky tape repeatedly for 1 hour at a main intersection in Chicago's Wicker Park. The piece was a violent and absurd meditation on notions of achievement and progress.

Given the setting of a carpark, with a seated audience and with the help of by partner and son, the task was to create a heightened 'energy' using repetitive dancing, rave music, everyday household objects (a heater, groceries, our family car), and audience participation. Image by Salote Tawale

Running Up A Skyscraper (performed for Site Is Set Festival, Melbourne 2015) saw me running up 89 floors while the audience waited in a bar at the top of Eureka Tower, enjoying the view, champagne and canapes. On arrival at the top, my task was to present a 30 minute Powerpoint presentation on 'Skyscrapers'. The work explored ideas of individualism and capitalism.

Silo took the audience inside the world of a fictional and unnamed cult. It used a task-based performance style to create a visceral experience that explored group power dynamics and absurd ritual.

A devised work about the self-help industry set at an Anthony Robbins-style conference. Trust exercises and guru-worship end in a bloodbath of free speech and individualism.

Dream Shake begins with the question: 'What would your 15 year old self think of the person you are now?' Performers Nat Rose, Malcolm Whittaker, Teik Kim Pok, Nitin Vengurlekar and Kevin Ng explore identity, ambition and delusions of grandeur (this is a work in development.)

Shammgods is an ongoing performance project with Nitin Vengurlekar and Malcolm Whittaker that traverses live and online performance through a variety of 'business' pursuits including lawn mowing, a fashion line and babysitting. Image by Nicole Wong