news, latest-news, skywhale, skywhalepapa, nga, national gallery of australia, patricia piccinini, jess green, pheno

When it comes to a hot-air balloon like Skywhale, the sky itself is no limit for the ways we’ve come to enjoy the image of multi-breasted mythical floating beast. So throw in some pop synths, electric guitars, edgy jazz and an ethereal children’s choir, and we’re set to have ourselves an entire performance on February 6 when Skywhale’s male companion is finally unveiled. The specially commissioned musical accompaniment is the work of Canberra musician Jess Green, aka Pheno, who has spent the last two years working with Skywhale’s creator Patricia Piccinini on a song that will encompass the voyage of the strange new family in the sky. She’ll be performing We Are The Skywhales live with the Luminescence Children’s Choir as Skywhalepapa makes his maiden flight over Canberra – a prospect she said was both daunting and surreal. “I guess the daunting part is having that really heavy understanding that Skywhale has become part of the Canberra canon of images – it’s iconic,” she said. Piccinini contacted Green not long after the National Gallery of Australia had commissioned her to create a companion piece for Skywhale – a Centenary of Canberra gift it had recently acquired for the national collection. Green remembers thinking it was a mistake when she opened her emails to find a message from Piccinini in her inbox, asking her to collaborate. “It just sounded so amazing,” she said. “[Later] I was actually talking to her on the phone, outside with my kids at the Boundless playground, looking at the Carillon and looking at the clouds, and imagining the Skywhale balloon, and she was saying she wanted to do something that involved the community and my brain was just exploding. It was really exciting.” And she said it was clear from the outset that the pair had a strong connection when it came to working together, two Canberra-raised artists who had both attended Narrabundah College, albeit years apart. “She has a rich mythology and landscape behind these sculptures,” she said. “So I would have these really long chats with her and then I’d get off the phone and make notes.” The resulting six-minute song – unusually long for a pop track – is a catchy and distinctive take on the origin story of Piccinini’s works. “She sent sketches really early on, and we talked a lot about who is Skywhalepapa and why is he there and the babies, and there’s a lot of the text that’s sort of told from the perspective of babies actually,” she said. “The thing that’s been unwavering is that sense of connection with her, actually, the whole time, in every aspect, even planning how the project is going to look. She’s really asked for my opinion so many times, I definitely feel like I’m in her team, which is really exciting.” Green had just begun recording the track in a Sydney studio last March when the pandemic struck. She recalls everyone around her checking their phones, as event after event was cancelled. Although she was lucky to receive a Homefront arts grant from the ACT government, and was able to keep working as a music teacher, she said this time of year felt particularly wearing for many artists who had endured a year of uncertainty. She had been preparing to perform at the Sydney Festival earlier this month alongside Christine Anu and Katie Noonan, but had to pull out because she was unable to meet the quarantine requirements. “You get a bit sick of that roller coaster,” she said. “You book a show, and you prep mentally for it, and there’s this long-term subconscious, psychological prep for a really big performance, outside of even just learning musical parts. And then when it gets cancelled, it’s hard to know what to do with that energy.” Only the weather will hold back the dawn launch, Skywhales: Every Heart Sings, on February 6. We Are The Skywhales will be available on various streaming platforms on February 5. You can presave the song here: https://ditto.fm/we-are-the-skywhales

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  • Sally Pryor





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