Choreographer and filmmaker Sue Healey positions her practice deep inside the paradox of moving-image portraiture: how does one capture a dancer’s identity when their primary mode of expression is movement not stillness? This question – and all the potential ways it may be answered – has long inspired the Sydney-based artist, most notably in her ongoing project, On View.

Sue Healey, On View: Panoramic Suite multi-screen video installation and performance, which will premiere in Australia for Liveworks Festival of Experimental Art 2021 presented by Performance Space.

This eight-year endeavour combines film, performance and installation to present intimately rendered “moving portraits” of dancers from Australia, Japan and Hong Kong. Though there have been many iterations along the way, Healey’s latest output is On View: Panoramic Suite – a digital broadcast presented for Liveworks Festival of Experimental Art.

Billed as a “sweeping panoramic vision of dance across cultures, landscapes and individuals,” the 55-minute work combines live action with recorded footage, shot and broadcast direct from the cavernous halls of Carriageworks. It’s a whirlwind journey through the back catalogue of Healey’s portraiture, freshly arranged to offer audiences a new, formally experimental encounter with...