Ready for a jailhouse shock

MYSTERIOUS musical duo The Ghosts of Nothing will inhabit Hobart this weekend, presenting the latest chapter in their ongoing multimedia project at the city’s old jail on Saturday evening.

The Ghosts of Nothing is an artistic collaboration between Sean Lowry and Ilmar Taimre, who have spent the past few years developing their ongoing work, In Memory of Johnny B. Goode, which began in 2014 and will conclude with a series of exhibitions next year.

Set inside the fictional world of an imaginary rock band, In Memory of Johnny B. Goode anachronistically recasts fictional pop cultural figure Johnny B. Goode (from the Chuck Berry song) as the historical tragic artist/clown known as Pierrot.

So far, the work has been remixed and refashioned across various media formats, including as a rock opera, a radio play, published writings, exhibitions, and a multi-year “world tour” of mime-based collaborative performances.

For Saturday evening’s special oneoff event, which is being supported by Contemporary Art Tasmania, The Ghosts of Nothing are collaborating with Tasmanian performer and puppeteer Laura Purcell.

Purcell will use puppetry and other theatrical artifices to stage two different, five-minute, previously unperformed scenes from Act III of In Memory of Johnny B. Goode, Life & Death — Black Butterflies and Suicide.

The Ghosts of Nothing and Laura Purcell will perform Black Butterflies and Suicide back-to-back at “The Tench” (the old Hobart Convict Penitentiary on the corner of Campbell and Brisbane streets) from 6pm and 6.15pm on Saturday. Admission is free.