"AS NEWSPAPERS fold around the globe, one Melbourne visual artist-cum-reporter is turning pages - and heads - at the Edinburgh International Festival.
Visitors who enter Edinburgh's Dean Gallery this month are greeted by the gentle strumming of a ukulele and a singer crooning about a new archaeological find. On the hour, there's a pop song with up-to-date news headlines.
In the next bulletin, you might hear a rap about female boxers in the Olympics, or perhaps a gospel number about the economic recovery: ''Figures show, it will be slow.''
Hark! is a singing news performance project by Melbourne artist Gabrielle de Vietri. It is part of the Enlightenments, the visual arts program curated by Juliana Engberg, artistic director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Southbank.
Hark! features two Melbourne actors (Stuart Bowden and Ben Hjorth), one musician (Kathryn Sutherland) and a journalist (that's me). And it has been making headlines of its own.
The Guardian sings its praises, featuring the piece on the front of its arts section and as part of the soundtrack to its online Edinburgh Festival highlights. In The Scotsman, the piece is ''superb'', and de Vietri and the band have made numerous radio appearances.
This, in Edinburgh, in August, as hundreds of artists peruse the papers every morning, sighing that their work was unappreciated, or worse, ignored by the press.
De Vietri attributes the success of the piece to its immediacy and populism. Gallery-goers, met with a song about Edinburgh's city council, can easily recognise their world in the work, and a radio team can snatch a grab from the bulletin. ''This just in,'' we harmonise, on the hour. But de Vietri is not completely at ease playing the role of media darling.
''In a world where not understanding is so often a part of art, it's hard to justify making work that is so easy to understand, that can be grabbed, that uses populist forms in a non-ironic way.''
She says the real achievement of the piece has been its reception by the public.
''My work is about the relationship between people, and it's great that people can participate and influence this work.''"
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