Title: GIRARU GALING GANHAGIRRI
(The Wind Will Bring the Rain)
CREDITS
Creator, Choreographer, Performer Joel Bray
Cinematographer James Wright | NoN Studio
Composer Daniel Nixon
Production Manager Lucie Sutherland
Executive Producer Veronica Bolzon
FULL-LENGTH To see full work, please contact Producer
DURATION 3 channel, 16 min loops
WARNINGS partial nudity
Artist Statement
GIRARU GALING GANHAGIRRI means “The Wind Will Bring Rain” in Wiradjuri. It speaks to the implacable force of Country, the meeting of the elements of air and water and of the assurance that, in nature, one thing follows another. Always have and always will.
In these times, we find solace in the ‘ancientness’ and endurance of Country. Whatever happens, the wind will always bring the rain. Bray says ‘I live on Boonwurrung and Wurundjeri Country. Sometimes, when a storm blows down from Wiradjuri Country, I will go out and stand in the wind and the rain as a way of connecting with my ancestral homeland. Like the rain on my face, or ochre on my skin, my body carries an ancient memory of my Country in my body, no matter where I am.
GIRARU GALING GANHAGIRRI is a multi-channel screen video installation of pure dance - a poetic, choreographic meditation on the elements. Choreographically Joel’s body evokes water, air and earth, and the various combinations and forms these take in Nature- rain, storms, clouds, dew, wind, breezes, creeks, and rivers.
Filmed on Country in Wagga Wagga and surrounds, Joel Bray, Cinematographer James Wright, and Composer Daniel Nixon spent time with Elders and in sacred locations across Wiradjuri Country, filming and recording sound for this video installation project.
What eventuated was 7 separate videos, a rich overlay of choreography and digital ochre; painting Country on Joel’s body as he dances on Country.
The original installation is comprised of 7 screens on 16 min loop, with a haunting and immersive soundscape of the Australian landscape, water, wind, feet on earth, birds, and other wildlife.
Shot on 6k video, and featuring sound in 5.1 or 7.1 surround. An ideal work for large screen format, or projection.
Acknowledgements
Giraru Galing Ganhagirri was commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra for the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony, created in consultation with Uncle James Ingram and Wagga Wagga Elders, and with support from City of Melbourne, Phillip Keir and Sarah Benjamin (the Keir Foundation), City of Port Phillip, Create NSW, Blacktown Arts, Arts Centre Melbourne, and Yirramboi Festival 2020.
PRESENTATIONS:
2022 Humboldt Forum, Berlin, Germany.
2022 Terra inFirma. Blacktown Arts, Blacktown, NSW.
2022 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial: Ceremony. National Gallery of Australia, ACT.
CONTACT
Veronica Bolzon | Producer
veronica@joelbraydance.com | +61 (0) 410 950 738
Biography
A Naarm-based performer and maker, Joel Bray is a proud Wiradjuri man and Artistic Director of Joel Bray Dance. Joel danced in Europe with Kolben Dance, FRESCO Dance Company, Roy Assaf and Niv Sheinfeld & Oren Laor, and in Australia with CHUNKY MOVE.
Joel’s dance-theatre encounters in unorthodox spaces spring from his Wiradjuri heritage and use humour to engage audiences in rituals about sex, history, trauma, and healing. His experimental work challenges white audience expectations of Aboriginal performance and blur the colonial genres.
His works Biladurang (2017), Daddy (Yirramboi Festival 2019), Considerable Sexual License (Yirramboi 2021), I Liked It, BUT (2021), Garabari (Arts House 2022), Homo Pentecostus (Malthouse 2024) and Monolith (Rising Festival, 2025) have toured to the Rising, Brisbane, Sydney, Darwin, Midsumma, Auckland, LiveWorks, World Pride and Dance Massive Festivals, and to PICA, the Arts Centre Melbourne and Canberra Theatre Centre.
Joel’s seven-channel video installation Giraru Galing Ganhagirri (The Wind Will Bring the Rain) was commissioned and presented at the National Gallery of Australia, and Storage Unit (2023) was commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria.
Joel was the 2019 NLA Creative Arts Fellow, a 2020 Sydney Dance Company New Breed choreographer and the 2021-22 CHUNKY MOVE Choreographer-in-Residence, the current Associate Artist at Geelong Arts Centre and a member of the Melbourne Fringe Board.