Hamish Sawyer written essay in response to Nadia and Dani’s 12 digital artworks (instagram posts):

Dancer Nadia Milford’s multifaceted practice encompasses performance, moving image and installation. The artist uses her body as a catalyst for connection, to place, people and the spaces we inhabit. Milford has collaborated with a diverse range of creatives, including choreographers, theatre makers, musicians, visual artists, filmmakers, photographers, and poets. 

Since relocating to the Gold Coast from Brisbane in early 2021, Milford has quickly embedded herself in the city’s arts community. For this year’s SWELL Sculpture Festival at Currumbin, Milford presented We, The Ocean an iterative performance in which dancers’ bodies transformed a bolt of photosensitive fabric in collaboration with the late afternoon sun. The work was co-directed by Dani Cabs, also a recent arrival to the region. Cabs and Milford are a dynamic duo, having first come together for the City of Gold Coast’s Lens GC program earlier this year. Milford was looking for opportunities to connect with the local creative community and came across the program call out on social media. She was particularly attracted to the program’s use of Instagram as a platform to present work.

Describing her creative partnership with Cabs, Milford says “We share a love of play, physicality and interdisciplinary approaches. We are inspired by the Gold Coast and were keen to offer our fresh eyes on the city”. Their project for Lens GC comprised a series of very short (“for our 3 second Instagram attention spans”) videos in which the pair play out a series of archetypal Gold Coast experiences, such as applying sun-screen on each other and pulling the under tucked fabric out of the bottoms of their swimmers.

The videos are short and punchy, with exaggerated sound effects that add to their humour. They are accompanied by short texts, sometimes a single sentence, to be read in conjunction with the visuals. “So we started with play, but offered a deeper message if you searched for it.” Milford notes. These affectionate and playful vignettes of Gold Coast life can be understood as a love letter to Milford’s adopted city.

view the works here