Anthony Pelchen

Having graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1991, Anthony Pelchen's work draws heavilly on landscape and involves painting, drawing, photography and installation.

He has exhibited three times in Japan, first in Takarazuka in 2000 with Osaka based calligrapher Hisako Tsuzuku, then in Osaka and Kawanishi City earlier this. year. Since 1999 he has collaborated a number of times with Melbourne based Butoh performer Yumi Umiumare, most recently in 2003 for Inori-in-visible in Copenhagen. Supported by Arts Victoria Cultural Exchange Grants, this project was initially presented in 2000 in Takarazuka, Japan for the 5th year memorial of the Hanshin Earthquake and then at Melbourne's Dancehouse, receiveing a Green Room Award nomination for Design for Dance.

Pelchen's interest in the potential for installation and performance to activate each other has also resulted in work with Yumi Umiumare and Tony Yap for their ongoing performance series How could you even begin to understand? At sunrise on April 1, 2001 they emerged from the dark to straddle his 2 square km Wimmera land installation and they performed last year in conjunction with a Pelchen/Hisako Tsuzuku installation at Melbourne's Mass Gallery.

Pelchen lives and works at his birthplace on the Wimmera River in north west Victoria. This extraordinary landscape site has evolved as a vital annex to Melbourne, hosting Umiumare and Yap's yearly Butoh Workshops since 2000.