Hard Anger of Love

Brisbane Powerhouse, 2017

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For Danielle Bentley’s Restrung Festival, the artist transformed three interior levels of Brisbane’s iconic Powerhouse into an interconnected web of parallel strings. Fraying violin bows and old string instruments were suspended in the belly of the stairwell above the auditorium and stretched down to the entrance where an old cello spilled out grey grandmotherly tresses down to the floor. The title was an ironic repurposing of the name of the traditional Hardanger fiddle, a stringed instrument from Norway that is very similar to the violin, though with eight or nine strings.