Naarm artist Georgia Banks discusses death and legacy in the digital age in the lead up to her theatrical debut

The funeral will be in procession this Friday and Saturday.

Across five years, Naarm-based performance art maker has been immersed in research that has seen her undergo a nine month gruelling audition process for reality television and create an AI version of herself with the alter ego Banks being banned from Tinder, sued by the estate of Hannah Wilke, and awarded Miss Social Impact in a national beauty pageant. She would like to go viral, break a Guinness World Record, and be in an actual episode of Black Mirror instead of making her own.

Now she’s curating her own funeral, all in the name of art.

Death Warmed Up

WHEN: FRI 19 – SAT 20 SEP

WHERE: PLATFORM ARTS, GEELONG

Keep up to date with all things arts, exhibitions and stage here.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Georgia Banks (@georgiaraebanks)

In her theatrical debut, Banks’ invites viewers onto the set of a fictitious, live-taped reality television show presented as an immersive dinner theatre event which sees amateur chefs vie for the opportunity to cater the funerals of public figures.

“Death Warmed Up is an imaginary reality television show. I’ve made a number of imaginary reality television shows but this is the first one that I’ve ever performed live and it is an imaginary reality television show from like a science fiction alternative reality where there’s a reality television show that exists that is about the food that is served at funerals of celebrities,” she explains. 

“It’s gonna be hilarious, there will be grub you should come!”

The commentary on Reality Television culture within Death Warmed Up accompanies to her current exhibition work on display at Platform Arts, Geelong titled Villain Edit, which brings together Banks’ most significant works, A Four Letter Word (2020), Remains to be Seen (2021), and DataBaes (2022-23), along with a publication of the same title. A culmination of her half-decade dive into the digital domain with Villain Edit, Death Warmed Up is the exhibition swansong.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Georgia Banks (@georgiaraebanks)

The research rose from Banks’ own obsession with her legacy in her death. What does legacy mean in a digital age? How has reality television and the rise of public figures steaming from these programs redefined legacy? It’s an existential crisis waiting to happen but thankfully Banks has taken one for the team.

“I think about death and exiting the world and legacy in the technological digital age so much. Maybe too much,” she laughs.

“I’ve been thinking about reality TV, Guinness World Records and things as shortcuts into having a public platform. I need to have a lot of attention and I think that the reason that people want that kind of attention is because it means that you know you won’t be forgotten when you die, so a lot of my work is about social legacy.”

Ironically, Banks’ will never know what her legacy is, as her work is only complete once she dies. 

“I’m concerned with my own legacy – it’s just that my own legacy is going to be that I made a lot of work about legacy,” Banks laughs.

“It can’t be completed until after I’ve passed away. It remains to be seen and so I approached legacy is almost a form of a parasitic social symbiosis, in that you need people to remember you in order to have a legacy, and so I am creating more that explores that in a very real way, in a way that directly influences and has agency.” 

It’s a lifelong pursuit but Banks’ intensive research and dedication to her practice is sure to leave a lasting impact.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by PLATFORM ARTS (@platformartsgeelong)

Death Warmed Up and Villain Edit are the primary presentations within Platform Arts un/scripted thematic which includes exhibitions, performances and public programs pertaining to the overarching theme. Un/scripted explores the contemporary identity and the mediated self—how we perform, edit, confess, and connect in digital spaces, with the curated experiences running until Friday 26 September. 

Death Warmed Up will be presented across two evenings at Platform Arts in Geelong’s arts and culture precinct on Friday 19 and Saturday 20 September. Whilst a little unorthodox in approach, Death Warmed Up is dinner and a show where death is in the details. 

To purchase tickets to attend the dinner and a show, head to Platform Arts website here.