 Thrilled to be performing in my new solo performance work Why You Not Eat! Created in response to losing both parents within two years, Why You Not Eat explores how grief lives in the body, and the stillness it leaves behind. Anchored by the haunting memory of her father’s inability to eat, the work unfolds around the dining table of her parents’ home. Loke blends her familiar spectacle with the unexpected, absurd rhythms of family life. Seated at the table, food becomes both symbol and prop as she charms audiences with her feeding ritual, leaving them unsure of their role — guest, family, witness? Through the delicate acts of feeding and being fed, Loke guides us into moments of care that falter, endure, and hold both humour and sorrow. This is an intimate, playful work shaped by time: past pressing into present; present rubbing against grief. Developed in collaboration with visionary theatre maker Michelle St Anne (Artistic Director The Living Room Theatre Company), this hour-long performance is interactive and immersive. It takes the audience and guests at the dining table on an intimate journey through the inner and outer worlds of a daughter coping with grief as it transforms the ordinary daily life of a family, and how we find meaning and connection in the smallest of acts. Concept and performance: Lian Loke Dramaturg and director: Michelle St Anne Musician and composer: Liz Jigalin Duration: 1 hour Performance dates: 13th and 14th March, 2026 Venue: 21 Shepherd St, Marrickville, Sydney, Australia https://livingroomtheatre.org/events/why-you-not-eat/ Image: Liz Ham
 In rehearsal at 21 Shepherd. Image: Michelle St Anne I am feeling very blessed to have this rare opportunity to be Artist in Residence as part of the Living Room Theatre's Open Room program at 21 Shepherd St, Marrickville from November 2025 to March 2026. I am working closely with visionary theatre maker Michelle St Anne (artistic director of The Living Room Theatre) to apply her Composed Theatre methodology to the development of a new performance work Why You Not Eat. Through this process, we will expand the original 15 minute performance (initially created for Melaka Art and Performance Festival, Malaysia 2025) to a fully fledged theatre piece of 1 hour duration. This is new territory for my performance practice, expanding into using my voice and writing text. It is exhilarating to be learning and leaning into new creative modalities! Some written reflections on early development and presentation at The Festival of Death and Dying (Sydney, Australia, November 2025): https://livingroomtheatre.org/reflection-on-why-you-not-eat-performance/
Image stills from video documentation by Lindsay Cox of live performance at The Festival of Death and Dying
 Performing new work Alt-Text at S.A.M.P.L.E. for the first time! Should be a fun night at the Bowlo!
Let's call it a hatchling of an idea, inspired by AI mobile apps for assisting folk with low or no vision, accessibility screen readers and what rules AI uses to describe us. What could possibly go wrong! Concept Alt-Text. A person of indeterminate age and ethnicity is holding the phone handset in a telephone booth. Her mouth is open and painted with red lipstick. She looks over-dressed for making a free call. Lian Loke is a multi-disciplinary artist, based in Warrane/Sydney, working with the moving body as material. She likes to perform in non-traditional performance spaces to stir up the sediment, spirits and status quo. S.A.M.P.L.E. Curated by Alana Yee Petersham Bowling Club Sunday, 29th June, 6-8pm  Relishing a precious opportunity to make art in service of progressive visions for climate change and adaptation, in collaboration with the amazing visionary Colin Finn. Re-print of the event flyer by Committee of Sydney: Committee For Sydney presents Scenarios For Sydney, 1st April 2025 East Sydney, Rushcutters Bay, and Woolloomooloo are precincts rich in history, culture, and community life. However, they also face pressing challenges, from coastal erosion and housing affordability pressures to the complexities of urban renewal and supporting our most vulnerable. The question is not whether change will happen, but how we shape it. How can we how can we ensure that future development enhances, rather than erodes, the unique character and diverse communities that define these neighbourhoods? At last year's Sydney Summit, Colin Finn of Blue/Green presented a Big Idea - to Rewild Rushcutter's Bay. Join us for an event that checks in on how this Big Idea is progressing and invites urbanists, planners, social advocates, and community leaders—to present their own provocations, exploring what must be preserved, what should be reimagined, and what new opportunities we could embrace to create an inclusive, vibrant, and sustainable future for East Sydney. Speakers include:
Post-event performance: Critical Art Infrastructure Agnès Michelet, Artistic Director/CEO Critical Path - a short intro to what Critical Path is and how it is critical art infrastructure “Entangled” The ocean, a constant presence on the shores of Rushcutters Bay. A source of life and delight. A portent of destruction. As rising sea levels threaten human habitation, the shoreline becomes a contested threshold. How do we respond? Devisors: Lian Loke, Gideon Payten-Griffiths, Ira Ferris Performers: Lian Loke, Gideon Payten-Griffiths [end of event flyer] Text: Gideon Payten-Griffiths Silver mylar courtesy of Lucy Humphries In this second version of Entangled, we opted for a completely different approach. Whereas the first presentation was in the form of an immersive performance installation that created an atmosphere and narrative, given the constraints on time and access this time we decided to build the installation in real time as the speakers delivered their presentations in the Drill Hall. We acted as artist-hosts, inviting the audience into our working space, the home of Critical Path Choreographic Research Centre. We designed an orchestrated scenography that alludes to the sea (climate change) creeping up on us while we're busy living our lives! Throughout the speeches, we worked quietly in the background, manipulating silver mylar, safety mesh, sound and lights to build an environment around the seated audience. At the end of the talks, we took over and led the audience through a safety scenario inviting them to blow up the balloon taped under their seat. We culminated in a dance with the safety mesh, with Gideon singing the cryptic lyrics to Pennies From Heaven.  Photo credit: Stewart Monti
 Entangled (Kogerah Scheming) performance Performers and devisors: Lian Loke, Ira Ferris, Gideon Payten-Griffiths 6.30pm dance performance in Drill Hall within installation by Lucy Humphries. As part of Kogerah Scheming – Reimagining Rushcutters. UTS STUDIO, Masters of architecture EXHIBITION 12th December, 2024 The Drill Hall 1C New Beach Rd, Darling Point Our civilisational polycrisis demands that the world, and the ways we make our place within it, transform, like it or not. This coming crisis was explored by unsettling a dense harbourside site, predicated by changes in climate, culture and oceanic constants. Tom Rivard, Melissa Neighbour, Colin Finn, Pouné Parsanejad and the other collaborators invite you to view and discuss this important work, amplified through the lens of art and dance.  Photo: Rehearsal at Readymade Works, Ultimo.
Video courtesy of Readymade Works Celebrating 10 years of Readymade Works with a 10 hour dance marathon. 40 dancers, 12 minutes each.   Photo by Finton Mahoney In a parallel world dreaming of merging between species, a new creature is discovered. Plucked out of its natural habitat, it feels the curious gaze of the scientist closely examining a specimen. Video artwork by Lian Loke and Paul Warren. Live performance by Lian Loke and Michaela Davies. FEM-me exhibition, Bankstown Arts Centre  Photo by Kristina Mah
 The Exotic Fruits Lab is a collaboration between Lian Loke and Kristina Mah. Through this week-long immersion, the artists explore and experiment with movement, the body, and image to question identity and transformation. The lab will incubate the development of “Exotic Fruits”, a durational performance taking place at Melaka Arts and Performances Festival in Malaysia, on August 31, 2024.
As Westernised children of South-East Asian migrants, we are caught between worlds. Our parents sought to assimilate into their adopted country, rejecting Asian traditions and superstitions for new found freedoms. Yet we long for deeper connection with our lost cultural heritage, beyond an obsession with the exotic. In this performance we create our own rituals of acceptance and integration, drawing on nostalgic childhood memories of food and festivals. We notice and listen to our embodied narratives and uninitiated understandings of cross-cultural identities, language and meaning. We question and converse through playful rituals drawing on the absurd as ways to reconnect and converse with our broken lineages, with broken language. Asking ourselves the perplexing question, am I a banana or an egg, or something in between? Supported by 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art 4a.com.au/events/the-exotic-fruits-residency Thrilled to be performing in an art-science collaboration with Dr Elena Knox (Waseda University) and Garth Knight as part of the Koganecho Bazaar, Yokohama, Tokyo. Performance date: Saturday, 28th September 2019 Fabrication team: Abhiruchi Chhikara Susana Alarcon Heartfelt thanks to Ruchi and Susana for their incredible work on the lasercutting, 3D printing and assembly of the shrimp tail and electronic led fibreoptic feelers, and Maya Petrovna for helping me make the headpiece.  |
