BIOS - INFERA | Amy Vowles, Piper Mae & Beetle Miyela

Image: Riculev

‘Would you like to choose a card?’

As I sat on a bean bag amongst a crowd smelling distinctly of weed and Gucci Bloom, projectionist and creative Amy Vowles offered me a spread deck of cards. I pulled “Birth”, and it was promptly explained to me that the work is broken up into four acts, with Birth being the first. This house-party-tarot-pull energy served as the perfect introduction for BIOS - INFERA, a work that is as big in scope and concept as it is intimate in practicality.

BIOS - INFERA, or ‘Life Below’, is billed as ‘...a meditative performance, journeying into the unseen worlds below’, pulling thematically from eco-feminism, climate reflection, and human vulnerability. While these may seem like heady, vague concepts for a work that is predominantly movement-based, with no sound outside of live scoring by musicians Julia Beiers & Adrian Diery, and with vocalisations by performer Beetle Miyela, BIOS - INFERA absolutely managed to sell me this vision. Patient, evocative, and full of heart, this is one of the most beautiful pieces I’ve had the privilege of sitting with in a long time.

Though the work was set back by about 30 minutes due to technical issues with audio, the live scoring by Beiers & Diery was absolutely worth the wait, and instrumental to the work functioning in the way that it did. What started as simple and soft guitar and bass evolved into looped and distorted soundscapes, enveloping the audience with a warmth that tied the work's four acts together. At times evoking bird chirps or whalesong, this soundscape felt naturalistic in a way that tied perfectly with the open-air setting. While pre-recording could have helped in avoiding technical issues, it was the live nature of the score that made it as impactful as it was. Moving in perfect time with the physical performers, Beiers & Diery’s work felt active and alive - a genuine character in and of itself.

With some clear influence from butoh, the performances from Beetle Miyela, Yuki Taniguchi, and Piper Mae were genuinely breathtaking. Slow, meditative movement transitioned into frenetic attempts to escape or dejected acceptance of status quo in a flash, all sold perfectly by the performers. At times imperceptibly slow, I found that these performances forced me to focus on the work with an intensity that I may not otherwise have given it. There is something to be said for the experience of sitting in open air amongst the eucalypts, watching performers softly ebb and flow under lace netting, with no expectation of a shift in action any time soon. Noticing intricacies in movement and subtle shifts in breathing during moments of perceived stillness became a crucial part of my viewing experience, absorbing me into every move occurring in front of me.

BIOS - INFERA is a work that is simultaneously in harmony and at odds with its environment. Cricket sounds and birdsong interrupted the work just as often as the sounds of planes and nearby suburban shouting. While these interruptions would normally take me out of a work, I found myself feeling drawn further in, entranced by the idea of BIOS - INFERA as an ephemeral experience occurring outside and within all that was happening in the world. Both built into and responding to its space, I got the distinct impression that I would not be seeing anything else like BIOS - INFERA any time soon, and certainly nothing executed to the same level of quality.

I couldn’t confidently tell you what BIOS - INFERA was strictly “about”, aside from the description given by the artists themselves, but I can tell you what it made me feel. The work is patient and meditative, never feeling like it has to speed up to match pace with modern attention spans. I was reminded of my experiences growing up backing onto bushland, walking barefoot surrounded by birdsong and the breathing of trees. I haven’t felt quite so small in a long time, and BIOS - INFERA gave me the same feeling of cosmic insignificance in the best way. It’s a work that is best experienced for yourself, and I encourage anyone reading to pursue attendance at its next showing.

BIOS - INFERA plays at The Amphitheatre, Seven Hills Hub on Friday 10th & Saturday 18th of October 2025.