TETHER is a high-tension spatial intervention by artist Luke George in collaboration with lighting and spacial designer Phaenomenon. A long beam of hyper-natural lime green rope radiates from deep out in the bush, arriving at a central tree in the historic gardens of the Victoria & Albert Guesthouse. TETHER draws a striking, neon vector through the vast mountain sky, binding and connecting something beyond, to something here and now. Drawing on techniques from rigging, arborism and rope bondage, TETHER creates an intentional disruption, an interference pattern cutting across the vista to bridge the tamed garden with the untamed escarpment. Activated at night, the high-visibility lines transform into a glowing, pulsing current above the intimate energy of the Homohaus dancefloor below; a physical wave of colour and tension where every connection is visible,
Luke George is a multidisciplinary artist working across performance, installation, craft, curation and rope, based in Naarm/Melbourne. Using rope, tension, suspension and release, Luke examines how people relate to each other and their environment, informed by queer politics and an interest in spaces that hold both care and risk. Their practice extends "expanded choreographies" into communities — queering intercultural, intergenerational and interspecies relationships and reframing dance as reflexive practice rather than spectacle.
Luke's decade-long collaboration with Singapore/Berlin-based artist Daniel Kok has produced three widely toured works and ongoing translocal partnerships across Asia. Presentations include the Venice Biennale, National Galleries of Victoria and Singapore, RISING, Dance Massive, Liveworks, Rencontres chorégraphiques de Seine-Saint-Denis and Time Based Art Festival.
A multiple Green Room Award winner, Luke has been supported by Creative Australia, Creative Victoria, the Keir Foundation and the Betty Amsden Foundation, and has held four fellowships including a Creative Australia Fellowship (2019) and Chloe Monroe Fellowship (2022). A VCA graduate, Luke has held roles including Co-Artistic Director of Stompin Youth Dance Company, Co-Curator of First Run, Artistic Associate at Temperance Hall, and resident artist at Ace Hotel Sydney. Luke is currently a studio artist at Collingwood Yards.
Phaenomenon is a Naarm (Melbourne)-based lighting design wizard and spatial artist known for creating immersive stage environments, glowing architectural installations, and atmospheric audiovisual experiences.