GRETEL TAYLOR
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  • performance
    • Restless
    • A Blind Date with Blind Creek
    • Mountain to Mouth
    • Freak of nature
    • Divining Melbourne
    • Dances with Lyrebirds
    • Body of Water
    • Material Girl
    • Settling In/ It's MINE!
  • Video
    • Trespass
    • Scourge
    • Plateau
    • Hearth
    • Encroach
    • Still Landing
  • Curated projects
    • Dancing Place: Corhanwarrabul
    • Poetics of Home
    • Dancing Between Two Worlds 2019
    • Force of Nature 2018
    • Dancing Place Wyndham 2016-17
    • Curtain Call, Glenorchy 2015-16
    • Flash Frogs! 2015
    • Scarecrows of Wyndham Vale 2014
    • Southern Ngalia 2009>
  • TEACHING
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FLASH FROGS!

The presence of multiple frog species in the wetland environs of Wyndham indicates ecological balance and wellbeing. We took this as a positive symbol to celebrate living in this place. ‘Flash mobs’ have become a well-known form of fun and surprising creative expression-a group of people turning up unannounced in a public place and doing a synchronised action or dance. So… Flash Frogs was a group of Years 2 & 3 kids dressed as frogs arriving at three sites around Wyndham and surprising pedestrians by performing an energetic leaping dance to music, to celebrate living here and promoting a positive sense of place identity. Gretel Taylor choreographed and taught the frog dance (to 'Popcorn' by Hot Butter) to Southern Cross Primary students and orchestrated the site-based performances.

Flash Frogs was the arts component of ‘Growing Together’, the Gardening and Healthy Eating Program to create a sustainable vegetable garden at Our Lady of the Southern Cross Primary School, which was delivered by Shoestring Gardening, The Smith Family and McCaughey VicHealth Community Wellbeing Unit, University of Melbourne, in Term 1 2015. The project was supported by a City of Wyndham ‘Healthy Together’ grant.


Flash Frogs was an Art and About project as part of ARC Discovery research 'Challenging Stigma' led by sociologist Deborah Warr through Centre for Health Equity, University of Melbourne.  Gretel was employed as Artist/Research Fellow from 2014-17 and evolved a site-responsive social practice approach to challenge place-based stigma, develop a sense of belonging and inclusion within neighbourhoods and present nuanced perspectives of a place to outside audiences.  Gretel had long-term residencies in Wyndham (Victoria) and Hobart, in which she engaged groups of residents in Art and About projects reflecting upon their neighbourhoods and creating collaborative artistic outcomes.


​Photos by Rahima Hayes
BodyPlaceProject is based on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people in Corhanwarrabul/Dandenong Ranges and Narrm/Melbourne, and undertakes work in many other locations. We pay deep respect to First Nations elders past and present, who have listened to Country and danced, sung and told stories in and about their places for millennia, to share knowledge and to care for Country and people. ​
​They are the first site-specific artists!
  • Home
  • About
  • Current
  • performance
    • Restless
    • A Blind Date with Blind Creek
    • Mountain to Mouth
    • Freak of nature
    • Divining Melbourne
    • Dances with Lyrebirds
    • Body of Water
    • Material Girl
    • Settling In/ It's MINE!
  • Video
    • Trespass
    • Scourge
    • Plateau
    • Hearth
    • Encroach
    • Still Landing
  • Curated projects
    • Dancing Place: Corhanwarrabul
    • Poetics of Home
    • Dancing Between Two Worlds 2019
    • Force of Nature 2018
    • Dancing Place Wyndham 2016-17
    • Curtain Call, Glenorchy 2015-16
    • Flash Frogs! 2015
    • Scarecrows of Wyndham Vale 2014
    • Southern Ngalia 2009>
  • TEACHING
  • cv