Paper Mountain ARI × FRINGE WORLD FESTIVAL – PEAKS 2019, Winner of the Independent Program. Artistic Director, Hannan Jones. Co-Producers: Pia Fruin Kelsey Douglas, Gok-Lim (角林) Finch and Hannan Jones.

PEAKS is a curated program of visual art, performance, and moving image, presented across multiple venues in Perth, Western Australia’s CBD, including Paper Mountain, City Arts Space, and Perth Cultural Centre Screen. Initiated by Paper Mountain, a Perth-based artist-run initiative with gallery, event space, and studios in Northbridge.

PEAKS 2019 offered a celebration of bold, risk-taking approaches to visual art and performance for FRINGE WORLD FESTIVAL, featuring a female-forward lineup of new and existing works. The program reflected and enhanced conversations on contemporary society, confronting the present while considering community and togetherness. Local, national, and international artists at all stages of practice contributed innovative, playful, and immersive experiences across disciplines.

Rolling Peaks, hosted on the Perth Cultural Centre Screen in collaboration with Perth Centre for Photography, Embassy Gallery (an artist-run initiative and international curatorial exchange), and Paper Mountain studio holders, presented daily montages of contemporary and archival exhibitions. These works explored moments where archives speak to the present, evoking layered histories and experiences.

PEAKS also encouraged serendipity through ‘Endless Answers’, a ballot-drawn selection of performances and exhibitions. The program provided a welcoming platform for experimentation, fostering a positive creative community, and challenging the status quo—ranging from intimate performances under a giant skirt to empowering portrait series of women and non-binary people of colour. PEAKS opened discussion, encouraged spectatorship, and invited immersive participation.

Paper Mountain and PEAKS existed on Whadjuk Nyoongar country. We pay respects to elders past, present, and future, and acknowledge that we are on stolen land. Sovereignty was never ceded. Paper Mountain stands with First Nations people in their fight for self-determination.

Sponsors: City of Perth, DLGSC Culture and the Arts, WA, and RTR FM 92.1