Great Statue
Great Statue is a project by famed and acclaimed Boorloo-based artist Annika Moses (residing in so-called Perth, Western Australia). This weird-pop side project has always been a creative foil to her widely recognised folk indie project Nika Mo, which stands as a treasure of the WA scene and has earned high praise from critics local and national alike [receiving nominations for Best Folk Act and Most Popular New Act in the 2019 WAM Awards]. After years of live sets cementing the stone butch, drag-king performance-art pop-star character of Great Statue, 2023 finally welcomes the project’s first official digital release. This outrageous debut offers four EPs across four weeks, embodying Moses’ seemingly boundless creative vision, experimental spirit, and downright hard work.
Since 2018, Great Statue has frequently appeared around the usual Boorloo and Walyalup haunts. The Great Statue usually appears as a well-slicked, androgynous Laurie-Anderson-wannabe, lit from beneath by a cheap disco light, holding a bush chook in one hand, mic in the other: some strange karaoke performance of the classics you've never heard. Two ‘unofficial’ releases predate the back-catalogue liquidation — the single Clementin, contributed to the Inclusives compilation/remix album from women, trans- and non-binary gendered sound artists presented by Fair Play and Tsuku Boshi; the single twenty fifth was released by Rathe on a V/A album titled Impressions/Sequences in 2018, featuring contributions from each of the artists that performed at the first Rathe events (‘Impressions’ and ‘Sequences’).
Great Statue’s official debut presents itself with an immense diversity, character, and individualism rarely seen straight out of the starting blocks. Crossing between new wave, avant electro pop, and experimental ambience effortlessly it escapes definition, yet appears as strikingly as the stark silhouette of a stone carved figure. Playing hard and loose with the contradictions of lofty stardom and awkward intimacy, high drama and low fidelity, dead seriousness tied up in supreme goofiness, Great Statue’s debut releases stand as a hugely impressive artistic achievement, and is sure to be recognised as such by all those who experience it. And just when you thought four EPs in a month is more than one could hope for (or ask for), another 4-track awaits release in the second half of 2023.
Moses also lends their talents to a string of other local acts, such as post-punk favourites Didion’s Bible and pop-punk weirdos Lyndon Blue. She is a co-director of Boorloo experimental music label and organisers Tone List, and radio presenter for the programs Drivetime and Difficult Listening on community station RTRFM 92.1.
