Free Date / Frequency 9 May–2 Aug, 2026 Time 10:00 am - 5:00 pm Location Walyalup Fremantle Arts Centre1 Finnerty St, Fremantle WA 6160 Get directions Leyla Stevens is an Australian-Balinese artist who works within a lens-based practice. Add to calendar Learn more GROH GOH (Rehearsal for Rangda) re-imagines performance lineages surrounding the mythological figure of the Rangda; Bali’s queen of the graveyard and patroness of black magic. The story of Rangda and her alter incarnation, the legendary witch widow Calonarang, occupies a central role within Bali’s spirit cosmology, and frames a narrative around an undesirable woman as a dangerous and deviant social disrupter. Alongside her feared otherness however, Rangda is also conceived as a balancing force for spiritual order, and a powerful matriarchal protector. The film centres upon a matrilineal building and passing of knowledge around Rangda, channelling her presence through different bodies, performance genres and landscapes. Using bodily movement and vocalisations, GROH GOH repositions the mythical demon queen Rangda, positing her as a balancing force for spiritual order and as an empowering female force. GROH GOH proposes a matrilineal reshaping of Balinese art histories, as a counter to sustained colonial and touristic interpretations, and examines how these stories migrate and reconfigure in diasporic contexts. Accessing WFAC Djeran Season 2026: The Visual Story Image credit: Leyla Stevens, still from GROH GOH (Rehearsal for Rangda), 2023, Single channel film, 28 minutes.
