Tasmanian musician Dean Stevenson is on the clock with his 4PM project at MONA.

Every day, Stevenson will write a new piece of music completely from scratch. He wakes up, sits down at the piano, and starts to compose: then at 4pm, whatever he has written is performed by a revolving roster of Tasmania’s finest musicians. Then, once performed, that day’s piece is filed away and he starts afresh.

Dean Stevenson

Dean Stevenson. Image supplied

Adding to the pressure is the fact that the entire process is open to the public: visitors wandering MONA’s galleries can watch on as Stevenson writes, as well as the resulting performance. What’s more, the 4pm performance is also being livestreamed through Stevenson’s own YouTube channel. The entire creative process is on display – typically a composer’s worst nightmare!

Jarrod Rawlins, MONA’s Director of Curatorial Affairs, says: “Dean’s creativity knows no bounds – so we thought we’d enforce some. I for one am looking forward to watching him suffer for his art while the clock counts down.”

Recently Stevenson took some time off from this rigorous schedule to answer some of Limelight‘s burning questions.

What attracted you to this project...