Six young and innovative artists have been selected for the inaugural Anne Landa Exhibition and Award - the first award exhibition in Australia for moving image and new media work.
The award has been established in honour of Anne Landa, a Trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales who died in 2002. This is the first in a biennial series of exhibitions, each with an acquisitive award of $25,000.
Initiated by Anne Landa's daughter, Sophie, and Edmund Capon, Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the award acknowledges her exceptional support of the visual arts in Australia. "Anne was a woman of great passion, energy and courage. This award honours a truly remarkable Australian who was a great supporter of the arts in this country," said Edmund Capon.
A panel comprising Juliana Engberg, Director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Edmund Capon and Wayne Tunnicliffe, Curator of Contemporary Australian Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, selected the six artists whose work is represented in this exhibition. "We chose some of Australia's most innovative younger artists working with moving images for this first exhibition. The exhibition includes videos, DVDs, animations, and digital media. While the art ranges from the low-tech to the high-tech in approach, all of it reflects on the vital role of screen culture in shaping our lives."
Van Sowerwine's engaging animated girl invites us to play with her at a tea-party. As you interact with her screen image she responds to your suggestions, but playtime unfortunately becomes sinister as each decision you make on the doll's behalf has consequences. David Rosetzky'sUntouchable we look into three rooms whose inhabitants speak about an emotionally charged experience that is preoccupying them. confessional videos consider how we represent our lives to ourselves and how our experience of self is affected by relationships with others. In
A subtle politics infuses Peter Hennessey's digital animation of the Voyager space probe and soundtrack of messages recorded for anyone in outer space who may encounter the voyager, greetings from earth to aliens. Guy Benfield constructs room environments and in a mock-ironic reprise of 70s performance art, he pours, splashes and rolls around in paint to make visceral, humourous, sexually charged art works recorded on video and played back in the final gallery installation.
Craig Walsh's projections of surprising images onto the Gallery's architecture confuse what the mind knows and what the eyes sees. A poetic beauty haunts Shaun Gladwell's low-fi videos of skateboarders, bike riders and break dancers as they take ownership of urban spaces, even momentarily, suggesting alternate ways in which we can we can live in a highly regulated physical environment.
"The exciting thing about the Anne Landa Award is that it will bring new faces, new work and new possibility into the Art Gallery of New South Wales. I can't think of a more true and fitting tribute to my mother. She was such a vibrant and passionate supporter of the arts and just loved encouraging new ideas. I know that she would think this award was pretty fabulous," said Sophie Landa.
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18th jan 2005
It was announced at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney today that Melbourne artist David Rosetzky is the recipient of the inaugural Anne Landa Award for moving image and new media work.
For winning this Award, David Rosetzky receives $25,000 and his work, Untouchable, is acquired for the Gallery's collection.
David Rosetzky's video considers how we represent our lives to ourselves and how our experience of self is affected by relationships with others. In Untouchable we look into three rooms whose inhabitants speak about an emotionally charged experience that is preoccupying them. Each speaker narrates the thoughts that seem, at least initially, to refer to the other person in the room with them. The relationship between the protagonists becomes increasingly ambiguous, however, as speakers on different screens start to say each other's lines. The title Untouchable echoes their inability to connect with each other, while also suggesting the viewer's uncertain relationship with the screen characters. This distance reflects one of the paradoxes of globalisation: the tension between our contemporary drive to individualism and the desire for communality, for a sense of meaning achieved through belonging and interrelationships.(1)
Commenting on winning the Anne Landa Award, David Rosetzky said:
Aged 34, David Rosetzky's work was most recently represented in the 2004 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Contemporary Photo-Media at the Art Gallery of South Australia, and in Living Together is Easy which was shown at Art Tower Mito, Japan and at the National Gallery of Victoria. In addition to his art practice, David lectures in the Photography Department at the Victorian College of the Arts and is an Education Outreach Presenter in the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art's Outreach Schools Program.
"I am very excited and appreciative about receiving the Anne Landa Award. To have a video installation in the Art Gallery of New South Wales' collection is a great honour. The award will enable me to further develop my practice as I plan to use the prize to buy equipment and time in the studio to work on new projects. I am very thankful to Sophie Landa in initiating this award and exhibition with the Art Gallery of New South Wales as it helps raise the profile of contemporary new media art in Australia and also provides artists with much needed opportunities and support."
from agnsw
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