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| Michelle Blakeney, Jason Davidson and Jenny Fraser |
The project features artists
whose work focuses on the production of an inter-connected expression. The
intention is to facilitate an in-depth discussion to be shaped largely by the
online residency participants, but potentially covering notions such as:
non-linear storytelling, authorship, audiences, accessibility, new media
literacy and, the past and future potentials of online digital storytelling.
Three artists were
commissioned by artist/curator Jenny Fraser (QLD) to undertake online
residencies to research and develop new work and create a new web-presence.
Working from their own home states and territory, the artists, Christine Peacock
(QLD), Jason Davidson (NT) and Michelle Blakeney (NSW) have also engaged other
creatives. The Aboriginal writers that have been commissioned for the project
are Mary Graham (QLD), Ross Watson (QLD) and Peter Morin (Canada).
The Blackout Collective is a
group of creators from all over Australia who fluidly communicate and contribute
towards screen- based culture locally, across Australia, and internationally.
“Australia, in itself is a big brown land, so it is difficult for us to
maintain face-to-face contact even in our own country. It is important
professionally and spiritually for us to travel together, and engage with Native
Canadian artists at the festival, as we struggle in a very niche artform area in
our own country, and are usually excluded from mainstream new media
exhibitions” said Jenny Fraser.
The imagineNATIVE Film + Media
Arts Festival is an international festival in Toronto that celebrates the latest
works by Indigenous peoples on the forefront of innovation in film, video,
radio, and new media. Each year, the festival presents a selection of the most
compelling and distinctive Indigenous works from around the globe. The
festival's screenings, panel discussions, and cultural events attract and
connect film makers, media artists, programmers, buyers, and industry
professionals. The works accepted reflect the diversity of the world's
Indigenous nations and illustrate the vitality and excellence of our art and
culture in contemporary media.
Christine Peacocks
'LANDED' project has been selected for competition at the 14th
annual imagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival, and the blackout collective
will also present as a group, participating in a panel on new media arts, along
with attending other forums, screenings, meetings and industry gatherings. Landed has a focus
on
international conversation, using the
wisdom of local elders in South East Queensland to engage Aboriginal peoples in
a dialogue concerning concepts of sovereignty. “Three women, two Indigenous
and one non-Indigenous shared our skills to create the Landed website. Our focus
is not the production of excellence or innovation, we rather inspire continued
use of tools available to us, and interaction through conversation, to honour
our ancestors, each other, land and all her
creatures” said Christine Peacock, from Wolvi in
Queensland.
Michelle Blakeney presents a
new video work 'A lot of lost survivors' which features an historic photographic
collection for members of the Stolen Generation who were instituionalised at The
Bomaderry Aboriginal Children’s Home in New South Wales. “Aboriginal
families are only now recovering members from forced separations; photography
provides a link from the past to the present that is immediate and
powerful” said Blakeney.
The focus
for Jason Davidsons work is on chem trails, which are the chemical footprints
that are left in the process of geo-engineering. Titled The Chemtrail Phenomenon, the
project leaves the viewer with questions about the various chemtrails in the ACT
and Northern Territory where he is based.
Jason Davidson says of his artwork “The chemtrail phenomenon, is my documentation
project, a contribution that is aimed at helping to educate the community about
chemtrails and the importance of respecting our
planet.”
This is the first year that a group of Indigenous New Media artists have toured to the imagineNATIVE festival but fundraising for the project
began in 2004 and over the years more inspiration and motivation came, when
Native Canadian artist curator Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskew invited Jenny Fraser to
contribute an online art project towards his curated project 'Storm
Spirits'. “Storm Spirits focuses on Aboriginal artists whose work
inhabits and maps out these intersecting spheres of influence and who contribute
unique forms of vitality to the dynamic and essential interplay between
Indigenous traditional knowledge and contemporary Aboriginal culture” said
Ahasiw in his curatorial essay, 2005. Ahasiw passed away before the project was
launched, but Frasers project 'unsettled' went onto receive an honourable
mention in the New Media category at the imagineNATIVE film and media arts
festival in 2007.
The project title is the
namesake of song lyrics by Yothu Yindi from the 1996 hit single
Superhighway. The recent passing of Yothu Yindi front man
Dr Yunupingu, and project writer Ross Watson, will be honoured when Superhighway
across the Sky is launched in Australia in 2014.
After the festival, Christine
Peacock and Jenny Fraser will travel on to the UK and present at the
Indigeneity.net conference in London. Titled 'In the Balance: Indigeneity,
Performance, Globalization', the conference takes place from 24–27 October
2013. Held at Trafalgar Square, the conference is in conjunction with two
international events: the Origins Festival of First Nations and a performance
based exhibition, Ecocentrix: Indigenous Arts, Sustainable Acts and an extensive
film programme is also included.
Links:
imagineNATIVE Film and Media
Arts Festival http://imaginenative.org
blackout collective website:
http://blackoutcollective.blogspot.com.au
jenny fraser http://cybertribe.culture2.org/jennyfraser
unsettled can be found at this
link: http://cybertribe.culture2.org/unsettled
indigeneity.net conference
http://www.indigeneity.net
contact:
