Unguided Tours: Anne Landa Award 2011

From Ha Jo Dae
(© Jae Hoon Lee,
Starkwhite, Auckland)

Mixing new technologies with art is still contentious territory, but contemporary lifestyles are often so centred on such technology that one must encourage its exploration. Any effort to recognise and reward artists who embrace such a challenge should also be applauded. That’s where Unguided Tours: Anne Landa Award for Video and New Media Arts 2011 becomes important.

The exhibition combines the concept of travel and the world of imagination, and the result is a revealing, as well as an entertaining synthesis of journeys and places. The works question the meaning of place, the means of travel, the traveller’s contribution and positioning within the journey, and pits destinations against the journeys themselves.

The Award was established in honour of Anne Landa, a champion of the arts and a trustee of the Art Gallery of NSW. A biennial award, it recognises visual art mediums, with a focus on film, video and photography, and also celebrates her appreciation of art that challenges the norm. The winner will not only receive a reward of A$25,000, but also have his/her work become part of the permanent collection of the Gallery, an exceptional honour itself.

The seven artists (both Australian and international), whose work is on display, include Ian Burns, Jae Hoon Lee, Charlie Sofo, Arlo Mountford, David Haines and Joyce Hinterding, and Rachel Khedoori. Together, they utilise video, sculpture, computer animation, digital photography, gaming and projection to produce their art.

From Orbit © Ian Burns

The works by Ian Burns carry a common theme: Deconstructing the mysteries, the glamour and the seriousness of travel, whether in space or on the road. In From Orbit, the use of do-it-yourself special effects makes the idea of space travel rather comic. 15 Hours V4 replicates the sights and sounds of air travel, while discount shop material in Well Read put a spanner in the cultural psychosis of most American road movies. Grandiose feelings of alienation, danger and escape seem trivial when faced with a small electric fan and a toy car. Making Tracks shows travelling the world in a toy Hummer, and evokes despair for the globe under those wheels.

Charlie Sofo has a collection of ten items on display, titled Fields that captures the sights and sounds of everyday in a fresh perspective, all discovered through walking. Ten Items Found in My Shoes is intriguing, while Cats brings a smile to many a face. Closed is a sad reminder of harsh economic times. Condom Map seem like digital mapping gone mad, but it’s rather telling of modern times and habits. It’s a collection that will make you pause and take account of the things taken for granted.

The Lament is a vibrant animation from Arlo Mountford, in his quest to bring digital life to historical paintings. This time, it’s the work of French Rococo artist Jean-Antoine Watteau. The paintings referenced are Pilgrimage on the Isle of Cythera, and its later version Pilgrimage to Cythera. Mountford continues the debate about the paintings (Are the lovers arriving or leaving?) and combines the two to create a new landscape. The lovers come to life and the cupids seem overcome with mischievous plans. The surround sound works beautifully (especially the child-like murmur of the cupids) to add to the mood of expectation and flirtatious romance.

From The Outlands (© David Haines and Joyce Hinterding, BREENSPACE)

Taking you on a more interactive journey are David Haines and Joyce Hinterding, with their work The Outlands. In a three-dimensional environment that uses the Unreal Engine 3 video gaming technology, a landscape is created, where the viewer can control the journey through control sticks. It is a landscape that takes you from the real and familiar to the illusory and make-believe, and lets you wander through buildings, deserts and forests. It feeds on your curiosity, surprises you with unexpected turns and gives you the freedom to travel at your own pace.

Rachel Khedoori’s untitled work opens up a world of green – the Australian forest. You are constantly expecting for something to jump out at you or for the camera to reveal something fantastical, but after a while you realise that the value of what you are seeing is the landscape itself. It’s a series of projections and reflections without end – just as a journey with no set destination. It’s an appreciation of the here and the now, but also holds something of that peculiarity you feel on too close an inspection of the familiar.

From Ha Jo Dae (© Jae Hoon Lee,  Starkwhite, Auckland)

My personal favourites were the works of Jae Hoon Lee. His digitally collaged photography is absolutely amazing. The wallpapers titled Ha Jo Dae 2 and Trekking 2 follow a 19th century tradition of producing wallpaper with exotic landscape patterns. The photographs are of remote regions in Korea and Nepal, and have been combined digitally. They confront you and amaze you with nature’s vastness and its beauty. Levitation is a video-based artwork of a seemingly endless stairway, representing the 108 steps leading up to a Buddhist temple. The repetition is meditative in quality, and the measured tolling of a monk’s bell adds to its calming effect.

Unguided Tours: Anne Landa Award for Video and New Media Arts 2011 is now on at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and will go on till Sunday, 10 July 2011. The exhibition is guest curated by New Zealand curator and author Justin Paton.

These tours are meant to make you lose yourself, and therein lies the greater discovery and the keener pleasure. They are not for the hot footed; instead they invite you to take your time, go off the beaten path and to take in your surrounds, together with a nod to the technology that gets you there.

THIS JUST IN: It was announced today that the Award has been won by David Haines and Joyce Hinterding for their work The Outlands. The selection was made by Edmund Capon, Director of the Art Gallery of NSW and Wayne Tunnicliffe, Head of Australian Art. Congratulations to Haines and Hinterding!