We acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the Country on which the Art Gallery of New South Wales stands.

Projections #6: New Australian moving image – Cycle 1

By Ruby Arrowsmith-Todd, curator, film
A figure blurred by movement in front of wallpaper of orchids, the national emblem of Hong Kong.

Still from the unshakable destiny_2101

Cycle 1 is a showcase of innovative Australian moving image works by artists including Atong Atem, Chun Yin Rainbow Chan, Ruth Höflich, Nikki Lam, Leyla Stevens and Sancintya Mohini Simpson.

Held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on 30 May 2021 as part of our Projections series, this program explores a strand of contemporary moving image practice preoccupied with storytelling, speculative futures, and the radical reinterpretation of opaque histories. From a witchcraft trial in 18th-century Germany (Plant (879 pages, 33 days)) to folk tales of restless spirits on the island of Bali (Our sea is always hungry), these works reckon with forgotten pasts.

The artists in this program look beyond the gaps and distortions of official archives, forging new narratives from stories passed down intergenerationally, held in the body, and summoned in digital trawls. While many of these films take the form of a lament – for instance, mourning the ongoing legacies of colonialism and indentured labour in our region – their memory work unfolds across vivid, playful formal experiments.

From Nikki Lam’s 16mm ode to the swooning aesthetics of Wong Kar Wai to the ecstatic colour and costuming of Atong Atem’s video self-portraits, Cycle 1 expands the language of Australian artists’ moving image to recover suppressed histories and imagine horizons which may yet be.

Films

  • the unshakeable destiny_2101 (director Nikki Lam, 2021, 16mm-to-digital)

  • 魚文,鳥文 Fish song, Bird song (director  Chun Yin Rainbow Chan, 2020, digital)

  • Zero (director  Atong Atem, 2019, digital)

  • Plant (879 pages, 33 days) (director Ruth Höflich, 2020, digital)

  • Our sea is always hungry (director Leyla Stevens, 2018, digital)

  • beneath the skin is a layer of grief (that doesn’t belong to you) (director Atong Atem, 2018, digital)

  • Remnants of my ancestors (director Sancintya Mohini Simpson, 2019, digital)

A person wearing a bridal headpiece which partially covers their face. The background is a swirl of mangta and black.

Still from 魚文,鳥文 Fish song, Bird song, 2020

Video still of a field of plants and palm trees. The horizon is filled with smoke.

Still from Remnants of my ancestors

Video still of a volcanic rock peak layered over an image of the sea. A caption at the bottom reads "And a crocodile that no one saw".

Still from Our sea is always hungry

A video still depicting a folded dried insect body on a mauve background.

Still from Plant (879 pages, 33 days)

Still from Zero

Still from Zero

Still from beneath the skin is a layer of grief (that doesn’t belong to you)

Still from beneath the skin is a layer of grief (that doesn't belong to you)