A rafting tribute

Tuesday 19 October 2010, 2:16 PM
By The Team | Posted in Places

When Theodore Gericault painted his famous Raft of the Medusa back in 1818, he had to do a lot of leg work to find ways to recreate the anguish, horror and despair of this nautical disaster and national disgrace. (When French ship The Medusa sank, 149 people aboard a makeshift raft endured two weeks of storms, starvation, insanity and cannibalism. Only 10 survived.)

Today we don’t need – as Gericault did – to visit hospitals or morgues to see what suffering and death look like. If we want to know, we can find images of pain with the click of a remote or a mouse. And then, if we don’t like what we’re seeing, we can click again and try and move on.

Bill Viola’s video and sound installation, The Raft, forces you to look, really look, at pain, struggle and despair.

In real-time, the events of The Raft would be over in moments. Viola’s use of extreme slow-motion forces you to understand that disasters endure long past the moment when we, the observers, choose to look away.

In The Raft, ordinary people are doing an ordinary thing – waiting in a line – when chaos is thrown upon them. A sudden onslaught of water batters the group, some resisting, some succumbing to the deluge.

We watch, in elegant and relentless detail, the struggle of individual people against a random but overwhelming force. The work evokes thoughts of international disasters: tsunamis, floods, fires and wars. But it also evokes thoughts of more individual disasters – illness, accidents and loss – and how we each, ultimately, endure these alone.

In the aftermath of the deluge, we’re faced with a group of battered and despairing people, some howling in pain and confusion, some slumped in misery, others already trying to make sense of what has just happened to them.

Artist Bill Viola describes the work as ‘an image of destruction and survival’ – but to me it’s no ‘feel-good movie of the decade’. Instead, it  is honest, brave and off-puttingly beautiful.  Much like the original painting that inspired it.

Bill Viola’s The Raft screens at ACMI until Sunday 20 February 2011. It opened in Melbourne as part of the Melbourne Festival.

Bill Viola
The Raft, May 2004
Video/sound installation

Room dimensions: 30′ x 23′ x 14′ (9 x 7 x 4 meters)
Color high-definition video projection on wall (396.2 x 223 cm) in darkened space; surround sound system
Performers: Sheryl Arenson, Robin Bonaccorsi, Rocky Capella, Cathy Chang, Liisa Cohen, Tad Coughenour, Tom Ficke, James Ford, Michael Irby, Simon Karimian, John Kim, Tanya Little, Mike Martinez, Petro Martirosian, Jeff Mosley, Gladys Peters, Maria Victoria, Kaye Wade, Kim Weild, Ellis Williams
Photo: Kira Perov

The art of thinking positively

Friday 15 October 2010, 9:39 AM
By The Team | Posted in Events

Are these spring showers getting you down? Pop over to No Vacancy Gallery in QV over the next couple of days for a pick-me-up of A1 poster proportions.

Thirty is an exhibition of the finalists in the 2010 Positive Posters competition. Each poster has been chosen for its ability to inspire the viewer to think positively.

It’s the second year for the not-for-profit Positive Posters competition and it seems the good vibes from last year’s competition and exhibition have spread far and wide -  this year there were more than 1500 entries received from artists representing 70 countries across the world.

So if you have a thing for type, a fascination for font and love colourful art that makes you smile, make sure you pop into No Vacancy Galley for a good healthy dose of positive thinking.

While you’re there, see if you can spot this year’s winning entry by Jesse Mallon called Turn that Frown Upside Down (tip: you might need to stand on your head and use a mirror). Jesse’s poster will be printed and posted across Melbourne’s streets and be sent around the world in a gesture to remind us to keep our glasses half full.

‘Thirty’ by Positive Posters is on at No Vacancy Gallery, 34 – 40 Jane Bell Lane in QV until Tuesday 19 October.

Photos from the launch

gn

Best of the Melbourne Fest – for free!

Wednesday 6 October 2010, 2:56 PM
By The Team | Posted in Events

The Melbourne International Arts Festival is back and it can only mean one thing: the city will be set alight with a creative fervour for all arts lovers to enjoy, whatever their budget or passion. We’ve pulled out some of the best free options for MIAF 2010 for you to enjoy.

Opening the festival, and on until 10 October is the astonishing K@osmos, a 21st Century aerial theatre show.  The dynamic visual spectacular K@osmos is brought to you by Argentinean production company Grupo Puja! and combines theatre, circus, dance, aerial sport, architecture, engineering, multimedia and music in a performance that is out of this world.

Those pondering their own existence will love MORTALITY, a visual journey from the cradle to the grave at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.  The free exhibition is curated by Juliana Engberg to reflect the Festival’s visual arts themes of spirituality, death and the afterlife by some of the world’s leading artists.

If you’re wanting to sneak a peek into the minds of the artists involved in this year’s Festival, the daytime Melbourne Festival Artists In Conversation could be for you.  An intimate series of discussions held at BMW Edge in Federation Square will leave you inspired by the diverse imaginations of some of the world’s most creative minds, from Melbourne Festival director Brett Sheehy, through to songwriters from Seven Songs to Leave Behind.

Or if it’s a digital post-modern experience you’re after, venture to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image to revel in Bill Viola’s The Raft.  This video homage to The Raft of the Medusa by French Romantic painter Théodore Géricault is recorded in high-speed film and described by the artist as “an image of destruction and survival.”

At the end of an illuminating day of artistic discovery, take a dazzling journey from the NGV to the Forum and let the Halo project light up your night. Lighting designer Allan Parkinson brings the Festival precinct to life with a specially designed lighting project, flooding the space with a through a purple haze. From the footpath, to the trees, to the roofline, wherever you look you may discover exquisite lighting installations designed to bring some more spark to your 2010 Festival experience.

Melbourne International Arts Festival runs 8 – 23 October at a myriad of venues across the city.