video image from I N V O C A T I O N

"But in certain areas, there will be certain periods, practices and meanings which are not reached for. There will be areas of practice and meaning which, almost by definition from its own limited character, or in its profound deformation, the dominant culture is unable in any real terms to recognise." (Raymond Williams, Problems in Materialism and Culture, quoted by Homi K Bhabha, Narrating the Nation) Charged REGION combines a thirty-thousand word thesis and studio work. The thesis examines the telecommunications environment of southeast asia, with particular reference to art and technology. It speculates on how technology-based creativity may emerge from this region, given current social, technological, political and economic trends.

The studio work consists of text-based works, billboards and multi-monitor video installations, variously exhibited at: the performance space and the australian centre for photography, sydney; the institute of modern art, brisbane; lawrence wilson gallery, perth; and the australian centre for contemporary art, melbourne.

These artworks examine the fragile relations between the viewer, the image, text and the subsequent construction of meaning, and ideas such as art, technology and science; australia's new imaginary, given its further integration into the asian region; the relation of the state to culture; and the construction of narrative coherence.

back