World premiere of new video work from celebrated contemporary artist Angela Tiatia set to open at ACMI this September
8 August 2023
World premiere of new video work from celebrated contemporary artist Angela Tiatia set to open at ACMI this September
ACMI, in partnership with The Ian Potter Cultural Trust, is delighted to present the premiere of The Dark Current, a new exhibition from Angela Tiatia - one of Australia’s leading video artists.
Exploring where digital and physical realms intersect, this single-channel moving image work stares unfalteringly into the impacts of promises left unfulfilled. The work’s visual narrative brings into focus a story of labour, culture and femininity. Both personal and global in outlook, it traces the promise of a glamorous, easy life that lured Tiatia’s mother and her generation to migrate from small islands to big cities.
The Dark Current will be exhibited 5 September – 12 November at Australia’s national museum of screen culture in Melbourne with free entry for all visitors.
The Dark Current is the final work in a decade-long series of the Ian Potter Moving Image Commission (IPMIC) for new moving image works by Australian artists, with $100,000 in commission funding awarded to New-Zealand born, Australian and Sāmoan artist Angela Tiatia.
Representing the most ambitious project of Tiatia’s career, this lush and futuristic vision signals a new direction from the Sydney-based artist. It weaves together meticulously crafted live action scenes with hyper-realistic animation made using software use in the production of videogames. The resulting work creates a dream-like visual poem that carries the audience through a range of moods.
Opening with a striking close-up of a glamorous woman with a pearl in her eye, The Dark Current seduces the viewer with its highly polished beauty but reveals the artifice of such idealised fantasy. The artist lays bare the construction of her own image-making and, for the first time in Tiatia’s work, breaks the fourth wall in a scene allowing the viewer to see the usually hidden production elements.
Artist Angela Tiatia said: "The Dark Current reaches for the essence of a multi-generational experience. One that starts with my mother’s generation, through to mine and on to the next generation. I am very honoured and privileged to work with my team who have unfalteringly supported me for many years. Thank you to The Ian Potter Cultural Trust and ACMI for awarding me this landmark commission. I have grown both personally and professionally and as a result have made a work that I am so very proud and excited to present."
ACMI Director & CEO Seb Chan said: "Over the past decade, Angela Tiatia has emerged as one of Australia’s foremost artists working with video. Her examinations of contemporary culture draw attention to the politics of representation, gender and new forms of colonialism. Together with The Ian Potter Cultural Trust, we are proud to premiere The Dark Current at ACMI and showcase this major development in her practice. It is a fitting time for this work to be showcased at our national museum of screen culture as we continue to celebrate groundbreaking women across ACMI’s programming.
Lady Potter AC, Trustee of the Ian Potter Cultural Trust said: "We are delighted that this work closes out the Ian Potter Moving Image Commission series. The Ian Potter Moving Image Commission has truly earned a place amongst Australia’s most prestigious and significant art awards."
Previous recipients of the Ian Potter Moving Image Commission (IPMIC) include Angelia Mesiti (The Calling), Daniel Crooks (Phantom Ride) and Gabriella Hirst (Darling Darling).
Join Angela Tiatia for an evening of film and conversation in an ART + FILM event which will include a selection of films drawn from over a decade of artistic practice on 17 October in ACMI’s Cinema 2.
Angela Tiatia: The Dark Current
5 September 2023 – 12 November 2023
ACMI, Gallery 3
FREE
ABOUT ACMI
ACMI is Australia’s national museum of screen culture. The museum reopened in February 2021 after a two-year, $40 million redevelopment – an architectural, programmatic and technological transformation. Navigate the universe of film, TV, videogames and art with us. ACMI celebrates the wonder and power of the world’s most democratic artform – fostering the next generation of makers, players and watchers. ACMI’s vibrant calendar of exhibitions, screenings, commissions, festivals, and industry and education programs explore the stories, technologies and artists that create our shared screen culture. More at acmi.net.au
ABOUT THE IAN POTTER CULTURAL TRUST
The Ian Potter Cultural Trust was established in 1993 by The Ian Potter Foundation to encourage and support diversity and excellence among emerging Australian artists. The Trust’s funding is governed by a commitment to excellence: it seeks to support individuals who are passionate about their work and have the potential to be outstanding in their field. The Trust’s main funding stream offers grants to assist early career artists of exceptional talent to undertake professional development, usually overseas. To date more than 1,750 artists have received grants totalling over $10.9 million. The Ian Potter Arts Commissions represent the Trust’s flagship award, complementing the main ongoing program of grants for individual artists. The Ian Potter Moving Image Commissions are the Trust’s third major commissions program, following Music (composition) and Sculpture.
ABOUT ANGELA TIATIA
Sāmoan and Australian, Angela lives and works in Sydney. Her practice explores contemporary culture through performance, moving image, painting, sculpture and photography, drawing out the relationships between representation, gender, neo-colonialism and the commodification of body and place. Often through the lenses of history, popular and material culture, the artist moves deftly in her compositions of still and moving image from pointed detail to satellite view addressing themes within power structures and how these impact the individual and their communities.
Angela Tiatia’s work is held in numerous national and international public collections including Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France; Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Australian Museum, Sydney; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; Australian War Memorial Museum, Canberra and the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Western Australia.
Tiatia was awarded the prestigious Ian Potter Moving Image Commission, (2021); Sidney Myer Creative Fellow (2019); Creative New Zealand Contemporary Pacific Artist Award (2018) and Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize (2018). Tiatia has been a finalist in numerous prestigious awards, including the Edinburgh Short Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival, Archibald Prize and Sir John Sulman Prize, and the John Fries Art Award.
Angela Tiatia is represented by Sullivan+Strumpf.
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ACMI Communications Team
media@acmi.net.au