Angela Tiatia: The Dark Current

Angela Tiatia's lush new video work explores migration, femininity and the intersection of digital and physical realms.

Using a combination of videogame software and carefully crafted live-action scenes, Tiatia creates a hypnotic world where boundaries blur and perceptions shift. The work captures the dark and chaotic feeling of the current moment while unravelling the artist's connection to her matrilineage and Sāmoan culture.

Spanning three years and filmed in four countries, The Dark Current is Tiatia’s most ambitious project to date. For the first time, she lays bare her own image-making through unscripted scenes, blurring the line between reality and fantasy. The resulting work is a dream-like visual poem that skims the beautiful yet murky surface of Pacific myth-making to arrive at a hopeful vision for the future.

Angela Tiatia is the 2022 recipient of the Ian Potter Moving Image Commission. This is the latest work in a decade-long series of $100,000 Ian Potter Moving Image Commissions (IPMIC) for new moving image works by Australian artists.

The Ian Potter Cultural Trust was established in 1993 by The Ian Potter Foundation to encourage and support the diversity and excellence of emerging and early career Australian artists.