Drawing on the NSW Police Department’s photographic archive, Street X-Rays interprets approximately sixty crime scenes from the 1950s, to evoke the power of the continuing life of the past in our ordinary, everyday places.
The police images are placed beside contemporary footage recorded in the same location, from the same camera position. Each screen holds two moments in time, two disparate attempts to interrogate a location. Texts from police records and the artist’s enigmatic narrative prompts punctuate this essentially visual dialogue. The effects of time linger in each scene and across the entire imaginative space of this half-historical/half-mythical city that is evoked in the installation space.
I’ve tried to conjure a place that’s haunted by persistent little pulses of history. I hope viewers feel as if they’ve wandered into a vaguely familiar ‘otherworld’ that’s being buffeted by a kind of ‘spirit weather’ - Ross Gibson.
Taken from PROOF exhibition 2004
Related events
Content notification
Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.
Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Previously on display
13 February 2005
ACMI Screen Gallery
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
B1006595
Subject category
Digital Art
Sound/audio
Audio Format/Stereo
Colour
Colour
Object Types
Installation
Materials
5 channel video, colour and sound