The Gods of Tiny Things

Australia, 2019

Deborah Kelly

Two-channel digital animation, colour, sound

ACMI Collection

Collage figures: Joanne Albany, Alana Ambados, Kate Andrews, Justin Ashworth, Kathryn Bird, Karen Golland, Amanda Holt, Deborah Kelly, Kath Lim, Lex Lindsay, Megan Rushton, Rie Tamaoke, Anna Tregloan

Artwork On display
Still from 'The Gods of Tiny Things', Deborah Kelly, 2019

This work is blessed by the powers of the animator, musicians and collagists. Having such creative collaborators is the treasure of my life.” – Deborah Kelly

The Gods of Tiny Things is a vast, microscopic Eden teeming with deities born from the pages of old magazines and encyclopedias, creating an exquisite collage of grotesque beauty and new mythologies. Combining the divine, mundane and profane, these celestial creations animate a kaleidoscopic symbology that explores extinction and the climate crisis, the scars of colonialism, and the political shift to the right around the world, while simultaneously revelling in the persistence of pleasure, desire and life. Created at ‘collage camp’ at Bundanon on beautiful Yuin Country, this collaborative work is a poetic and urgent warning.

Deborah Kelly is a Sydney-based artist whose works have been shown around Australia, and in the Biennales of Singapore, Sydney, Thessaloniki, TarraWarra and Venice. Her projects across media are concerned with lineages of representation, politics and history in public exchange, and practices of collectivity on small and large scale, both fleeting and durational. Her newest works experiment with models of sustained creative collaboration between strangers. Kelly’s moving image artworks have been shown around the world, in galleries, cinemas and projected onto rock formations, buildings and clouds.

Deborah Kelly discusses the delight of eviscerating encyclopedias for her work 'The Gods of Tiny Things'.

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Collection

In ACMI's collection

Previously on display

14 November 2021

ACMI: Gallery 3

Credits

artist

Deborah Kelly

Duration

00:05:25:00

Production places
Australia
Production dates
2019

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

Z000192

Subject category

Digital Art

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Colour

Object Types

Artwork

Moving image file/Digital

Materials

Two-channel, digital animation, colour, sound

Collected

666 times

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If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/119198--the-gods-of-tiny-things/ |title=The Gods of Tiny Things |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=8 October 2024 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}