Spawn

New Zealand, 2021

Laura Duffy
ACMI + CIRCUIT Commission
ACMI Collection

Artwork ACMI commissions
Courtesy Laura Duffy

Spawn is a gift to those of us (so many of us!) who have been living through lockdowns. With the unwelcome mantle of ‘most locked-down city in the world’, Melbourne audiences were at the forefront of artist Laura Duffy’s mind when she created Spawn. Duffy mixes materials together like potions, encouraging audiences to consider texture through filmic spaces in which the natural and unnatural writhe upon one another – slipping, dripping, bubbling, congealing.

Responsive to a context of global pandemic mixed in with climate crisis, Duffy is moved by sentiments of kindness and generosity, inviting audiences into the ‘poetic, fun, fresh, flowery, camp and flirty’ world of Spawn.

The work reflects Duffy’s belief that materials are collaborative, complete with their own stories, histories and energies. The artist combines these materials to critique and shatter binary thinking of natural and unnatural as separate, instead embracing the complexity and blur of binaries. ‘How are we able to unleash from the constraints of “nature” to find new pleasures? A Post-nature embrace of all that is and will be, even if it’s toxic?’ Duffy questions.

Spawn is also a work about gratitude. A filmic study of death and transformation. As golden liquid pours over rotting, spinning fruits and flowers, Duffy encourages us to ‘say thank you and rejoice in transformation and transmutation.’

– Serena Bentley, Curator, ACMI

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Collection

In ACMI's collection

Previously on display

6 March 2022

ACMI: Gallery 5

Credits

artist

Laura Duffy

Duration

00:04:35:00

Production places
New Zealand
Production dates
2021

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

Z000194

Subject category

Digital Art

Sound/audio

Silent

Object Types

Artwork

Materials

Single channel video, colour

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/119746--spawn/ |title=Spawn |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=1 November 2024 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}