From Andrew Frost…
At some point in the last half-decade more and more artists began taking their video cameras into the countryside and to points far from the city and their studios, to capture the majesty of the Australian bush, deserts and mountains. Artists such as John Gillies, John A. Douglas and the Mangano Sisters have taken the local landscape into their work and benefited from the dramatic sublime conjured in these unique locations.
Cate Consadine’s Cut Colony at the Art Gallery of NSW’s Contemporary Projects space is another work in this tradition and, much like her peers, she uses these settings as the backdrop to eerie performances. Cut Colony divides its action into two screens – on one a naked female dancer performs a series of fouettés on a barren plain, while on the other screen two men stand in the water at the edge of a lake, dead trees and cloudy sky behind them. The dramatic counterpoint of the looping sequences is made all the more powerful for their setting.
Until January 6
Art Gallery of NSW, The Domain.
Pic: Cate Consandine, Cut Colony II (lap) 2012, video still. Image courtesy the artist and Sarah Scout, Melbourne.
