AN Oakleigh artist has used video to give insight into works of art painted during early Australian settlement.
Last week, Shaun Wilson, a video arts lecturer at RMIT, received an $8000 Arts Victoria development grant for his work Uber Memoria X.
The work, which follows Dr. Wilson’s series Uber Memoria 1-1X, consists of 10 “video paintings” using paintings among moving backgrounds and actors.
“I’ve gone back to use the colonial paintings of artists such as Glover and Martens and will use actors and mates in costumes of the day to set the scene, which is significant as everything in the background is moving and projected on the wall.”
He said he was interested in how colonial artworks depicted “odd landscapes in the European context, where kangaroos look alien and gum trees look like oak trees”.
“[My works] will focus on Australian issues of memory and identity, especially colonial migration and its subsequent impact on relationships with re-claimed places. My intent is to create art with a sense of tension between art history, social displacement, and false memory.”
Dr Wilson will exhibit his works as a video installation at an In Transition Russia 2008 international exhibition at the National Centres of Contemporary Art Ekaterinburg and Moscow.
The $8000 State Government grant is part of $623,000 funding shared among 45 projects of Victorian artists, writers, photographers, dancers, and arts organizations.
