The 3rd edition of the Channels Festival biennale will showcase new and exciting contemporary moving image by over 90 Australian and international artists in 14 events – including four new commissioned artworks by Australian women artists.
Channels Festival is the only festival in Australia dedicated to presenting video art and culture in a dynamic and inclusive festival of free exhibitions, screenings, workshops and international and online programs, 1 – 10 September 2017.
In 2017, Channels looks to the future in response to recent world events. This year’s theme ‘futures of’ invites video artists and collaborators to explore future selves, ideas, movements, perceptions, politics and technologies through their works using experimental and innovative mediums.
‘In the current political and social landscape, our imagined future state is often broadly speculated and debated within mainstream dialogue. This year’s artists responded with their interpretations of what this might be based on their current experiences, hopes and ideals, making us question whether we are destined for something utopian or perhaps something darker? We are incredibly proud of the artists and cutting-edge works featured at Channels 2017 and cannot wait to share the full program with the Melbourne community on Tuesday 25 July 2017’ says Artistic Director, Alicia Renew.
Program highlights include the group exhibition FUTURE TENSE presented at The SUBSTATION, Newport. Curated by artistic director, Alicia Renew and art historian Kate Warren the exhibition will launch Channels Festival 2017 on Friday 1 September at 6pm.
FUTURE TENSE explores positions in video art, which draft alternative visions for the future to establish histories which reflect on the present. Combining video art, installation and new technology, the exhibition connects speculative narratives as a means to explore contemporary politics, histories and national identity.
The exhibition includes a new commission by Wakka Wakka and Yargel artist Hannah Brontë. Umma’s Tongue-molten at 6000˚ is an intense exploration of the dystopia of modern society. The new video work will be accompanied by hand-woven armour crafted from human hair is an elegy for Mother Earth who, after laying dormant for thousands of years, wakes to find her womb fracked, poisoned and mined. Arising from the wreckage, wrought by humanity, Umma’s tongue-lashing rap speaks to the debris of this 200,000 years.
The video visualises the environmental destruction in relation to the female black body. [It asks:] What would Mother Earth say looking at how mistreated she has been for thousands of years? If Mother Earth were a rapper then this is her new music video’, says artist Hannah Brontë of her recent works.
Apparatus and Technique for Location-based Real-time Tracking and Analysis is a new work by Antoinette J. Citizen which explores her interest using data to access and predict patterns of behaviour. Citizen has been collecting data related to movements of the audience within the gallery spaces over the past six months. This information, comprised of time, location coordinates and directional movements – will be used to generate a hat map on the gallery floor, which will change in response to the audience’s movements throughout the exhibition.
Channels also presents the Australian Premiere of FutureClown by LA-based artist Rachel Mason. Politically driven, controversial and relentlessly provocative, Mason presents an alternative viewing of the inauguration of the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump. Dressed as a dystopian clown, the work was originally presented at LACE galleries in Los Angeles where Mason live-streamed the speech dressed as FutureClown and lip-synched the swearing in ceremony.
In a one-off performance, Sydney-based artist Caroline Garcia will perform Flygirl, a solo dance installation that reimagines herself with forgotten hip-hop routines from the 1990s. Retracing the choreography from by the all-female troupe of ‘Fly Girls’ from the 1990s US television series, ‘In Living Color’, Flygirl playfully touches on nostalgic sentiments and memories and explores the politics hip-hop culture.
A new Augmented Reality commission by Melbourne-based artist Kate Geck will lead audiences around the Newport’s retail precinct with a series of therapeutic mindfulness mantras triggered by interactive totems. A series of curated public programs will accompany the artwork.
At BLINDSIDE Gallery in Melbourne’s CBD, Channels presents an exciting new commission by Melbourne-based South Sudanese artist Atong Atem, continuing her ongoing interest and research into migrant narratives, postcolonial practices, and the exploration of self and identity through video and photography.
Alicia Renew has a diverse creative and professional practice as a curator, producer and artistic director. Alicia joined Channels Festival as Artistic Director in 2016, she was on the 2014 – 2015 Curatorial Committee for Channels Festival and Creative Producer-Exhibitions 2015. She is the Program Manager at Monash University Museum of Art and was previously Curator at MADA Gallery, where she curated over 80 exhibitions including Live in Your Head 2012 and The Social Live of Things 2012. She’s written and edited publications for National Gallery of Victoria, NGV Gallery Magazine, MADA Gallery, Craft Victoria and Trocadero.
