Helpful links
The new moving image work will be exhibited at ACMI until 4 February 2024, with free entry for all visitors.
Australian and Sāmoan artist Angela Tiatia uses performance, moving image, painting, sculpture, and photography, to explore contemporary culture, drawing out the relationships between representation, gender, neo-colonialism and the commodification of body and place.
The Dark Current, Tiatia's most ambitious project to date, continues this dialogue. The single-channel video opens with a close-up shot of a pink linen dress embroidered with hibiscus flowers. While dark currents of water lap gently in the background, the camera slowly pans across the wearer's body to reveal a glamorous, serene woman with a pearl placed in the corner of her eye.
Tiatia describes this opening scene as an allegory of the promise that lured her mother's generation to migrate from the Pacific Islands to the West in the 1960s.
Using a combination of videogame software and carefully crafted live-action scenes, Tiatia's The Dark Current creates a hypnotic world where boundaries blur and perceptions shift.
ACMI Director and CEO Seb Chan commented, "The Dark Current represents a major development in Tiatia's practice. For the first time, the artist combines live-action filmed content with animation created using software more commonly used in the development of video games. Editing these different types of content to create a singular narrative has pushed her practice into new territory."
The Sydney Morning Herald described the work as “A dreamy exploration of colonialism and climate change”.
Level 3, 111 Collins Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Australia
ABN: 65807851867
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present.