Brad Darkson: Old light (refraction)
Title:
- Old light (refraction)
Artist(s) and People Involved:
Exhibiting Artist(s):
Symposium:
- ISEA2019: 25th International Symposium on Electronic Art
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More artworks from ISEA2019:
Venue(s):
Medium:
- 60″, HD Video
Size:
- 192 x108 cm
Artist Statement:
The video work Old light (refraction) stems from research into different modes of knowledge and the time scales in which they are situated. Inspired by a news article linking scientific discovery and First Nations Australian oral history, this work distils a 1,200km journey taken by a cabbage palm seed some 30,000 years ago into a single minute.
In relation to the human inability to fully understand deep time, First Nations Bunorong/Kulin writer Bruce Pascoe states “sixty-five thousand years is forever”. This year’s theme for ISEA Lux Aeterna resonates with the concept of linkages between deep time and the present moment, as found in Old light (refraction). The work encompasses notions of solid and fluid, of static and motion, intimating the multiple ways knowledge is dispersed across space and time. By projecting onto large public spaces interstate and internationally, a temporal shadow of the work is briefly transposed onto the wall and witnessed in a fleeting moment in the bystander’s life.
