Screen-sational exhibition at Deakin

With works spanning across four decades, Portarlington’s award-winning filmmaker and video artist David King is currently exhibiting at Deakin University’s The Project Space.

King’s experimental film and video pieces from 1975 to present are screening as part of The Project Space’s Screened exhibition from 10am until 4pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

King’s works include the globe-trotting Dystopic Overload, the award-winning EXIT and Expunged from Collective Memory, the US cable TV-screened Apocryphal Journey, the Geelong After Dark-commissioned To The End of Time, and the historic Infatuation.

Dr Sean Loughrey from Deakin University said the current exhibition highlights a small selection of experimental screen-based work, both locally and internationally.

“The exhibition presents six screen-based artists who explore the realm of the image, in time and space. The work is, in a sense, about film or the filmic, often noticeably “cosmic” and yet tangible, eluding to its own physicality,” Dr Loughrey said.

“This is the first time most of the works have been presented in a gallery context, in Geelong, and offer the viewer a glimpse into what might be considered, “expanded cinema/s” as defined by Tate Gallery.

“The term was coined in the mid ‘60s by US filmmaker Stan Van Der Beek; when artists and filmmakers started to challenge the conventions of spectatorship, creating more participatory roles for the viewer.

“They chose to show their works, not in cinemas, but in art galleries, warehouses and in the open air, and invented different ways of experiencing film through multiscreen projections.”

Dr Loughrey said the work by Victoria Armytage, Dirk de Bruyn, Basak Demirbaş, Faiyaz Jafri, Mike Hoolboom and Mr King embrace an innovative approach.

“An approach in which the preconceived viewing of images is challenged, disrupted and subverted. The work of local artists Victoria Armitage and David King both utilise sites in and around Geelong, in both digital and analogue formats,” he said.

Mr King said it was a fantastic opportunity for the Geelong and Surf Coast to see six artists present a diverse range of media-based work, including digital, analogue and installation pieces.

“It’s a rare occasion when people from Geelong and the Bellarine region can view experimental films and digital art from international practitioners.

“It’s also the first time so much of my work has ever been seen in Geelong where I grew up.”

The Screened exhibition will run until August 31 at The Project Space located at Deakin University’s waterfront campus, cnr Cunningham St and Western Beach.