Grounding

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BACKGROUND Through its high definition presentation of minute, hyper-particularised spaces, the video installation Grounding challenges both the idea that more information is more understanding, as well as the traditional 'realist' and 'naturalist' traditions of the moving image inherited from cinema and television. These languages of the moving image have played an important role in the collapse of space and time in the modern era and continue to do so in our global moment. CONTRIBUTION Grounding examines the materiality of the gallery space itself, providing a simple index of imagery examining the ground beneath our feet across three levels of the gallery. The audio, in a similar vein to the video, highlights the existing conditions of the gallery by amplifying the ambient sounds that we normally 'filter out'. The work highlights parts of the environment in which the organic and manufactured intersect, such as rats gnawing on insulation, spores caught as they blow in from ventilation shafts, and cracking floors as the building's foundations shift. Materially, the work utilises the enormous resolution offered by high definition video to image surfaces in great detail, revealing textures and spaces hovering on the border of visibility to the naked eye. In formal terms, this approach intersects with the tradition of abstraction - the refined minatue landscapes revealing the play of line, texture, volume, surface and space. Conceptually, it reflects the obsession of both consumers and producers with higher and higher resolution images. SIGNIFICANCE Grounding was displayed as part of the international exhibition 'Vantage Point' curated by Will Foster for The Substation Centre for Art and Culture gallery. The exhibition received funding from local and state government.