The artists in this exhibition consider what it means to transform the self into another persona – as a doppelganger, a karaoke performer, an avatar, a robot, or as a fantasy alter-ego. To fantasize about another life is part of human nature. At one time or another, we have all yearned to be someone other than ourselves.
We are living in a digital era, and, as such, we have opportunities to not only imagine but also realise what it means to be someone other than ourselves. The artists in this exhibition consider the following questions: How can we be both the self, and an other at the same time; both a self, and an out-of-body split self? What is lost and what is gained in such double visions? What is imagined and what is realised?
This reinterpretation of the self has political and cultural consequences. On the one hand, it is a way of accessing our alter-egos. At another level, it also strikes at the meanings of what it is to be different. We cannot really understand the ‘other’ until we acknowledge that we are all comprised of many selves. As such, this exhibition reaches beyond the identity politics that was the focus of many exhibitions and critiques in the 1990s. It suggests that identity can shift.
The 2009 Anne Landa Award takes a different format to the two previous awards. This year Victoria Lynn is the guest curator.
Background to the Anne Landa Award
The Anne Landa Award was the first biennial exhibition in Australia for moving image and new media work with an acquisitive award of $25,000. The award was established in honour of Anne Landa, a Trustee of the Art Gallery of NSW who died in 2002. The first two exhibitions were selected by a panel comprising an Art Gallery of NSW’s curator (who compiled the initial short-list of Australian artists), independent curator and the director of the Art Gallery of NSW. In both instances the exhibition was entitled Anne Landa Award for video and new media arts.
The third exhibition, scheduled for May 2009, adopts a different format. An independent curator has been chosen to curate an exhibition with a unique title and theme (Anne Landa Award will be the sub-title) and will include both Australian and international artists. The acquisitive part of the award will apply to Australian resident artists only.
The independent guest curator for 2009 will be Victoria Lynn. Victoria is an independent curator and writer based in Melbourne. She has recently been appointed the Visual Art Curator for the 2010 Adelaide Festival.
This exhibition includes video, interactive robotics and digital photography and will be on view from 7 May to 19 July 2009. -- www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au
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