The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) presents the world premiere of ‘Did you ask the river?’ by Joan Ross, on show from 7 to 31 March 2019.
‘Did you ask the river?’ is the second Mordant Family Commission VR, a three-year program worth $240,000 that supports Australian artists who have never worked in VR before to create new works in this medium, funded in partnership with philanthropists Simon Mordant AM and Catriona Mordant AM, the City of Melbourne and ACMI. The inaugural Mordant Family VR Commission was awarded to Christian Thompson for his work Bayi Gardiya (Singing Desert), which makes its world premiere at ACMI in May.
Joan Ross, Did you ask the river?
‘Did you ask the river?’ is presented in the style of a first-person videogame, whereby participants in are given free reign to explore an interactive 3D extension of Ross’ vibrant yet unsettling colonial landscapes. In pointed contrast to most VR experiences, the participant is sited within a virtual body – that of an 18th-century colonial woman – drawing them uncomfortably into complicity, simply by inhabiting the space.
Ross’s work is deeply critical of the colonial history of Australia, using open narratives, disruptive chronologies, and faux playful collaging to re-vision nineteenth-century European aesthetics. Her acclaimed video works combine visual elements from a variety of early colonial Australian paintings and contemporary life, so as to re-conceptualise and problematise our relationship to both. The resulting videos are irresistibly beautiful while illustrating the brutality of colonialism’s legacy through a lens of black humour. Developed in collaboration with Dr Josh Harle at Tactical Space Lab in Sydney, ‘Did you ask the river?’ sees the engaging aesthetic style of her collage works translated into a room-scale VR context. Participants are given the agency to alter the landscape with implements and sweeping gestures, as their virtual body mirrors their physical movements.
”Did you ask the river?’ utilises the sense of presence possible through VR to bring the audience into the world of my videos,’ says Ross. ‘Participants are free to play in the virtual space: constructing, moving, digging, collecting, and surveying to transform the world as they desire. The power to change the world is intoxicating – except the participant is not the heroic architect here, but rather the antagonist; the results are destruction and annihilation of the landscape as birds dwindle, birdsong fades, bushland becomes bare and water contaminated. ‘Did you ask the river?’ The answer is obviously no.’
ACMI curator Fiona Trigg said: ‘There is a very high level of interest in the potential of VR at the current time– from VR specialists to game designers, animators, artists and the general public. Did you ask the river? is developing as a stunning work which invites and challenges the user to think about interactivity on an ethical and metaphorical level.’
