Old Growth

“Old Growth” is the name both of a series of works, and their presentation as a series of multi-screen video installations.

In total it is a work of environmental critique and material enquiry. Marrying art and science it creatively explores the effects of resource extraction and anthropogenic climate change. It takes three vital environments that accrete over time – sedimentary rock, old growth rainforest and coral reef – and subjects images of these environments on photographic film to chemical degradation.

The result is a kind of material metaphor or media analogue for humanity’s effects on the environment – thus the separate films in the series explore virtual fracking, virtual deforestation, and virtual coral bleaching.

As a series of separate video works, the project’s component films have screened in festivals and galleries internationally. In multi-channel form, the project has been presented in two different configurations: on the giant 16-screen video wall at the Southern Cross University learning centre on Lismore Campus, and as a 3-screen installation at the Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival in Hawick, Scotland.

SCREENINGS

“Frack”, “Deforest” and “Bleach” have been shown at a wide range of festivals and galleries, including:

  • Rencontres Internationales Sciences & Cinémas (RISC), Marseilles

  • Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, Hawick, Scotland

  • Imagine Science Film Festival, New York

  • “Inner Nature,” Institute Valencia d’art Modern, Valencia

  • Syros International Film Festival, Greece

  • VIDEOFORMES video and digital art festival; Clermont-Ferrand

  • Sunshine Coast Art Award, New Media Prize

  • Brenda May Gallery, Sydney

  • Screengrab Media Arts Award, Pinnacles Gallery, Townsville QLD

  • “Particle + Wave” Media Arts Festival, Calgary

  • KLEX Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film, Video & Music Festival

  • Montreal Underground Film Festival