Video Becomes Us
2018, Documentary Series, 5 x 10 minutes
Release Australian Broadcasting Corporation iView, 9 October 2018
From the video art pioneers of the 1970s experimenting with Sony Portapaks to the current generation of artists exploring VR technology, Australian artists have long embraced video's radical potential. This 5 x 10 min series explores the different ways that acclaimed artists including Susan Norrie, Vernon Ah Kee, Sue Dodd, Dr. Christian Thompson AO, Soda_Jerk, Xanthe Dobbie, The Kingpins, Darren Sylvester, Reko Rennie, Amos Gebhardt, James Nguyen, Caroline Garcia, Club Ate, Joe Hamilton and Angela Tiatia have utilised the medium as a means for artistic expression and political agitation. Directed by video artist Kate Blackmore (THE GLASS BEDROOM) and hosted by video artist Eugenia Lim, this series explores how video art can offer us new ways of seeing and re-imagining ourselves. If we are now all media makers, what does video tell us about who we are, and what we might become?
Host Eugenia Lim
Director Kate Blackmore
Producer Bethany Bruce
Writers Kate Blackmore, Eugenia Lim
Cinematographers Sky Davies, Emma Paine
Editor Andrew Kristiaman
Music Corin Ileto
Reviews “Video Becomes Us (Australia, 2018) – 9 October - This new iView series isn’t a textbook communique on the history of video art (which host and artist Eugenia Lim calls “the bastard child of TV and cinema”), but an impressionistic, poetic and political look at the artform today. Featuring snappy interviews and case studies with leading, bomb-chucking artists such as Reko Rennie and Soda_Jerk, Lim takes us through how artists are using video to reckon with their cultural identities, reconsider their cultural memories and venture toward a different, more egalitarian future. A smart, thoughtful watch.”
Host, video artist Eugenia Lim