24 October 2009 - 31 January 2010

NEW MEDIA SPACE

THE LINE OF LODE & DEATH OF CHARLIE DAY: ANGELICA MESITI

Inspired by the grandeur of its physical landscape and the unique place it occupies in our cultural consciousness, the artist used the outback mining town of Broken Hill in the far West of NSW as the location for this video work.

Focusing on social groups both animal and human that inhabit an Australian outback town, The Line of Lode and Death of Charlie Day is a meditation on the connections that link them to their landscapes and therefore each other. Streams of pre nocturnal images form independent scenes that interrelate without being bound by narrative; suburban kids riding bikes in the sunset shadows, a flock of pigeons released for their evening flight, the dusty twilight interiors of an out of business hotel, a goat enjoying the cool air of dusk.

A diversity of people including a local livestock trader, hotel proprietor, competition pigeon breeder, aboriginal land council elder, mining equipment engineer, local artists and historians were involved in the process. The bike-riding scene was developed out of a workshop involving 12 kids from the Broken Hill PCYC Youth Club.