Essay by Luke Foster
“I guess I’m quite used to not being understood rather than being understood.” Bjork
I have been getting back into video art in the last few years and I mainly perform for the camera and get my videographer/ photographer friend Julie Lowe to document it for me. Last night I watched a documentary about the Icelandic singer Bjork and her video clips for her songs I feel are as good as any video art in galleries around the world. Her videos are as engaging as her music, and she never repeats herself and is forever evolving.
While doing my masters in Sydney in sculpture in the early nineties I started making video installation but for years abandoned it in favour of drawing.
He’s not really an inspiration but the Korean video artist Nam June Paik was the first to use video equipment to make art.
“Our life is half natural and half technological. Half-and-half is good. You cannot deny that high-tech is progress. We need it for jobs. Yet if you make only high-tech, you make war. So, we must have a strong human element to keep modesty and natural life.” Nam June Paik
I am not sure why am attracted to video art, but I guess that its because that drawing and sculpture my other mediums are static while video art is always evolving and changing.
There are many great video artists from my generation in Australia including Angelica Mesiti who represented Australia in the Venice Biennale a few years back, Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro who collaborate on video art and installation art, Sean Gladwell, TV Moore, Soda Jerk, and the Kingpins collective.
