Abstract
Aesthetic responses to the Australian outback often acknowledge the vastness of the landscape; the horizon line and vanishing point of an endless road, as well as the dry and unrelenting heat. This iconic isolation, often only punctuated by a solitary driver, is the basis for this dialogical sculpture and video based installation.
You by Allan Giddy is a fusion of sculptural artifact and screen based work; a large black antennae dish is installed in the gallery space alongside a video projection representing an iconic outback scene. The reflector serves to practically redirect, isolate and amplify the distorted melody of a pop song from the 1960s with the lead vocal removed as well as alluding to the sound of a CB radio conversation between two truckers, one British and the other Australian.
You is featured in Figuring Landscapes: artists’ moving image from the U.K and Australia at the Tate Modern, London and subsequently exhibited at the Dundee Contemporary Arts, FACT Liverpool, Vivid, Birmingham, Showroom Sheffield, Glimmer, the 7th Hull International Short Film, Capter Arts Centre Cardiff, Site Festival, Stroud Valley Artspace, Cinecity – Brighton Film Festival, Mermaid Arts Centre Wicklow, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney, and the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane. The work has also been shown in Area - Video Works #2, Fig Tree Theatre, Sydney, NSW and Gallery Alley, Sofia, Bulgaria.