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Daniel Crooks - Phantom Ride
Daniel Crooks Phantom Ride

Daniel Crooks: Phantom Ride

Taking as a starting point films such as the Lumiere Brother’s 'Leaving Jerusalem by Railway' (1896), regarded today as the first ever tracking shot, Crooks’ installation creates a continuous, seamless tracking shot that moves the viewer through a fragmented reality, constructed from a collage of Australian railways.

Daniel Crooks, one of the most renowned contemporary artists in Australia, is a Melbourne-based artist working across digital video, photography, sculpture and installation. By manipulating digital footage, Crooks creates still and moving images that compel us to question our understanding of time. Using sophisticated editing and compositing techniques to produce what could be new modes of visual perception, his works encourage us to re-examine our experience of reality.

Phantom Ride is inspired by a history of cinema and, in particular, the way in which trains have been employed as an extension of the camera. The work references the ‘phantom rides’ of early cinema, a genre of film popular in Britain and the United States in the early 1900s. Pre-dating narrative features, these short films showed the progress of a vehicle, usually a train, moving forward by mounting a camera on its front.

For Phantom Ride Crooks filmed disused country railways, abandoned urban train tracks, tram tracks and maintenance depots throughout Victoria and New South Wales. By compositing these images together he has constructed a collaged journey through the natural and constructed, and often abandoned, landscapes of our contemporary environment.

Phantom Ride challenges the singular history of linear time to suggest a world in which multiple presents could be possible. The composited images carry us seamlessly from one world into the next, while also encouraging us to reflect on our existence within time in a way we do not often pause long enough to appreciate.

 

 

 

 

Phantom Ride is fundamentally cinematic: it draws on the history of the early phantom ride films popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the significant role trains have played in the development of filmic technique. Yet Crooks brings this history of radical cinematic experimentation into the present with a digital video work that lures us into an impossible world. By designing a custom, and highly sophisticated, filming device and developing innovative video compositing techniques, with Phantom Ride Crooks has created a work that pushes his practice into a new realm.

Katrina Segwick
Director & CEO, ACMI


Media Coverage

All aboard for Daniel Crooks' Phantom Ride at ACMI, Melbourne, The Australian, 7-8 May 2016

Art Review: ACMI’s Phantom Ride by Daniel Crooks is Mesmerizing, FiestaFy.com, May 2016

Screen as time lens, Gail Priest: interview, Daniel Crooks, Phantom Ride, RealTime Arts, Issue #131 Feb-March 2016

Catching the Phantom Ride at White Night Festival, Arts News on ABC iview, available 29 February 2016 to 28 March 2016.

Futurist Daniel Crooks: A chat is the back shed with futurist and artist Daniel Crooks, The Saturday Paper, Saturday 27 February 2016

Daniel Crooks//Meet the Artist, ArtKollectiv, Monday 22 February 2016

Review: ACMI Daniel Crooks' 'Phantom Ride', (Audio Stream + written review), SYN, Monday 22 February 2016

Daniel Crooks: Phantom Ride, interview by Milk Bar, Monday 15 February 2016

White Night 2016 travels through time aboard Daniel Crooks' Phantom Ride, The Age, Saturday 13 February 2016


 

Daniel Crooks, Phantom Ride launch at ACMI. Image by Steffen Pedersen.
Daniel Crooks, Phantom Ride launch at ACMI. Image by Steffen Pedersen.
Lady Potter, Phantom Ride launch at ACMI. Image by Steffen Pedersen.
Lady Potter, Phantom Ride launch at ACMI. Image by Steffen Pedersen.
Daniel Crooks, Phantom Ride launch at ACMI. Image by Steffen Pedersen.
Daniel Crooks, Phantom Ride launch at ACMI. Image by Steffen Pedersen.
Daniel Crooks: Phantom Ride launch at ACMI. Image by Steffen Pedersen.
Daniel Crooks: Phantom Ride launch at ACMI. Image by Steffen Pedersen.
Daniel Crooks, 'Phantom Ride', 2016. Courtesy the artist, Anna Schwarz Gallery and Future Perfect, Singapore
Daniel Crooks, 'Phantom Ride', 2016. Courtesy the artist, Anna Schwarz Gallery and Future Perfect, Singapore

Publicity

Event: Daniel Crooks Presents

Daniel Crooks Presents: On Art and (The Manipulation of) Time
Tuesday 23 February 2016 Read more

Artist Biography: Daniel Crooks

Daniel Crooks is the recipient of the Ian Potter Moving Image Commission (2014-16) Read more

Media Release: Phantom Ride Exhibition

The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) and The Ian Potter Cultural Trust are proud to present the world premiere of 'Phantom Ride', a brand new work by one of Australia’s leading moving image artists, Melbourne-based Daniel Crooks. Practising across a range of media including digital video, photography and installation, Crooks’ work plays with the notion of time, stretching and distorting reality while questioning our perception of it. Read more

Media Release: Winner of Ian Potter Moving Image Commission, 2014-2016

The $100,000 Ian Potter Moving Image Commission (2014-2016) for new works by mid-career Australian artists has been awarded to celebrated Melbourne-based video artist, Daniel Crooks. Read more

Work in progress

Work-in-progress: Phantom Ride

Phantom Ride explores the link between tracks and time, a Moving Image Commission update Read more

Daniel Crooks awarded $100,000 Ian Potter Moving Image Commission

Daniel Crooks: Phantom Ride

The second $100,000 commission in this ten-year program for new works by mid-career Australian artists has been awarded to celebrated Melbourne-based video artist, Daniel Crooks.

Read more

Judges

IPMIC (2014-16)
The IPMIC Judging Panel comprises experts including curators, visual artists, filmmakers and producers.

Katrina Sedgwick

Katrina Sedgwick is the Director and CEO of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), a major national cultural institution located at Melbourne’s iconic Federation Square. Previously, she has been the head of arts for ABC TV and ABC Arts online, and the founding director and CEO of the Adelaide Film Festival.

Annette Blonski

Annette Blonski is a freelance script editor and script consultant to a number of government film funding agencies and independent producers, writers and directors.  She has script edited award-winning feature films, shorts and documentaries including My Tehran for SaleWhat I Have WrittenStrandedLifeEternity, and Delivery Day.  She has been a member of the board of Film Victoria and the Melbourne International Film Festival and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. 

Charlotte Day

Charlotte Day is Director of Monash University Museum of Art, and has worked as an independent curator and Associate Curator at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA). Day has worked on numerous large-scale commissions by local and international artists, has co-curated the Adelaide Biennial (2010), TarraWarra Biennial (2008), and projects for the Venice Biennale (2007 and 2005).

Gideon Obarzanek

Gideon Obarzanek is the founder and former Artistic Director of Chunky Move. Obarzanek has created stage productions, installations, site-specific works and films, and his works have been performed in festival and theatres around the world. Obarzanek has received numerous awards, including a New York Bessie award, two Australian Helpmann Awards, and best short documentary at the Melbourne International Film, Festival. Since leaving Chunky Move in 2012, Obarzanek has worked with the Australian Ballet, Sydney Theatre Company, and co-directed the short film I want to Dance Better at Parties.

Daniel Palmer

Daniel Palmer is a writer and Associate Dean of Graduate Research at MADA (Monash Art, Design & Architecture). He has a long-standing involvement with the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Melbourne, as a former curator and current board member. His publications include the co-authored books Digital Light (2014) and Twelve Australian Photo Artists (2009) and the Photogenic: Essays/Photography/CCP 2000-2004 (2005). Palmer has also published over 100 critical reviews and catalogues on contemporary arts and photography over the past decade.

Tony Sweeney

Tony Sweeney was the Director and CEO of ACMI from 2005 to 2015.  Prior to this he directed the UK’s award-winning National Museum of Photography, Film & Television (NMPFT). Prior to this, Tony had a distinctive track record in the media, cultural and educational sectors, producing distinctive exhibitions, events and publications across film, television, media art and contemporary digital culture.  Tony is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London.

Lady Potter AC

Special Advisor to the Judging Panel

Lady [Primrose] Potter AC is a Trustee of The Ian Potter Cultural Trust. She is a passionate supporter of the Arts and has held a long list of offices with major arts institutions, including Patron of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Director of The Ian Potter Museum of Art at Melbourne University, Honorary Life Member of the National Gallery Victoria and was Founding Benefactor of the Museum of Contemporary Art. Lady Potter is also patron and an active member of several leading performing arts companies and community welfare organisations.  

Katrina Sedgwick

Katrina Sedgwick is the Director and CEO of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), a major national cultural institution located at Melbourne’s iconic Federation Square. Previously, she has been the head of arts for ABC TV and ABC Arts online, and the founding director and CEO of the Adelaide Film Festival.

Annette Blonski

Annette Blonski is a freelance script editor and script consultant to a number of government film funding agencies and independent producers, writers and directors.  She has script edited award-winning feature films, shorts and documentaries including My Tehran for SaleWhat I Have WrittenStrandedLifeEternity, and Delivery Day.  She has been a member of the board of Film Victoria and the Melbourne International Film Festival and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. 

Charlotte Day

Charlotte Day is Director of Monash University Museum of Art, and has worked as an independent curator and Associate Curator at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA). Day has worked on numerous large-scale commissions by local and international artists, has co-curated the Adelaide Biennial (2010), TarraWarra Biennial (2008), and projects for the Venice Biennale (2007 and 2005).

Gideon Obarzanek

Gideon Obarzanek is the founder and former Artistic Director of Chunky Move. Obarzanek has created stage productions, installations, site-specific works and films, and his works have been performed in festival and theatres around the world. Obarzanek has received numerous awards, including a New York Bessie award, two Australian Helpmann Awards, and best short documentary at the Melbourne International Film, Festival. Since leaving Chunky Move in 2012, Obarzanek has worked with the Australian Ballet, Sydney Theatre Company, and co-directed the short film I want to Dance Better at Parties.

Daniel Palmer

Daniel Palmer is a writer and Associate Dean of Graduate Research at MADA (Monash Art, Design & Architecture). He has a long-standing involvement with the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Melbourne, as a former curator and current board member. His publications include the co-authored books Digital Light (2014) and Twelve Australian Photo Artists (2009) and the Photogenic: Essays/Photography/CCP 2000-2004 (2005). Palmer has also published over 100 critical reviews and catalogues on contemporary arts and photography over the past decade.

Tony Sweeney

Tony Sweeney was the Director and CEO of ACMI from 2005 to 2015.  Prior to this he directed the UK’s award-winning National Museum of Photography, Film & Television (NMPFT). Prior to this, Tony had a distinctive track record in the media, cultural and educational sectors, producing distinctive exhibitions, events and publications across film, television, media art and contemporary digital culture.  Tony is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London.

Lady Potter AC

Special Advisor to the Judging Panel

Lady [Primrose] Potter AC is a Trustee of The Ian Potter Cultural Trust. She is a passionate supporter of the Arts and has held a long list of offices with major arts institutions, including Patron of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Director of The Ian Potter Museum of Art at Melbourne University, Honorary Life Member of the National Gallery Victoria and was Founding Benefactor of the Museum of Contemporary Art. Lady Potter is also patron and an active member of several leading performing arts companies and community welfare organisations.  

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present.