Gabriella Hirst Darling, Darling

Gabriella Hirst: Darling, Darling

Darling Darling parallels the precise and elaborate care taken to preserve colonial paintings of the Australian landscape with the real-world preservation of the Murray Darling Basin.

Gabriella Hirst is a visual artist working primarily with video and performance, investigating social and personal approaches to permanence and slippage. She uses processes of re-enactment to question staid notions of value that inform institutional frameworks, highlighting the labour involved in the upkeep of illusions of permanence in domestic and institutional settings, for example in gardening, art conservation and archive maintenance.

Darling Darling examines notions of care and containment in overlapping art historical and ecological contexts, proposing parallels between the Australian Landscape tradition and colonial land mismanagement, focusing on the Murray–Darling Basin.

Image: Still from Darling Darling by Gabriella Hirst, 2020 IPMIC Commission, Lake Menindee, Barkandji country.

Media Coverage

Gabriella Hirst, Artist Profile, 11 February 2021.

Interview with Gabriella Hirst, The Art Show, ABC Radio National, 3 February 2021. [Interview starts at 54:00]

Gabriella Hirst’s multi-disciplinary practice is unified by her longstanding interest in what our depictions of nature reveal about underlying cultural and political values. Darling Darling is a major moving image installation that meditates on overlapping art historical and ecological narratives in the Darling River Basin. This layered and contemplative work evokes the sublime beauty of the Australian landscape while simultaneously confronting us with the damage we have inflicted on this environment.

Darling Darling explicitly questions what art and cultural institutions, including us here at ACMI, can contribute in the face of environmental crisis. One important role we can realise is to bring these issues to you in a manner that moves, fosters deep reflection and imparts a sense of possibility, which is exactly what Darling Darling achieves.

In the wake of COVID-19 our country’s artists and creative industries are in a fragile state. We, as a nation, must fight for their longevity. At such a time, ACMI is incredible proud to have commissioned Darling Darling in partnership with The Ian Potter Cultural Trust. We are thrilled to be presenting the premiere exhibition of this important, timely work as we open our renewed building to the public.

Katrina Sedgwick OAM
Director & CEO, ACMI

L-R Katrina Sedgwick, Lady Potter, Gabriella Hirst and Janet Matton, Darling Darling opening. Image by Phoebe Powell.

Darling Darling by Gabriella Hirst. ACMI, Melbourne.

Opening of Darling Darling by Gabriella Hirst at ACMI.

Publicity

Darling Darling catalogue

The catalogue for Darling Darling by Gabriella Hirst has now been published by ACMI. Read more

Media Release: ACMI re-opens with Darling Darling

The first solo exhibition at the new ACMI will be Darling Darling by 2020 Ian Potter Moving Image Commission recipient Gabriella Hirst. Read more

Artist biography: Gabriella Hirst

Media Release: IPMIC 2020 Winner

The $100,000 Ian Potter Moving Image Commission (IPMIC) for new moving image works by Australian artists has been awarded to video and performance artist Gabriella Hirst. Read more

Gabriella Hirst awarded 2020 Ian Potter Moving Image Commission

Gabriella Hirst - IPMIC 2020 winner

The $100,000 Ian Potter Moving Image Commission (IPMIC) for new moving image works by Australian artists has been awarded to video and performance artist Gabriella Hirst.

Gabriella Hirst has been awarded the prize from a field of impressive candidates vying for the prestigious visual art commission – an initiative of The Ian Potter Cultural Trust (IPCT) and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).

The commission will make possible a new work, Darling Darling (working title), which will have its world premiere at ACMI in 2020. The proposed work parallels the precise and elaborate care taken to preserve colonial paintings of the Australian landscape with the real-world preservation of the Murray Darling Basin.

The 2020 Ian Potter Moving Image Commission will premiere at the newly reopened and revitalised ACMI in 2020.

http://gabriellahirst.com/

Judges

IPMIC 2020
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 Sale, What I Have Written, Stranded, Life, Eternity, 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.

Rebecca Coates

Rebecca is an established curator, writer and lecturer, with extensive professional art museum and gallery experience in both Australia and overseas. She is a Board member of the Public Galleries Association Victoria (PGAV); and has held previous board positions with the Australian Tapestry Workshop; Chair, City of Melbourne Public Art Advisory Panel; Stonnington Arts Advisory Panel; and was a Selector for the Victorian Open Gardens Scheme. Rebecca Coates is the director of Shepparton Art Museum,, located in regional Victoria.

Craig Conelly

Craig is an accomplished financier and businessman, now dedicated to contributing to the community sector. He spent 25 years working in a variety of roles in the Australian financial services sector. Craig is an experienced business analyst and successful manager whose professional strengths lie in his research innovation, industry analysis, technical expertise and strong communication skills. Craig has also been an effective mentor to many young professionals throughout his business career. In his current role as CEO of the Ian Potter Cultural Trust and The Ian Potter Foundation, he is greatly enjoying working closely with the arts sector to facilitate new opportunities for artists and arts workers.

Callum Morton

Callum Morton is an artist and Professor of Fine Art at MADA (Monash Art Design and Architecture) Melbourne. He has been exhibiting nationally and internationally since 1987 and he collaborates across a number of fields including public art, theatre design and architecture. In 2007 Morton was one of three artists representing Australia at the Venice Biennale and in 2011 Morton’s work was the subject of a retrospective at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne.

Emily Sexton

Emily Sexton is a cross-disciplinary curator from Melbourne, and Artistic Director of Arts House, Melbourne’s centre for contemporary performance. She has held a range of significant creative roles including Head of Programming for the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas, Artistic Director of Next Wave and Creative Producer of Melbourne Fringe. She is a regular peer assessor for the Australia Council for the Arts, Creative Victoria, and other philanthropic trusts and foundations.

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.