Face Value: video portraiture from the Pacific

Moving image, identity and innovation.
Face Value: video portraiture from the Pacific presents the traditional genre of portraiture through the moving image exploring notions of identity within a contemporary regional context.

Leading video, sound and multimedia artists from the Pacific region present work informed by history, technology, internationalism and geographic location which considers social and familial origins, individual traits, gender and cultural diversity.

This is progressive portraiture. It encompasses multiple screens, shifting frames, interaction, sound, text, spoken word, metaphor and humour. The artworks are unique, engaging and aesthetically varied.

Each artist approaches contemporary identity from a unique angle. Vernon Ah Kee's short, sharp self portrait playfully uses language, moving text and self-portraiture to represent current Australian black/white politics to a deadly serious effect. The cultural representation of emotion and gender is the focus of Lyndal Jones' Crying Man 3. While the upbeat rhythmic sounds of Sheyne Tuffery's video pushes the aesthetic bounds of this genre into the twenty first century through a personal connection to his surroundings.

Lonnie Hutchinson refers directly to the incarceration of Island women in the holds of Pearl Traders, the history of sexual exploitation and its ramifications on the sex industry. Internationally renowned artist Rachael Rakena layers performance, text and sound as two underwater figures communicate through movement and a backdrop of email. And working with forensic scientists, inspired Denis Beaubois to create a series of silent, fixed and un-blinking faces which slowly and subtly morph through 11,000 different people reinventing racial stereotypes.


For further information, please contact Ivan Dougherty Gallery.

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