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<i>The Quick and the Dead</i> | The College of Fine Arts

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The Quick and the Dead

Article released: Thursday, 28 May, 2009

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Susan Hiller, Magic Lantern, 1987
Susan Hiller, Magic Lantern, 1987, audio-visual installation: slide projections with synchronised soundtrack; 3 carousels each with 12 x 35mm slides, driven by electronic pulses, 12 minutes, dimensions variable, edition 1/3. Copyright the artist. Courtesy Timothy Taylor Gallery, London

Curator David Elliott, Artistic Director of the 17th Biennale of Sydney 2010, presents three projected masterworks in The Quick and the Dead: Rites of Passage in Art, Spirit and Life, one each by Susan Hiller, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook and Bill Viola.
While The Quick and the Dead is not a sneak peak at the 2010 Biennale as such, it is a chance to catch a glimpse of this internationally renowned curator’s vision.
As the title suggests, Elliott has chosen works by each artist which focus on mortality, death and spirituality in different ways.
Susan Hiller (USA). Much of Hiller’s work is concerned with matters of the spiritual and so called paranormal, placed within a wider context of historical survival. Magic Lantern (1987) combines changing coloured lights with amplified recordings of voices of the dead.
Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook (Thailand). Rasdjarmrearnsook’s video, Conversation # 1 (2005), questions the banality of our ideas about life and death. Treading the fine line between comedy and tragedy, the artist attempts to engage rows of cadavers in conversation.
Bill Viola (USA). Viola’s video, Hatsu-Yume, First Dream (1981), visually explores the classic dichotomies of light and dark, nature and culture, life and death. According to Elliott, Hatsu-Yume “is one of the masterpieces of early video art.”