#signalscreencommissions

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David Mahler is an artist best known for his vibrant, abstract art films, animations and paintings exploring human consciousness, connection and spirituality in a digital age. A University of Melbourne VCA BFA Film and Television graduate, his short films have screened at international film festivals from Canada to Russia, and he has most recently been commissioned by the City of Melbourne to partake in the 2017 Signal Screen Arts Commission. Inspired first and foremost by nature - from the micro of plankton and atoms to the macro of the solar system - Mahler’s art aims to lull viewers into a state of trance through pattern and colour.

https://vimeo.com/davidcmahler

http://davidmahlercomics.tumblr.com/

[signalarts]

Signal Screens Commissions 2018

This years Signal Screens Commission was awarded to artists:

Raphael  Buckley, Eleanor  Rieniets, Veronica  D. Charmont, Gabrielle  Skye Nehrybecki and Jamie  Vitacca.

LAUNCH - Wednesday 26 September 6-8pm at SIGNAL.

Works on exhibition till the October 23rd from dusk

[signalarts]

The title of Veronica D. Charmont's work Dianthus Plumarius loosely translates to wild pink, garden pink or simply common pink and is therefore the origins for the name of the colour we know so well. Pink’s bold and bright presence within everyday items, clothing or transport is often hard to ignore. However once represented through the architectural structures of the city, the colour suddenly becomes mysteriously hidden.  

This may be that the quality of something as ‘serious’ as architecture paired with a stereotypically feminine colour; a colour not often seen outside of its gendered limitations, is uncommon and therefore confusing or even confronting. It seems out of place, or even surreal in comparison to the looming grey structures of the city. Pink itself often bears allusions to the rare, the dreamlike or even the artificial and therefore its living may rely on the findings of the science of colour itself. Pink does not sit on the electromagnetic spectrum, and therefore cannot possibly exist. Then what exactly is it that are we seeing?

These theories are consequently explored through the layers of filming which not unlike our eyes attempt to capture its colourful and seemingly truthful existence. Pink’s matching endurance through materiality is additionally examined in paint and coloured paper.

[signalarts]

Here we bend that certain slant of light (2018) by Raphael Buckley is a film like a moving painting, a non-narrative mosaic of still-lifes articulated in time. Using stop-motion techniques to transform inanimate objects into life-like beings, Raph present an unpredictable texture of absurd and quirky imagery.

There is a continuity of objects silhouetting and foreshadowing each other in order to create a poetic geometry. The film aims to manipulate familiarity and rearrange its identity, using different rhythms, from climatic fast cuts flashing by, to more slowly paced out operatic compositions of staged still life harmonies. Raph uses his own skin as a canvas on which to create a futuristic dream of animated tattoos, where the use of the human frame for surface detail expresses something more emotional.

[signalarts]

Fulguration by Jamie Vitacca explores the manipulation of light within nature, technology, and human coercion.

Light is congruous in our lives and the manipulation of this element aids in the everyday whilst also being enticing and encapsulating.

The camera which filmed the footage registers light to create an image, whilst the projector that displays the work projects light to reinforce this imagery. The subject matter of ‘light’ reiterates the materiality of this equipment and their purpose of capturing and projecting light.

In a sense the piece is the study of Optics from an expressive and emotive perspective rather than that of science.

Just as moths movements are motivated towards light, Jamie hopes his piece will have the same effect with the passersby of SIGNAL; encapsulating and subverting their focus of the everyday for a short period of time.

[signalarts]

I brought this cake to life on March 19, 2018. I ordered it over the phone, and specified that it had to be yellow, with a black smiley face. It cost $47. You can order one yourself—here’s the number: 03 9592 8070

- Gabrielle Skye Nehrybecki 

(Title of artwork: Succeeding in a digital world)

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X is a mixed media drawing project by Eleanor Rieniets which aims to address the traditional function and purpose of the Signal building, honouring the legacy of collection and distribution of data and information within the surrounding area. X is a project which collects and distributes information derived from movement patterns of people through an observational drawing process focusing specifically on the surrounding site of the signal building. 

This project is a speculation into public space and comprises of three key phases. Initially, an observational and data collection phase, secondly the curation and reinterpretation of data into a moving image. And finally, the distribution of data which is displayed for public viewing.

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Raph is currently in Year 10 at St Michael’s Grammar and has been making films and stop-motion works for the last few years. A continuing theme of his work is the development of relationships between organic and inorganic forms, accentuating a structure underpinning disorientated and unpredictable episodes. 

He participated in the 2018 VCA Visual Art Winter School course and has done work experience with senior Indigenous artist Judy Watson. He will attend VCASS for Year 11 in 2019.