The new ACMI, Australia’s national museum of screen culture, reopens today after undergoing a major $40 million AUD transformation that was five years in the making.
As part of the museum’s ongoing commitment to moving image art and artists, ACMI will invest $1,087,000 into moving image art over the course of the museum’s renewal. This investment includes $880,000 direct funding across 15 commissions, of which 70% are by Indigenous artists and 60% have women in a lead creative role. In addition to their range of commissioned works, ACMI will showcase a range of artworks never before seen at the museum.
This year ACMI is highlighting talented Australian artists including Vicki Couzens, Daniel von Sturmer, Reko Rennie, John Harvey, Taree MacKenzie, Daniel Crooks, Julie Gough, Gabriella Hirst and Tully Arnot. Their works tell uniquely Australian stories and range from giant ceiling artworks to VR to installations. Visitors can experience the works for free in the museum and deepen their engagement with each artwork through a range of interconnected online content.
“ACMI is deeply committed to supporting moving image art and artists through our commissioning programs and gallery spaces – both on and offline. This past year has been incredibly difficult for the arts community. We’re looking forward to providing artists with not only financial support through our commissions but also a space to celebrate and share moving image works in our beautiful new museum,” said ACMI Director & CEO Katrina Sedgwick OAM.
Ahead of today’s reopening, ACMI launched a dedicated stream of online-only artworks in its new digital exhibition space, Gallery 5. In late 2020, Gallery 5 opened with the premiere of Delusional World by Shanghai-based video, installation and performance artist Lu Yang as part of AsiaTopa 2020. Now showing in Gallery 5 is the ACMI commissioned work content by Matthew Griffin that taps into society’s addiction to doom scrolling. Dedicated to supporting digital artists, ACMI will continue to commission online-only works to premiere in Gallery 5.
ACMI looks at art through the lens of the moving image in a way no other institution does. Moving image artists push form, take risks and look at digital tools in a different way – their art breaks out of galleries to become content. ACMI celebrates artists who push these boundaries and gives them a platform to present their works both online and in the museum.
ON DISPLAY IN 2021
Gabriella Hirst
Darling Darling, 2020
The Ian Potter Moving Image Commission 2020
Reko Rennie
What Do We Want, 2020
ACMI + Artbank Commission 2020
Tully Arnot
Epiphytes (working title), 2019
Mordant Family VR Commission 2019
Daniel von Sturmer
CATARACT (concrete), 2020
ACMI commission
Vicki Couzens
Yanmeeyarr, 2020
ACMI commission
John Harvey
Canopy, 2020
ACMI commission
Edie Kurzer
Cabinet, 2020
ACMI commission
Matthew Griffin
content, 2020
ACMI commission
NEW ARTWORKS IN THE ACMI COLLECTION
Taree Mackenzie
Pepper’s ghost effect, triangles, cyan and red, 2018
Ali Gumillya Baker
down among the wild men/colonial imagination, 2014
Jess Johnson and Simon Ward
Webwurld, 2017
ARTWORKS ON LOAN
Oskar Fischinger
Raumlichtkunst (1926/2012)
Reconstruction by Center for Visual Music
Three-screen installation
ARTWORKS FROM THE COLLECTION
Daniel Crooks
Phantom Ride, 2016
Contact
Imogen Craddock Kandel
Media & Communications Manager
T: +61 434 603 655
E: Imogen.CraddockKandel@acmi.net.au