The Ian Potter Moving Image Commission 2020

We're thrilled to announce that Gabriella Hirst has been awarded the Ian Potter Moving Image Commission 2020 from a field of impressive candidates.

The commission will make possible a new work, Darling Darling (working title), which will have its world premiere 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.

Darling Darling follows on from the success of previous Ian Potter Moving Image Commission, The Calling, by Angelica Mesiti who will represent Australia at this year’s Venice Biennale, and Daniel Crooks’ Phantom Ride. Both artists have gone on to enjoy critical and popular success upon premiering at ACMI.

About Gabriella Hirst

Gabriella Hirst is a video and performance artist based in Sydney and London. She recently completed an MFA in Fine Art Media at the Slade School of Fine Art (London), prior to which she studied at IUAV, the College of Fine Art, and the National Art School. She is a recipient of the 2013 Martin Bequest Travelling Scholarship, the 2016 John Crampton Postgraduate Award, and was recently shortlisted for the 2018 Ivan Jurtiz Prize at Kings College, selected by Turner Prize winning artist Gillian Wearing. She has undertaken residencies at The Cite Internationale des Arts (Paris), Cove Park (Scotland) and the ZKU (Berlin). Hirst has exhibited widely, recently as part of Bloomberg New Contemporaries 17 in London and Newcastle, the Courtauld East Wing Biennale at Somerset House, Video Contemporary at Carriageworks and, NEW16 at the Australian Centre of Contemporary Art.

About the Commission

Together with The Ian Potter Cultural Trust, we invite artists to apply for Australia's most significant commission for moving image art. The successful artist receives $100,000 from The Ian Potter Cultural Trust and professional support from our curators including highly specialised curatorial, production and presentation expertise.

The commissioned work will premiere at ACMI in 2020 and will be accessioned to the ACMI Collection, joining past works Angelica Mesiti's The Calling and Daniel Crooks' Phantom Ride.

Chaired by ACMI Director and CEO Katrina Sedgwick, the judging panel includes experts drawn from across the Australian arts sector, including Craig Connelly, CEO of The Ian Potter Cultural Trust and The Ian Potter Foundation, Annette Blonski, freelance script editor and script consultant, Rebecca Coates, curator, writer and lecturer, Darren Dale, Director of Blackfella Films, Callum Morton, Professor of Fine Art at MADA (Monash Art Design and Architecture) and Emily Sexton, Artistic Director of Arts House.