Angelica Mesiti to unveil major new Tank commission at AGNSW
One of Australia’s most acclaimed contemporary artists, Angelica Mesiti, will premiere an immersive visual and sonic experience in the extraordinary Tank at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in September.
Occupying the entire 2200-square-metre former Second World War oil tank, Angelica Mesiti: The Rites of When is a video and sound installation that reimagines communal rituals in relation to seasonal cycles, at a time of environmental uncertainty and flux.
The major new commission includes seven monumental video screens interspersed between the Tank’s own forest of concrete columns. Across the screens, a film composed of two sweeping movements conjures collective celebrations relating to the ‘hibernal’ (winter) and ‘aestival’ (summer) solstices: the longest night and the longest day of the year, respectively. Each movement begins and ends with a sequence titled ‘Celestial nebula’, acknowledging the entwinement of seasonal rituals and knowledge drawn from the movement of the stars.
Featuring dance, new musical compositions and soaring aerial drone views, The Rites of When offers a deep reflection upon the age-old and continuing relationship between humans, nature and the cosmos. Ecstatic celebrations associated with specific moments in the calendar – notably mid-winter solstice carnivals and mid-summer harvest festivals – present a portal into a realm where the past, present and future meet: an imagined alternative.
Angelica Mesiti ‘The Rites of When’ 2024 (video still), 7-channel digital video installation, colour, sound, approx 30 min, collection of the artist, commissioned by the Art Gallery of New South Wales for the Tank, 2024 © Angelica Mesiti
Art Gallery of New South Wales director Michael Brand said the new commission marks the first solo presentation at the Art Gallery for the Sydney-born, Paris-based artist.
‘Working with artists to make a new, site-specific work in response to the scale, structure and sonic qualities of the distinctive Tank space has fast become a highlight of our curatorial program. Angelica Mesiti has tackled this challenge with impressive ambition and vision, and we look forward to sharing this dynamic work with all visitors to Naala Badu,’ said Brand.
Angelica Mesiti in the Tank at the Art Gallery of New South Wales Naala Badu building, photo © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jenni Carter
‘Mesiti’s video practice has long observed the intricacies of human behaviour, utilising choreography and performance with an increasing attention to the natural world. This work marks an important shift from the role of the artist as an observer to her role as a creator of alternative worlds. Mesiti’s interpretation of our globalised existence is a reminder that in times of permanent crisis, culture and community matter deeply.’
The Rites of When is informed by practices of depicting, describing and understanding life via humanity’s shared experience of the night sky. Elements within the Tank reference the Nebra sky disc, a Bronze Age artefact bearing an early depiction of the Pleiades star cluster, a celestial entity that intrigued Mesiti for its connections to seasonal harvest cycles and its significance to cultures across the globe.
Exhibition co-curator, Art Gallery of New South Wales senior curator of contemporary Australian art and the Brett Whiteley Studio, Beatrice Gralton, said: ‘Mesiti’s work is consistently intriguing and intuitive while being meticulously researched and presented. In The Rites of When she invites us to imagine collective responses to our changing world that reference history yet propel us into a speculative future. As cycles of regeneration in nature have shifted out of sync, and people around the globe increasingly live in urbanised environments, Mesiti encourages us to stand still – if just for a moment – to observe our singular experience and imagine our collective potential.’
Celebrated for her distinctive multi-channel performance, video and sound-based works, Mesiti is known for her artworks that pay homage to individual and communal forms of expression, ranging from sign language, choreographic gesture, Morse code and whistling to ancestral musical traditions, body percussion and communication between non-human species.
Since establishing her career two decades ago, Mesiti has been internationally recognised through major exhibitions and significant commissions. In 2019, she represented Australia at the 58th Venice Biennale with the three-channel video installation ASSEMBLY, exploring notions of plurality and non-linguistic communication that are a hallmark of her work. Mesiti received the Art Gallery’s 2013 Anne Landa Award for Video and New Media Arts for Citizens band 2012, one of four works now held in the Art Gallery’s collection. She was the inaugural recipient of the Ian Potter Moving Image Commission in 2012 and the winner of the 58th Blake Prize for Religious and Spiritual Art in 2009. Her work is held in major Australian and international public collections, including the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Artbank, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki (Aotearoa New Zealand), Musee d’art contemporain (Quebec, Canada), National Gallery of Australia, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Korea) and Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art.
The exhibition is accompanied by a stunning publication that charts the development of Mesiti’s commission for the Tank. The book is illustrated with video stills from the cinematic installation and new writing from the exhibition’s co-curators, including an essay by Isobel Parker Philip, the Art Gallery’s former senior curator of contemporary Australian art, and an artist interview by Beatrice Gralton.
ngelica Mesiti: The Rites of When will be presented at the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ new building, Naala Badu, from 21 September 2024 to 11 May 2025. Entry is free.
For more information, please visit the Art Gallery of New South Wales website.
About the Art Gallery of New South Wales
On Gadigal Country
The Art Gallery of New South Wales acknowledges the traditional custodians of the Country on which it is located, the Gadigal of the Eora nation, and recognises their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. From its magnificent site in Sydney, the Art Gallery is one of Australia’s pre-eminent art museums and the state’s leading visual arts institution. Its mission is to serve the widest possible audience as a centre of excellence for the collection, preservation, documentation, interpretation and display of Australian and international art, and a forum for scholarship, art education and the exchange of ideas. The transformation of the Art Gallery – now with two buildings, Naala Badu and Naala Nura – brings together art, architecture and landscape in spectacular new ways with dynamic galleries and seamless connections between indoor and outdoor spaces. It is the most significant cultural development to open in Sydney in half a century and is a prominent new destination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture. artgallery.nsw.gov.au
