The Philadelphia Connection

The Philadelphia Connection is a series of residencies and exhibitions in Brisbane, Australia and Philadelphia, USA during 2012. Works were developed during a residency at the Crane Arts studios in Philadelphia USA in August 2012, and subsequently exhibited at the Crane Arts Icebox Gallery, as well as teh Ignite conference at QUT Brisbane Australia and the POP gallery in Southbank, Brisbane as part of the Philadelphia Connection group exhibition. The works were comprised of screen based animated work utilizing large scale digital projection. Documentation of this work can be found on VIMEO as well as the Crane Arts Residency Website This work was part of a larger research project, which was concerned with using animation to convey a sense of place. The investigation focused primarily on the heritage site of the former Peel Island Lazaret, on the island of Teerk Roo Ra in Moreton Bay, Queensland. The project attempted to develop a style of motion that embodied the genius loci of that site. The methodology for the project was designed to span multiple Action Cycles over a period of six years, and used this structure as a means to provoke practice through engaging with a variety of mediums and display formats to present and discuss the findings. Each exhibition and publication throughout the project contributed to the development of the overall motion design, and ranged from white cube and black cube exhibitions, regional galleries with public programs, local and international artist residencies, public screenings, paid commissions through to printed catalogues with essays and international academic conferences. The culmination of the project was the final solo exhibition 'Nocturne' (2015), where a series of creative works were created which employed a method of transposing stereotypic movement patterns onto bespoke hand crafted armatures as a means of conveying the sense of place of the Peel Island Lazaret. 'Nocture 5' (2015) ultimately won a national prize at the CCCP salon in Melbourne 2015, judged by the director of ACMI.