Lynette Wallworth
Lynette Wallworth | Australia b.1961 | Still:Waiting2 (still) 2006 | Interactive video installation, HDVD file, single channel projection exhibited from hard drive, 16:9, wood, textile, colour, 5.1 surround sound | Commissioned by New Crowned Hope and Arnolfini | Produced by Forma | Supported by Arts Council England and the City of Melbourne Arts House program, Australia Council Fellowship New Media and Visual Arts Board | Courtesy the artist and Forma, London | © The artist
The imagery in Still:Waiting2 was inspired by a late-afternoon drive Lynette Wallworth once took near Quorn in South Australia. Wallworth recalls that she was looking out over the peaceful landscape when the trees in front of her suddenly erupted with birds taking flight.
When Wallworth was in South Australia, she worked in the Oak Valley community with the Maralinga Tjarutja people, whose country was the site of British atomic weapon testing in the 1950s. The Maralinga Tjarutja helped the artist became aware that each community operates according to a set of often unspoken protocols which require careful observation if meaningful engagement is to be achieved. They allowed her to understand that whenever someone enters another’s country, their first steps influence all future relationships and, therefore, impact on those who follow. The artist sees this principle reflected in contemporary Australian society which continues to grapple with the consequences of colonisation, and it is a fundamental inspiration for Still:Waiting2, in which our movement in the space triggers changes in the work, altering the experience for subsequent viewers.
Lynette Wallworth’s experiences with the Maralinga Tjarutja people taught her that not everything she was seeking would necessarily be revealed to her. By unfolding at its own pace rather than on demand at the click of a button, Still:Waiting2 quietly articulates that we should not expect all to be revealed to us in an instant.
2010 artists | Philip Brophy | Nigel Helyer | Chris Howlett |Isobel Knowles & Van Sowerwine | Wade Marynowsky | Soda_Jerk | Lynette Wallworth
