AUT - True North
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True North
TRUE NORTH
Isaac Julien
Opening March 9 from 7.30pm
March 9 - April 21
Gallery One
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Isaac Julien
True North Series, 2004
Digital print on Epson Premium Photo Glossy
Edition of 6
100 x 100 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
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Isaac Julien
True North, 2004
16mm film, black & white/colour film, DVD transfer with sound, edition of 6
Duration 14 mins 13 secs
Installation at St Paul St Gallery for the 3dr Auckland Triennial, 2007
Photos: Jennifer French
Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro Gallery, London and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Isaac Julien - True North
Isaac Julien’s three-screen synchronised film installation, True North, 2004, is a meditation on the treacherous and complex journeys beckoned by the sublime and contested space of the North Pole. Julien’s camera is at times continuous across the three screens, and alternately, sliced into a triptych, suggesting the multiple ways in which 'land' is perceived and, literally, apprehended. At one moment, the camera literally seems as though it is falling through the cavernous cracks in the ice, the sequences changing abruptly. At another, the shifting planes of the three screens meet in absolute harmony. Then one plane will slide behind another, or a screen is 'turned off' as it were, fading to black and allowing for iconic moments and singular images. The very real treachery of the ice is played out in these metaphorical slippages, suggesting both the elusive nature of 'true north' and the highly fraught notion of truth itself.
Julien has, for a number of years, been a forerunner in the use of parallel montage. Works such as Paradise Omeros (2002), Baltimore (2003), and Fantôme Créole (2005) explore issues of black identity across multiple screens. This principle of montage – the repetition, mirroring, doubling and interchanging of individual shots – emphasises at a technical level Julien’s idea that memory is non-linear. In relation to True North, he says, “the idea of 're-memorizing’ is different from the official discourses of History with a capital 'H'. A lower-case investigation into the historical material is at work in True North. Memory is not chronological.” Historical memory is juxtaposed with contemporary imagery, and is thus revealed to be increasingly unreliable. The promise of existential uncertainty in the face of the snow-covered, icy and sublime landscape, (a clear reference to the tradition of 19th century sublime landscape painting, for example the works of Caspar David Friedrich) is continually undermined by the non-linear format of the work.
Shot in Iceland and Sweden, the film responds to the story of Matthew Henson, an African American, who took part in Robert Peary’s expedition to the North Pole in 1909, and who was the first person to reach the geographic North Pole, True North, (as opposed to the magnetic North Pole). The minimal voiceover in Julien’s film, which has the intimacy of a whisper, replays the tension between these two men which escalated to the point at which Henson, motivated by fear, had to remove the ammunition from his rifle at night and bury it in the snow. The men had a mutual dependence, however, with a respective double and constantly changing index.
The 'conquest', mapping and surveying of the world is a white undertaking – it is, in other words, colonisation. By casting the role of 'explorer' in the guise of a black woman, Julien contradicts the ideology of colonialism, which is assumed to be both white and male. At the same time he opposes the ideology of 'terra nullus' by making it obvious that the utmost north is inhabited, and that 'conquest' is therefore also always a form of theft. For example, Inuit men and women at work in the landscape are juxtaposed with a Christian church interior, hinting at the disputed histories of this location.
In True North, representation itself is revealed to be both an aesthetic and political challenge. The blazing beauty of white ice and the sonic thunder of the falling water is visualised as a paradoxical space. As the imagery shuttles between telescopic and panoramic journeys, the female subject of the film is simultaneously 'at home' in her icy environment, and at other times engulfed by it. In True North, Julien creates a new kind of topography in which black identity is not aligned to the nation state. Working to disrupt historical assumptions of colonisation and the aesthetic rules of the moving image itself, Julien invokes a fluctuating and experiential interpretation of the voyage.
Leonhard Emmerling and Victoria Lynn
Click here to visit Isaac Julien's Website
TALKS
FRIDAY 9 MARCH
3pm
Isaac Julien speaks about his work True North
Gallery One
St Paul St
Free
SATURDAY 10 MARCH
11am
Isaac Julien & Nikos Papastergiadis in conversation
London based artist Isaac Julien discusses his practice and triennial installations True North with Nikos Papastergiadis, Associate Professor and Reader in the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne.
AUT lecture theatre WE230
Free
TUESDAY 20 MARCH
5.30pm
Albert Refiti, Lemi Ponifasio and Jim Viviaere - Panel discussion
(a fourth person to be confirmed)
The discussion will be on Isaac Julien's work and how it can be understood in the context of New Zealand and the Pacific
region.
AUT lecture theatre WE320
Free
Click here for MAP
AUT, Auckland Art Gallery partner for Triennial
AUT University has signed a major partnership deal with the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki to support the next three Auckland Triennial exhibitions through to 2013.
The Auckland Triennial has rapidly established itself as New Zealand’s premier international contemporary art event. Held every three years, it provides a window onto the world of contemporary art, creating a dialogue between local artists and their global counterparts.
Mayor of Auckland City Dick Hubbard says AUT has made a significant commitment to Auckland City and the Auckland Art Gallery as the new Auckland Triennial Partner, taking a lead position in helping to develop the exhibition for 2007 and into the future. AUT Vice-Chancellor, Derek McCormack says the partnership reflects AUT’s commitment to supporting Auckland’s creative sector and, in particular, visual arts. "The Triennials are about contemporary art, so that is a perfect association for AUT University," he says "With our school of Art and Design and our St Paul Street Gallery, AUT is a significant member of Auckland’s arts community. With this new and exciting partnership we’re further enhancing our contribution."
The Third Auckland Triennial Exhibition, Turbulence, will open on 9 March 2007 and is timed to coincide with AK07 as the Auckland Festival’s key visual arts event. As part of next year’s triennial event, AUT’s St Paul ST Gallery will host an exhibition of Isaac Julien’s work.
Forty artists from at least 20 countries will present major works not previously seen in New Zealand in diverse mediums including painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation, film, performance and international collaborative actions. Since the Auckland triennial was created it has shown 70 artists from 14 countries and attracted over 30,000 visitors.
Melanie Cooper, Communications advisor, Public Affairs, AUT
Email: melanie.cooper@aut.ac.nz
Please click here to find a link to the Turbulence press pages, including press releases, images and image credits
Turbulence is proud to be part of Auckland Festival AK07
Partners venues:
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