State of origin

State of origin was a multimedia piece by Stephen Cassidy, developed with visual artist, Deborah Faeyrglenn, as part of the Conversations exhibition at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery in 2004. It involved many different kinds of creative dialogue between five artists and five writers.

State of origin looked at where we come from, where we go next and where we truly belong. In this work the writer and visual artist combined word, image and computer technology to make visual music. Words and images moved across the computer screen, with no fixed address.

One of the slides from State of origin

While Stephen is primarily a writer, he has always had a strong interest in visual arts and images, though it is not his main area of expertise or interest. For both these reasons, working with a visual artist with a similar approach, stretched the visual side of his skills and also provided a different perspective on his writing.

The two-way interchange, the back and forward, so much like a good conversation, where one plus one adds up to not two, but three, was very productive. Both collaborators are interested in the overlap and interaction between words, images and sound, rather than the differences, and the exhibition process assisted them to explore this further.

The work was an interplay of moving words, images, shapes and sound. Making it was akin more to making a film than a literary piece, with some complex issues of timing, coordination, emphasis and repetition.

The sound on the work drew from everyday, background noise—stones knocking together, the rustle of an address book, footsteps on floorboards, the sound of running water or crumpled paper. What could be a political rally is really the background noise of a harmless coffee shop.

The process of interaction between the two collaborators was more involved and two-way than some of the other interactions in which both had been separately involved for the exhibition. Working on three major joint projects, State of origin, the installation, The lost art of conversation, and the words with images, Word wall, they maintained a high level of enthusiasm, mainly because they worked well together and were both very productive as a result. Both considered they would work together again.

Stephen noted that he had always worked on his own previously, so to work closely with another artist was a valuable opportunity. He commented that this was his first seriously collaborative work, apart from playing in a band or producing a print publication, both of which are always inherently collaborative.

After moving to Canberra, Stephen had extensive contact with multimedia and new media work, through his role organising the inaugural OZeCulture Conference for artists and cultural organisations working with the internet and digital media. The first conference featured an exhibition of new media artists, many of whom were subsequently exhibited in the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne.

Stephen became interested in being able to produce new media work using readily available, off-the-shelf software and, for several years, had been developing a range of multimedia works using Microsoft Powerpoint, an almost ubiquitous presentation software, the everyday use of which rarely comes close to realising its full potential. This work applies many features of the software not usually seen in the endless Powerpoint presentations to which everyone is subjected.

© Stephen Cassidy 2016

See other work from the Conversations group exhibition, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, 2004 – a collaborative exhibition of writers and visual artists.

The lost art of conversation
Installation, developed with visual artist, Deborah Faeyrglenn, on words, meaning, reflection and infinite (or at least, partial) regression. Three tall thin vertical mirrors stand against the wall, covered in bursts of words. Three matching paper shadows flow out from the wall along the floor. Words on the mirrors flutter and blur into shadows, The lost art of conversation.

balloon
A fictional narrative work in the form of a website, the website as writing. About the adventures of a refugee from the big city who sets up the High Country Thought Balloon Company. A series of brief vignettes about the characters, situations and stories which intersect the path of the balloons as they soar across the skies of the Southern Tablelands and Snowy region. It is about changing perspective, balloon.

Malacoota Inlet
‘Shutdown in a flat, wet land, the line beween sea and sky where grey meets grey, where stricken yachts come in’, Malacoota Inlet.

Sitting on twigs
‘Sitting on twigs in the flat lands, in a piece of country loaded with meaning, like a tightly coiled spring’, Sitting on twigs.

Word wall

An installation, featuring a series of mixed images and text about life in the corners of Australia, Word wall. Word wall included:

I smoke baby cigars
‘Smoking baby cigars in the dark of the backyard. Like some Cuban presidente haranguing the crowd with reminders, I proffer a list of romantic anniversaries, our May 4th movement, our July 12th uprising – our moment when everything became new’, I smoke baby cigars.

Cut back to black
‘Cut back to black, thin chill drizzle mid-winter – infinite regression on petrol’. Also called ‘Revhead heaven’, Cut back to black.

Coming back to these stones
‘Coming back to these stones – in the sandy dry reaches of the Coorong in South Australia’s South East birds flicker across the flat water like beads of run-away mercury’, Coming back to these stones.

Landscapes in a rear vision mirror
‘Heading at a moment's notice into Broken Hill, breaking several traffic laws on the Barrier Highway, in the rear vision mirror the land kept switching colours’, Landscapes in a rear vision mirror.

Stopping by Lake George
‘Lake George is a vast stretching freshwater lake, with no outlet. It is only diminished by evaporation. Many stories are told about Lake George, a still point of the turning earth, with all the quiet of the eye at the centre of a hurricane’, Stopping by Lake George.

See also

Signature of water
A series of artworks as part of the Waterworks exhibition at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery responding to the shared task of facing up to life on our dry continent. It ranged from short, minimalist animations, using cartoons, to hyperfiction drawing on the styles of crime novels. It was a mix of poetry, storytelling, images and sounds which were heavily influenced by the styles of popular culture and the urban and rural landscapes around us, Signature of water.