Dispositifs at Play: Artist's Moving Image in the Gallery

‘Artists’ Moving Image’ work today occupies a key place in contemporary art. This is evident from the sheer amount of moving image media in public galleries and museums, retrospectives, biennales and artist-run-initiatives. This chapter takes a focus on the installation of Australian artists’ moving image production with an emphasis on installation and the way in which the work meets its audience. We examine the recent work of Brian Fuata, Pia van Gelder, Biljana Jancic and Angelica Mesiti with respect to exhibitions mounted in Sydney from 2012-2018. The concept of the ‘dispositif’ - as a set of interrelated elements of an artwork for spatial display in the gallery – is put to work to confront the heterogeneity of forms, practices and experiences within four specified categories: ‘Document, Signal, Space and Channel’. This research connects the experience of the artists and curators in question drawing on interviews and links this with historical and theoretical discourse in relation to moving image (and sound) in the gallery. We aim to show the inventive ways in which contemporary artists rely on inherited 20th century traditions of this relatively new (historically speaking) medium and engage with digital media convergence. This research finds Australian artists’ to be at the cutting-edge of the field and provides a foundation to extend this research to our wider asia pacific region or international context. We hope this chapter to be of interest to artists, filmmakers, screen and art theorists and creative practice-based researchers working in this domain.