Angelica Mesiti is one of Australia's leading contemporary artists. Celebrated for her distinctive moving-image and sound-based works, the Sydney-born, Paris-based artist explores individual and communal forms of expression, ranging from sign language, choreographic gesture, Morse code and whistling to ancestral musical traditions, body percussion and communication between non-human species.
The Rites of When, Mesiti's first solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, pays tribute to ritual practices of seasonal renewal, both ancient and contemporary. The monumental, sevenchannel video installation - comprising two sweeping movements that conjure hibernal (winter) and aestival (summer) solstice celebrations - is an immersive reflection upon the age-old and continuing relationship between humankind, the natural world and the cosmos. With choreographed performance, new music compositions and soaring aerial views, The Rites of When offers a vision of an enmeshed world and the renewal of hope.
Published in association with the eponymous exhibition, Angelica Mesiti: The Rites of When documents the second major commission for the post-industrial Tank space at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Richly illustrated with video stills from Mesiti's captivating and cinematic video installation, it features a new essay by Isobel Parker Philip and interview by Beatrice Gralton, cocurators of the exhibition. An additional visual section illuminates the influences that shaped the work.
