Creative Occupation

UNSEEN ISLAND FILMS

Stream of films below; scroll down for film profiles and artists stories.

0:01 Ingrid Petterson, Michael Morgan. Island Shadows.

2:09 Jennifer McElwee. Emma’s Letters (reading of Emma’s letters).

11:58 Jennifer McElwee. Emma’s Letters (Emma).

13:22 Laine Hogarty. Island Spin (Repression) of Defence Mechanisms.

17:18 Scott Welsh. Concealed Beneath Murky Waters.

22:15 Laine Hogarty. Water Dervish (Sublimation) of Defence Mechanisms.

25:04 Jessica Laraine Williams. Hair Actor: Speculation on A Nullified Performance.

29:42 UNSEEN by Creative Occupation, 2-31 July 2021, Geelong Waterfront (exhibition tour) and project credits.

Ingrid Petterson, Michael Morgan. Island Shadows (2021) PREMIERE

This film is an inspired improvisation as a result of recent visitation to the Island of South Channel Fort. To this trip that was focused on the tunnels, Ingrid brought an idea of a site-specific process, in particular, a walk into the tunnels. She wore white and embodied a helmeted entity (white helmet - made by Michael). Later, Michael developed this short improvised film on the basis of visual documentation of the walk and the Island, and recordings of Ingrid’s drumming.

Jennifer McElwee. Emma’s Letters (2021)

In this project, Jennifer explores issues of women’s empowerment and privacy through reading the letters of her Great, Great Grandmother Emma Briant. Jennifer and her sister Rosemary read Emma’s letters dated 1854-1872 during the boat journey from Queenscliff to South Channel Fort Island, and continued reading on the Island.

Scott Welsh. Island Project, Part II – Monologue – Concealed Beneath Murky Waters (2021)

This video incorporates a poem read underwater from within the helmet built for Scott by Michael Morgan. It is Part II of Scott Welsh’s monologue writing project within his Island Project. After the experiment of reading some poems underwater - Scott wrote this poem as a response to that experience. Next time Michael filmed his performance and recorded it from within the water with a voice recording system.

Jessica Laraine Williams. Hair Actor: Speculation on a Nullified Performance (2020)

Emanating from the artist’s Null cartography (2018-ongoing) series of performative identity projects, Hair Actor (2020) was a distributed work in collaboration with Creative Occupation group. Hair Actor evolved under the restrictions related to Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and its outcome arose in this video work focusing on the real and imagined narratives of a planned collaborative performance at South Channel Fort Island. Development of Hair Actor is tracked in the artist’s blog article: click here.

Defence Mechanisms by Laine Hogarty

Island Spin (Repression), 2021 - PREMIERE. About this film the artist writes:

“One sunny, icy cold winter morning in June 2019, a small crew made our way to South Channel Fort. I wore a crochet blanket as an extra layer to keep warm. As we arrived, instead of going straight to the pier, we circled the Island a few times. I found the observation of the periphery so interesting, I began to film the journey.

I noticed metal structures which are part of the Island tunnels, they appeared like oversized bird cages. When we docked, a mass of seagulls were circling, as if caught in a trance. Was it a welcome or a warning? I made my way to the tunnels to see the cages, and there discovered a couple of trapped penguins, that we later rescued and set free.

Without any prior intention, I began to spin within the tunnel cage, as a meditative dance of remembrance. Three weeks earlier, my mother had passed after nearly five years of encasement in a nursing home. When my mother was only three years old, she released over 100 birds from my grandfathers Avery, he wasn’t pleased, yet all her life she remembered her delight in watching the birds fly free. During her time in the nursing home, it pained my heart, as it was as if she was a bird encaged and hidden from the life she once enjoyed, especially the delight of her beautiful garden.

I made my way to the gun mount and continued to spin as a memory of the futility of war. And as a way to consider entrapments and the capacity or desire to break free from hidden cages within our psyche. Repressed memories, that drive our actions unconsciously—as forms of unseen defence, acting as mechanisms that shape our perceptions and experience of reality. The circling stone and seagulls blurred and I felt as if I was in unison with them. The periphery vision of the spinning gun mount and the shoreline made me aware of the encasement of ideas that lead to loss, the warring factors both internally and externally, that we attach to, in our quest for survival and freedom.”

Water Dervish (Sublimation), 2021

This Defence Mechanism enables us to use our frustration and disappointments to empower positive, socially beneficial outcomes. Sublimation takes place when we manage to transform our unacceptable emotions into constructive and socially acceptable behaviours [1].

After a car accident in her early adult years, Laine rekindled a swirling action she had discovered in her childhood [2]. Spinning in water allowed her to lengthen out her spine and strengthen her back muscles. The circular motion enhanced mobility and provided temporary relief from her incessant spinal pain.

In this work, she twirls again with an awareness of the pain and emptiness of war and loss. Her immersive actions provide an unseen vision of South Channel Fort, as a vestibule of our longing for safety, completion and belonging.

[1] “Sublimation, for Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, was the cornerstone of civilized life,...according to his theory… “Arts and science are all sublimated sexuality.”

[2] At five years of age, after being given a full circle blue dress with an embroidered bodice, Laine twirled over and over, spinning round and round, until she discovered a trance experience that made her dreams feel visceral.