Masterclass with Angela Tiatia

A masterclass for graduate students with artist Angela Tiatia, held at the Victorian College of the Arts.

To coincide with her first solo Melbourne show at Margaret Lawrence Gallery, CoVA invited artist Angela Tiatia to lead a masterclass for graduate students from the VCA and Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne. She discussed her practice, new work, and the creation of The Fall (currently on show at Margaret Lawrence Gallery) and its commission by the Australian War Memorial and National Museum of Singapore.

The Fall draws from oral and written accounts of the survivors of the fall of Singapore in February of 1942. Tiatia was asked to respond to the Battle of Singapore, a military retreat described by Winston Churchill as ‘the worst disaster’ in British history. The Fall extrapolates this moment by speaking to contemporary geographical, ideological, environmental politics and concerns.

Angela Tiatia generates intense and impactful imagery that profoundly fuses events of the past with interpretations of the present and visions of the future. The two video works on show at the Margaret Lawrence Gallery, The Fall and Dark Light demonstrate Tiatia’s commitment to story-telling through video. Through these works Tiatia articulates a complex layering of multiple ideas, themes and narratives with clarity and immediacy. In relief to traditional viewpoints of contemporary culture, connected with colonialism, gender and commodification, Tiatia offers a place to reflect. In the artist’s own words ‘we now live in uncertain times, and the choices that we and our leaders make can have far-reaching consequences’.

Angela Tiatia at Margaret Lawrence Gallery is on view 23 May-29 June, 2019.

Images: CoVA & Angela Tiatia The Fall 2017, two-channel high definition video, 4:58. Courtesy the artist & Sullivan + Strumpf.