Zanny Begg

Last updated

Zanny Begg (born 1972) is an Australian artist-filmmaker. Begg works between documentary and fiction using experimental forms of storytelling to explore hidden and/or contested histories. Begg is a participatory and collaborative artist who has exhibited in multiple exhibitions around the world including the Istanbul Biennale (2010); Taipei Biennial (2008), Sharjah Biennale (2011); and The National New Australian Art (2017). Her work consistently returns to themes of gender, spatial justice and resistance. [1]

Contents

Biography

Begg was born in Melbourne, Australia. She has a PhD in art theory and has lectured in socially engaged art practices at University of New South Wales and University of Sydney.

Major works

The Beehive, winner of the inaugural ACMI and Artbank film commission, [2] explores the 1975 disappearance of Juanita Nielsen, presumed murdered for her opposition to development in Victoria Street, Kings Cross. More than twelve women play Juanita Nielsen, each bringing their own experiences of gentrification to the role. The Beehive was partially filmed in Juanita Nielsen's old house, 202 Victoria Street. It combines fictional sequences with documentary footage including an interview with Nielsen's lover at the time of her disappearance, David Farrell. This work premiered at ACMI in 2018 and was part of the 2019 Sydney Festival. [3] [4]

The City of Ladies (co-directed with Elise McLeod) was filmed in Paris in 2016 and premiered at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2017). [5] This work loosely references Christine de Pizan's book of the same name, written in Paris in 1402, which is considered one of the earliest feminist texts. The City of Ladies is driven by an algorithm with over 300,000 possible story combinations each exploring different aspects of feminism. The film includes interviews with Silvia Federici and Hélène Cixous and features a track by Mere Women.

Stories of Kannagi (2019) was created in collaboration with Jiva Parthipan, cultural officer with STARTTS, reimagining the 2000-year-old story of the goddess of justice, Kannagi. Kannagi is the central character of the Tamil epic Silapathikaram who burns down the kingdom when her husband is wrongly accused of a crime and executed by the King. The film includes interviews with three Sri Lankan Tamil writers based in Australia, Niromi de Soyza, Shankari Chandaran and Srisha Sritharan and won the established artist residency for the 66th Blake Prize for Religious Art. [6]

Other works include How to Blow Up a Bubble that Won’t Burst (2015), the story of Italian architect Dante Bini’s time in Sydney in the 1970s [7] and 1001 Nights in Fairfield which was made with Iraqi refugees in Western Sydney [8] and screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2016.

Three of Begg's film works, The Beehive, The City of Ladies and Stories of Kannagi, will tour Australia in 2021–2022 in a touring exhibition organised by Museum and Galleries NSW and UNSW Galleries called These Stories will be Different. [9]

Awards

In 2016 she won the Incinerator Art Award, Art for Social Change for her film 1001 Nights in Fairfield. [10] In 2018 she was the winner of the inaugural ACMI and Artbank film commission for her film The Beehive. In 2021 she was the winner of the 66th Blake Prize Established Artist Residency for Stories of Kannagi.

Related Research Articles

The Biennale of Sydney is an international festival of contemporary art, held every two years in Sydney. It is a large and well-attended contemporary visual arts event in the country. Alongside the Venice and São Paulo biennales and Documenta, it is one of the longest running exhibitions of its kind and was the first biennale to be established in the Asia-Pacific region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juanita Nielsen</span> Australian journalist and activist

Juanita Joan Nielsen was an Australian newspaper founder and owner, publisher, journalist, model, urban conservationist, and heiress. She disappeared after attending a meeting at the Carousel nightclub in Kings Cross on 4 July 1975. Her body has never been found.

ACMI, formerly the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, is Australia's national museum of screen culture including film, television, videogames, digital culture and art. ACMI was established in 2002 and is based at Federation Square in Melbourne, Victoria.

<i>The Killing of Angel Street</i> 1981 Australian film

The Killing of Angel Street is a 1981 Australian thriller film loosely based on the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) green bans against development in inner Sydney city waterside suburbs. It briefly touches on the real-life disappearance of Juanita Nielsen, an activist against mass development in Sydney in the late 1970s.

Del Kathryn Barton is an Australian artist who began drawing at a young age, and studied at UNSW Art & Design at the University of New South Wales. She soon became known for her psychedelic fantasy works which she has shown in solo and group exhibitions across Australia and overseas. In 2008 and 2013 she won the Archibald Prizes for portraiture presented by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In 2015 her animated film Oscar Wilde’s The Nightingale and the Rose won the Film Victoria Erwin Rado Award for Best Australian Short Film.

Dennis Del Favero is an Australian artist and academic. He has been awarded numerous Artist-in-Residencies and Fellowships, including an Artist-in-Residence at Neue Galerie Graz and Visiting Professorial Fellowship at ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe. He is an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow, Scientia Professor of Digital Innovation and executive director of the iCinema Centre for Interactive Cinema Research at the University of New South Wales; Visiting professor at IUAV, Venice; Member of the editorial board of Studio Corpi's Quodlibet, Rome; and former executive director of the Australian Research Council | Humanities and Creative Arts (2015–2016).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Thompson (artist)</span> Indigenous Australian artist

Christian Andrew William Thompson, also known as Christian Bumbarra Thompson, is a contemporary Australian artist. Of Bidjara heritage on his father's side, his Aboriginal identity has played an important role in his work, which includes photography, video installations and sound recordings. After being awarded the Charlie Perkins Scholarship, to complete his doctorate in Fine Arts at Oxford University, he has spent much time in England. His work has been extensively exhibited in galleries around Australia and internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samantha Lang</span> Australian film director

Samantha Lang is an Australian film director and screenwriter. Her production company is Handmaid Media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penelope Seidler</span> Australian architect

Penelope Alice Marjorie Seidler AM is an Australian architect and accountant. She is director of the Sydney-based architectural firm Harry Seidler and Associates. She was the wife and professional partner of architect Harry Seidler (1923–2006). Together they designed "Harry & Penelope Seidler House", which won the Wilkinson Award in 1967.

Alexie Glass-Kantor is an Australian curator. Since 2013, she has held the position of Executive Director of Artspace Visual Arts Centre in Sydney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melbourne Queer Film Festival</span> Annual LGBT film festival in Melbourne, Australia

The Melbourne Queer Film Festival (MQFF) is an annual LGBT film festival held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in November. Founded in 1991, it is the largest queer film event in the Southern Hemisphere, in 2015 attracting around 23,000 attendees at key locations around Melbourne.

Angelica Mesiti is an Australian multi-disciplinary artist of Italian descent, best known for her combination of performance with video, sound and spatial installation that result in highly contemplative spaces. Her work is situated at the interstice of diasporic cultures, gestural communication and sensory togetherness.

Sally Robinson is an English-born Australian artist. She has had a long career as a portrait artist and designer, painter and printmaker, teacher and lecturer. Her work is represented in private and public collections around Australia.

Barbara Campbell is an Australian performance and installation artist.

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu was an Australian Yolngu painter and printmaker who lived and worked in the community at Yirrkala, Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory. Yunupingu created works of art that drastically diverge from the customs of the Yolngu people and made waves within the art world as a result. Due to this departure from tradition within her oeuvre, Yunupingu's work had varying receptions from within her community and the broader art world.

Nerine Martini, was an Australian artist working in the fields of sculpture, installation, drawing, socially engaged art and public art.

Judith Wright in Meanjin (Brisbane) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans installation, video, sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking and assemblage.

Deborah Kelly is a contemporary Australian artist known for her eclectic, uplifting, socially-engaged and activist art. Her artistic practice ranges from collages to posters, postcards, banners, billboards, photography, installation, performance, events, video and drawing. Kelly regularly collaborates and contributes to collectives to address political issues including LGBTIQ+ rights, asylum for refugees and climate change. Her work is included in major national and international exhibitions and events. These include: All About Women, Sydney Opera House (2022); The National, Sydney (2021); the Biennale of Sydney, Sydney (2014); the Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Greek State Museum of Contemporary Art, Greece (2014); and the Singapore Biennale, Singapore (2008).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ash Keating</span> Australian visual artist (born 1980)

Ash Keating is an Australian contemporary visual artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rox De Luca</span> Australian visual artist

Rox De Luca is an Australian visual artist whose work examines environmental issues and sustainability through sculpture and public art, predominantly made from found plastics. Her work is held by multiple national and regional collections including Artbank, Deakin University Art Collection (Victoria), New England Regional Art Museum, and Edith Cowan University, and at Royal Perth Hospital and University of Sydney Union.

References

  1. ↑ "Zanny Begg". Zanny Begg.
  2. ↑ "The Beehive". www.acmi.net.au.
  3. ↑ "Zanny Begg: The Beehive".
  4. ↑ "The Beehive". Sydney Festival.
  5. ↑ "City of Ladies | MCA Australia". www.mca.com.au.
  6. ↑ "The 66th Blake Prize exhibition on until 11 April at CPAC". 12 March 2021.
  7. ↑ "Dante Bini Interviewed by Kids". 6 September 2015.
  8. ↑ "1001 Nights in Fairfield | School of Art & Design". artdesign.unsw.edu.au.
  9. ↑ NSW, Museums & Galleries (10 December 2019). "Zanny Begg These Stories Will be Different".
  10. ↑ "The Incinerator Art Award: Art for Social Change".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.