Angelica Mesiti: The Calling

Overview

“You know how to whistle, don’t you Steve? You just put your lips together and… blow.” Lauren Bacall’s advice to Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not is one of the most memorable lines in motion picture history, but a new exhibit at ACMI suggests the actress may have been selling the puckering process short.

The latest work from internationally renowned Australian artist Angelica Mesiti, The Calling is designed as an immersive video installation that explores the complexities of the traditional whistling languages still in use in isolated communities in Greece, Turkey and the Canary Islands. The free public exhibit will be housed in ACMI Studio 2 from February 4 until July 13 and Mesiti will also be on hand to discuss the work in a special In Conversation event on the evening of February 5.

Angelica Mesiti: The Calling is presented by the Ian Potter Moving Image Commission, a 10-year collaborative initiative between ACMI and the Ian Potter Cultural Trust that provides funding to mid-career Australian artists working with the moving image.