There There Anxious Future

Overview

Take a trip down memory lane with Richard and Stephanie nova Milne (aka Ms&Mr) and you find the lane soon becomes a labyrinth where parallel worlds collide, time is non-linear and anything is possible. Case in point: their new exhibition There There Anxious Future, where the past, the present and the time ahead are all smooshied up in the prettiest smoothie you've ever seen at.

Continuing the duo's ongoing exploration of 'retroactive collaboration', Ms&Mr have used elements of their personal archives to give their former selves entirely new contexts and experiences. The highlight is Frame Drag where we see Richard as an 11-year-old stroking a grown-up Stephanie with tender knowingness, as if the past is consoling the future. As always, the effect of layering the poor quality home movie footage with new animation and HD technology is one of disorientation; it appears as neither vintage nor modern but of a different dimension entirely.

There is nostalgia here, but it is also an optimistic liberation of memories from the past into living narratives. Acknowledging that time is ongoing and providing a wormhole into the future, another video work, 2024, Preparation for space-time dilation and Her, presents a 'preparation' for the arrival of Stephanie who will join Richard on the screen in 2024.

Thankfully in the meantime we will be seeing a lot more from Ms&Mr, as they are about to feature in a group show at MOP Gallery as well as make appearances later in the year at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and The Physics Room in NZ, not to mention presenting a new work for the Campbelltown Arts Centre Illume series in January. Living simultaneously in multiple time zones mean you can be so prolific.