Angelica Mesiti: The Begin-Again

Overview

You may have heard it whispered amongst art openings or at 3am when the last dregs refuse to leave your house party, intent on discussing the merits of various art theories and philosophies (well, it beats politics) but currently in the art world we have a little thing we like to bandy about in oh-so-upper-tones — relational aesthetics. Friendly name, huh? Contemporary art can do that. If it is good at one thing, it is good at excluding most of the non-art educated audience. Relational aesthetics though, put simply, is the attempt to make contemporary art friendly; to include and to explore who we are as people and how we relate to each other — community, audience engagement, participatory — it's all about getting us together to experience something. This is generally a rather fun and enlightening experience for those participating but can sometimes run into trouble once the artist attempts to translate it for the gallery space.

Enter Angelica Mesiti, a truly wonderful image maker and member of the gender-bending, Sydney performance group The Kingpins. Mesiti has initiated a project with The Hurstville Council and C3West (the community engagement arm of the Museum of Contemporary Art) whereby she has sought out a large cross section of the Hurstville community to tell the story of their streets. Friday and Saturday night will see south west Sydney transform into a video landscape as performed by local residents and including hourly live performances of a Chinese New Year Dragon amongst a procession of customised cars (sex-specs for those in the know). Guaranteed to be visually sublime — Angelica knows how to frame a shot — and yet also tell you a little something special about your southern cousins.

The Begin-Again is available for viewing both Friday and Saturday night from 7.30pm-12am. This self-directed walking tour includes five key destinations within Hurstville taking in numerous video installations and culminating in the live performances on the rooftop of the Westfield carpark. A map is available here.

Image: Angelica Mesiti, The Begin-Again (still) 2011 single-screen video installation