The newest, latest show at Roslyn Oxley9 sees Isaac Julien’s film, Ten Thousand Waves repackaged, from filmic to photographic form. The film, which is being shown (for the first time world-wide) at Cockatoo Island as part of the Biennale was inspired by the Morecambe Bay Tragedy of 2004, in which over 20 Chinese cockle-pickers died. Investigations revealed that all of the workers who drowned were illegal immigrants. The ground revealed in this work by Julien is fertile, especially in Australia. Ours is a country which has not fully come to terms with the multitude of cultures living within its borders and, more significantly, the motivations behind many emigrants’ desire to abandon their nation of origin.
This show holds a number of resonances for me; I remember seeing Julien’s film Derek at the Sydney Film Festival two years ago. The director’s sense of narrative was commendable, but what stuck in my mind was his clinical stylisation and, once again, this is the highlight of the series. The other point of resonance resides in the fact that a few years ago, I spent four months living in Guangxi, the province where much of Julien’s film is set. His ability to capture exotic landscapes and interiors I recognise, in a Western visual format, is profound. These images effectively trace the movement of people and the transitioning state of the Chinese populace.
A lot of my friends have been discussing sideshows of late: the benefits and drawbacks of these smaller, more intimate performances in comparison to the larger music festivals they may accompany. It seems that in the context of art, and especially Isaac Julien’s multidisciplinary practice, this show at Roslyn Oxley9 is the art-world answer to the 'sideshow'. In this case, Julien’s photographic series is the sideshow to his nine-channel video installation being shown at the Biennale. Neither is better nor more valid than the other, but together a deeper understanding and appreciation of the overall achievement and scope of the work can be reached.