Buxton Contemporary has launched the second of its Light Source commissions with Radical Acts – a darkly humorous and critical short film by Melbourne artist Laresa Kosloff.
Assembled and edited entirely from corporate video stock footage sourced on the internet, Radical Acts tells a fantastical story about frustrated climate scientists who come up with a plan to ensure they are no longer ignored. The scientists create a new pathogen and clandestinely distribute it to corporate offices via indoor plants.
The pathogen makes corporate workers less productive and more open to possibilities beyond relentless growth and the profit motive. The narrative also involves corrupt politicians and a faked mission to Mars and explores themes of duplicity, neoliberalism and the climate crisis.
An incisive humour is woven throughout all of Laresa’s work, whether it be in questioning the act of looking and representation within the public realm, or drawing out the tensions between received cultural values, political, economic and social issues.
Laresa Kosloff makes performative videos, Super 8 films, hand drawn animations, sculpture, installations and live performance works. With a practice spanning more than twenty years, Laresa’s work is represented in major public and private collections across Australia and in New Zealand. In 2019 Laresa won the Guirguis New Art Prize.
Light Source commissions are a key part of Buxton Contemporary’s expanded digital program. The museum has commissioned and is supporting the development of six new projects. The participating artists have been invited to produce ambitious new work that will be presented virtually, or that will have an online presence or dimension.
Light Source commissions provides artists with an opportunity to create work in different presentation formats that will then have a second life outside the virtual environment when exhibited together as a series of discrete projects in expanded physical formats at Buxton Contemporary in early 2021.
The first commission by Melbourne artist Stuart Ringholt – Looking at a painting without clothes-on in the safety of your own home was launched in June 2020 and continues to attract stay-at-home participation.
While Buxton Contemporary is currently closed due to COVID-19 restrictions, Radical Acts can be viewed on their website. For more information, visit: www.buxtoncontemporary.com for details.
Image: Laresa Kosloff, Radical Acts, 2020 (detail), 4K video, (stock footage), 7:29 duration. Voice actress: Jenny Seedsman, Singing: Violet CoCo from Extinction Rebellion, Sound design: Final Sound, Music: Secession Studios. © the artist – Light Source commission, Buxton Contemporary, The University of Melbourne, 2020