Campbelltown Arts Centre and Sydney Festival Present Lisa Reihana's CINEMANIA

Campbelltown Arts Centre and Sydney Festival are proud to present Lisa Reihana's first ever Australian survey, Cinemania. This exhibition showcases three decades of video and photographic works and underscores her international status as a pioneer of experimental video art and multimedia installations.

Cinemania will also feature Reihana's most ambitious work to date, in Pursuit of Venus [infected], 2015-17, following its premiere at the 57th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. Almost ten years in the making, this work is a cinematic reimagining of the French scenic wallpaper Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique, 1804-1805, or The Voyages of Captain Cook, and includes scenes featuring dancers and weavers from Campbelltown's local Dharawal community. Reihana has used twenty-first century audio-visual technology to re-cast and animate the wallpaper with real and invented narratives.

This exhibition traces Reihana's ongoing preoccupation with costume and identity, interest in fiction and non-fiction characters, and creation of compelling 'otherworlds'. The works unpack complex ideas around Maori identity and mythology and interrogate the colonial gaze, fabrication of history and the representation of Indigenous peoples.

Cinemania reveals the spectrum of Reihana's practice - from early experimental works in digital video such as Wog Features, 1990 and Native Portraits n.19897, 1998, to futuristic films, dystopian photography and immersive environments, such as Fantastic Egg, 2002, PELT, 2009 and Tai Whetuki - House of Death Redux, 2015-16.

Exhibition: 12 January to 29 March 2018
Artist talk: Saturday 13 January, 1pm (bookings not required)
Lisa Reihana Cinemania appears as part of the 2018 Sydney Festival program.

Photo Credit: Tai Wheuki - House of Death Redux (detail), 2015-16. 2-channel HD video installation, stereo sound, no dialogue, colour, 14 min.