Acclaimed British film maker and installation artist, Isaac Julien’s film installations and photographs incorporate different artistic disciplines to create a poetic and unique visual language. Featured in this ambitious exhibition were two of his seminal works Ten Thousand Waves and Lessons of the Hour.
Ten Thousand Waves was a majestic multi-screen installation weaving together stories that link China’s ancient past and present, reflecting upon the enduring spectre of human trafficking in relation to the 2004 Morecambe Bay tragedy in northern England, where 23 illegal Chinese immigrants lost their lives.
In its Australian premiere, Lessons of the Hour is a poetic meditation on the life of the visionary African American orator, philosopher and self-liberated slave, Frederick Douglass. Cited as the most photographed American in the 19th Century, Douglass was intimately aware of the expressive power of images and articulated his ground-breaking vision of how picture-making and photography could offer powerful tools in the fight for social justice and equal human rights for all.
Opening Event: 10 February 2022
Exhibition: 11 February – 8 May 2022
Supported By: Perth Festival Visual Arts Program supported by Wesfarmers Arts. This exhibition was a Perth Festival event presented in conjunction with the Adelaide Festival and SAMSTAG Art Museum.
Header Image: Isaac Julien, The Lady of the Lake (Lessons of the Hour), 2019, Framed gloss inkjet photograph mounted on aluminium, 160 x 213.29 cm, Courtesy of the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney.
