A L E X G A W R O N S K I

Don’t Look Now, video and sound performances, Mori Gallery, Sydney, curated by Scott Donovan

SD video (Mini-dv) 2:09

This video merged a variety of referents. Physically it utilised the space of an abandoned factory as a background indicator of Sydney’s then rapid gentrification. This empty ‘nowhere’ space was visually configured along the lines of a Western, the sole figure, the cameraman, makes their way slowly towards an unseen opponent. The bells on the soundtrack enhance the Western cinematic reference. The onscreen text quotes Uli Lommel’s lyrics from the song ‘I Kill Them’ featured in Fassbinder’s lesser-known Spaghetti Western Whity (1971). The name Whity in the context of this video, conjures racist agendas while the paranoid lyrics suggest a contemporary era of fear. The words taken out of context sound delusional and ecstatic, they ironically represent the ‘magic moments’ of the title. These are underscored by a sense of insularity and fear, the threat of impending violence from internal and externa sources, psychological or terrorist. The sweeping strings courtesy of a snippet of Georges Delerue’s famous soundtrack to Godard’s Le Mépris (Contempt) (1967) imply through association and mood, the proximity of interpersonal and political tragedies, the isolation of the individual stranded in their inability to act effectively for change.