Jangil (Homesick) - Talbet Fulthorpe

HUW DAVIES GALLERY 23 July–9 August
 

 

Talbet Fulthorpe’s 'Jangil (Homesick)' was first shown in the 2008 Graduating Exhibition at Photospace in the ANU School of Art. Installed in its own small room, the images shone brightly through the darkness. The work had the poignancy and gravitas personal significance and meaning can bring to art, but it was accessible and beautiful, taking us to the creeks, mangroves, lagoons and islands called up from his childhood on Queensland’s Gold Coast by the artist’s grandfather.

That earlier version of 'Jangil (Homesick)' was interactive, navigated from a games console. In a way it detracted from the seriousness of the story Fulthorpe was telling. There was a chance the technology would make people miss aspects of the story about his family’s culture, including the simple pleasure (or necessity?) of catching your own food. But its underlying theme, the exchange of natural places for the profit driven building and other excesses of modern Gold Coast life, shone through in the earlier version as it does in the version we are seeing in this HUW DAVIES GALLERY showing.

Fulthorpe accepted the invitation to show 'Jangil (Homesick)' in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY Multimedia Room as part of our 2009 exhibitions program. The version we see here is a development of the first, with the interactive elements of the first version built in. A voice track by his grandfather, Richard Ball, perfectly complemented by a soundtrack composed and performed by Skye Gallagher, work with Fulthorpe’s animations to make 'Jangil (Homesick)' an elegant, simple and evocative story about loss and profound change. As important as these messages are, Fulthorpe has chosen to tell the story in a pared back, understated way. Richard Ball speaks about catching sea mullet and black bream without bait, just jagging the fish with three pronged hooks: ‘… that’s how plentiful they were in those days …’ We know it’s not that way now.

Talbet Fulthorpe’s Jangil (Homesick) is a notable achievement in terms of technique and technology but, more importantly, a significant and telling work. PhotoAccess is very pleased to share 'Jangil (Homesick)' with a wider Canberra audience through this showing in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY.

David Chalker
Director