Khaled Sabsabi, Organised Confusion, 2014. Image credit: Courtesy the Artist and Milani Gallery
Carriageworks will present 24 Frames Per Second in June 2015, an exhibition that will showcase the commissioned screen-based works of 18 Australian and six international artists. The exhibition will present a range of dynamic and innovative multi-arts practices that sit at the nexus of dance, film and visual arts. All of the new works have been commissioned by Carriageworks and have been in development over the last three years.
Khaled Sabsabi will present Organised Confusion, a multi-channel video and audio production, as part of the 24 Frames Per Second exhibition.
‘Organised Confusion is an eleven channel video work in projection and monitor format.
‘It is based on the idea of fanaticism and ecstasy and involves ritual orchestration of movement, sound by the body.
‘The subject matter is the Western Sydney Wanderers football fans and a traditional Balinese dancer,’ said Sabsabi.
Sabsabi has been, over the last two years, documenting and recording the fans with permission of the Western Sydney Wanderers football club.
‘I have been documenting them from the ground. So the fans themselves have lead orchestrators who orchestrate the chants and the movement.
‘The other component is an engagement in Central Java with a traditional Balinese dancer that I did earlier this year,’ said Sabsabi.
He said the dance is performed with a mask and uses the idea of embodiment of a persona. The mask itself is painted in the Western Sydney Wanderers colours.
‘The video installation aims at a to and fro response. If you imagine the work – the fans are cheering, chanting and clapping, but you don’t see the game. In other places you see the dancer.’
The project builds on the idea of orchestrated movements. Sabsabi said it will have four large-scale projection screens that will, as the viewer enters the work, encompass the viewer.
‘Audio is another crucial component to my work. I find audio is something triggers other emotions within you besides the visuals,’ he said.
Exploring the unity of human experiences, Sabsabi’s work diminishes the timeline associated with a work of art, making it timeless and universal at the same time.
‘My work is embedded in social awareness and engagement. I have an interest in ceremonies, and my works is in finding commonalities of rituals and ceremonies.
‘Ritualisation is a common thread in my work. We are all human beings – and this predates everything, it’s a shared thing.
‘I find similarities in the ritualisation of the dancer from Java and the football fans doing their rituals – there is a conversation to be had there,’ said Sabsabi.
Sabsabi is also one of the sixteen finalists whose works have been selected for the fourth Basil Sellers Art Prize. The exhibition of these is now on display at the Ian Potter Museum of Art.
24 Frames Per Second opens at Carriageworks on 18 June 2015. To know more click here.
