Media Release

Embargoed until 15/3/2016, 6.30pm

Far From Here by Claire Robertson

Child of the mining boom returns to the outback for cinematic new
video installation

nextwave.org.au

#nextwave16

Melbourne-based visual artist Claire Robertson spent the early years of her childhood living
in a remote mining camp located in Nyamal Country in the Pilbara, Western Australia. Robertson
has returned to the region for the first time in 25 years, to create her new work Far From Here.
In her largest project to date, Robertson transports her audience into the Western Australian
outback in a video installation of cinematic proportions, at North Melbournes Meat Market from
Thursday 12 until Sunday 22 May for Next Wave Festival 2016.
Far From Here captures the repercussions of the fall of mining in Australia in a socially and
politically resonant work. Drawing her audiences attention to the prevailing colonial
relationship to the landscape, Robertson critiques what it really means to inhabit place and
asks the question Are we really here? Multiple large screens create an immersive cinematic
space and guide the viewer through an uninhabited FIFO (fly in fly out) mining camp. Partly in
ruin and awaiting their imminent removal, abandoned demountable villages sit on the edge of
reality in this haunting portrayal of regional Western Australias social geography.
Revisiting their former home with her mother in 2015 was an emotional experience for
Robertson. At times, she and her two siblings were the only children living on site, and her
mother, Adele Robertson, was one of few women living in the isolated camp just west of Marble
Bar, a place the family lived for almost three years. Mum went quiet as we approached the
gate, said Robertson. She told me she never thought she would come back here.
With an evocative sound design by Tilman Robinson, Far From Here examines what it means to
experience a place at a distance. Making reference to and exaggerating Australian cinematic
tropes of the desert as dystopian, Robertson creates an immersive and powerful work.
Robertson is an incredible filmmaker, with subtle narratives of past lives infiltrating the
arresting, bold visuals, said Georgie Meagher, Artistic Director, Next Wave.
Claire Robertson is an artist who grew up in mining towns across Australia. Now based in
Melbourne, Robertson travels the world to create her video installations. Her practice is a
philosophical enquiry into perception and subjective reality in relation to the spaces that we
inhabit both physically and emotionally. After winning the prestigious Premiers New Media Art
Scholarship in 2010, Robertson went on to study internationally at Parsons New School of Art
and Design. She has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally, and has work held

Office 4, 5 Blackwood Street

North Melbourne VIC 3051

+ 61 3 9329 9422

nextwave@nextwave.org.au


in Documentation Center for Visual Arts (DOCVA), Milan.
Far From Here has been commissioned and developed through Next Waves flagship learning
program, Kickstart. Unique to Australia for its multi-faceted approach, depth and scale,
Kickstart is money, time and space for young artists to develop ambitious projects to think
bigger than they ever have before.
Claire Robertson is available for interview.

#nextwave16

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its
arts funding and advisory body, and Creative Victoria.
S h o w N a m e : Far From Here
V e n u e : Meat Market, 5 Blackwood St, North Melbourne
D a t e s : 12 22 May
T i m e s : Tue Sun 12pm 6pm
T i c k e t P r i c e s a n d B o o k i n g s : Free
A c c e s s : Wheelchair accessible | Auslan interpretation of artist talk Sun 15 May 4pm

nextwave.org.au

S p e c i a l e v e n t : Artist talk | Sun 15 May 4pm |Free

M o r e i n f o : nextwave.org.au, argocollective.com/clairerobertson
S o c i a l m e d i a : #nextwave16 / @next_wave / #farfromhere

P r e s s C o n t a c t : Claire Robertson, clairerobertson.art@gmail.com, 0423 056 603

N e x t W a v e F e s t i v a l C o n t a c t : Magda Petkoff, Next Wave Publicist 0409 436 473 /
magda@purplemedia.com.au

-ENDS-