Split Rock, video still, performance/choreographer Gülsen Özer, video artist Vanessa White, 2020 (location Mt Cannibal, Garfield North VIC, Australia)
Split Rock
Video artwork
Gülsen Özer, Vanessa White and Ania Reynolds
Split Rock is a site responsive video artwork engaging in local history, geology and mythology. In the work the dancer performs durational choreographies that invite new, ways of connecting to place. Similarly the film techniques used in the work re-imagine our bodies’ engagement with, and contributions to, ecological assemblages.
The rocky outcrops pictured in the work are all within the 'Tynong Batholith'; a large geographical area of granite rock, mostly still deep beneath the earth formed by magma. They have been subject to ‘mechanical weathering’, which the predominant causes for granite rocks, such as those depicted in the film, to crumble. For instance, in mechanical weathering liquid water can seep into cracks and crevices in rock. If temperatures drop low enough, the water will freeze. When water freezes, it expands. The ice then works as a wedge. It slowly widens the cracks and splits the rock.
The highest altitude location for this film is Mount Cannibal. Its name is derived from an adaptation of the Aboriginal words ‘couna’ meaning ‘forehead’ and ‘bal’ meaning ‘he’ or ‘she’. The mountain was an important navigational marker for Aboriginal people and it continues to be a significant place for Aboriginal people. This granite outcrop is one of the largest displays in southern Victoria and the large boulders located here are over 350 million years old.
'These rocks are of the earth emphatically, but also somehow otherworldly - like space ships. Just like our bodies, so earthbound, so pedestrian and yet we are stardust and expansive in ways we cannot know through cognitive function alone.’
- Gülsen Özer
Split Rock
Choreographer/Dancer – Gülsen Özer
Video – Vanessa White
Music – Ania Reynolds
'We are grateful for opportunity to work on the traditional land of the Kulin Nation. We acknowledge and pay respect to Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia; to Elders and all Aboriginal people, acknowledging sovereignty was never ceded.'
- Gulsen Ozer, Vanessa White & Ania Reynolds
This artwork was created with funding by the Cardinia Council during the 2020 COVID 19 pandemic and in accordance with the relevant COVID 19 restrictions at the time of shooting.
Video artwork
Gülsen Özer, Vanessa White and Ania Reynolds
Split Rock is a site responsive video artwork engaging in local history, geology and mythology. In the work the dancer performs durational choreographies that invite new, ways of connecting to place. Similarly the film techniques used in the work re-imagine our bodies’ engagement with, and contributions to, ecological assemblages.
The rocky outcrops pictured in the work are all within the 'Tynong Batholith'; a large geographical area of granite rock, mostly still deep beneath the earth formed by magma. They have been subject to ‘mechanical weathering’, which the predominant causes for granite rocks, such as those depicted in the film, to crumble. For instance, in mechanical weathering liquid water can seep into cracks and crevices in rock. If temperatures drop low enough, the water will freeze. When water freezes, it expands. The ice then works as a wedge. It slowly widens the cracks and splits the rock.
The highest altitude location for this film is Mount Cannibal. Its name is derived from an adaptation of the Aboriginal words ‘couna’ meaning ‘forehead’ and ‘bal’ meaning ‘he’ or ‘she’. The mountain was an important navigational marker for Aboriginal people and it continues to be a significant place for Aboriginal people. This granite outcrop is one of the largest displays in southern Victoria and the large boulders located here are over 350 million years old.
'These rocks are of the earth emphatically, but also somehow otherworldly - like space ships. Just like our bodies, so earthbound, so pedestrian and yet we are stardust and expansive in ways we cannot know through cognitive function alone.’
- Gülsen Özer
Split Rock
Choreographer/Dancer – Gülsen Özer
Video – Vanessa White
Music – Ania Reynolds
'We are grateful for opportunity to work on the traditional land of the Kulin Nation. We acknowledge and pay respect to Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia; to Elders and all Aboriginal people, acknowledging sovereignty was never ceded.'
- Gulsen Ozer, Vanessa White & Ania Reynolds
This artwork was created with funding by the Cardinia Council during the 2020 COVID 19 pandemic and in accordance with the relevant COVID 19 restrictions at the time of shooting.