Turn, 2016,
Animation and installation, Zanny Begg,
with sound piece from Kate Carr
Turn is a short looped animation of a circular flight of the Masked Owl, an endangered bird from Tasmania. The animation is projected through an nineteenth century Magic Lantern, using a combination of contemporary and antiquated film technology. This experimental project was produced for Exhaust an exhibition curated by Erin Sickler at Contemporary Art Tasmania, for the mona foma festival. The viewer is invited to consider issues of representation and exhaustion (planetary/human/biological) that seem to define our era through the short repetitive loop of the flight of a magnificent yet vulnerable owl.
Hegel famously wrote “The owl of Minerva takes its flight only when the shades of night are gathering”, indicating that we only understand our world as it passes. In this work the owl takes flight at dawn, demonstrating either that time is out of kilter, or that knowledge is still possible before the close of day.
