James Price – 800 Souls

James Price would describe himself as a 'multi-disciplinary image based storyteller' if it wasn't such a mouth full, so instead he usually opts for 'artist'. He makes art for and about people, and their history. James has created visual art and film works in places as culturally unique as New York, London and Sydney.

His project ‘800 Souls’ aims to capture a very human history of Broken Hill. Through close collaborative consultation, James will find 800 local characters both past and present and then capture their likeness, but in a very different way.

Within a residential space he will fill the walls with these 800 portraits and transform the house in front of our eyes. There will be a lot of interactive community elements to this; we can watch and help James transform a space into public art.

Coming to Broken Hill in April 2019.

Robbie Rowlands - N E A R N E S S

Through exploring Broken Hill and the surrounding landscape, Rowlands was drawn to moments that offered unique perspectives of this experience. Rather than being drawn to the vast wondrous landscape, Rowlands turned his gaze to sites and materials that, in their solitude offered distinctive qualities that he felt framed his experience.

The outcome for the exhibition set in the grounds and building of the West Darling Machinery Preservation Society brings together documentation from many of Rowlands site explorations and most importantly adds a collaborative element where Rowlands worked with the members to build this show.

The rich industrial environment with evidence of the members love of history and preservation adds an optimistic note to many of the works, transforming Rowlands destructive action to one that possibly revitalizes the forms or sites, or at the least supplies a moment of contemplation to the loss that is around us.

Special thanks to Rex and Janet Lorde and the members of the West Darling Preservation Society, Mitch Wilmont, Neil Wilmont and extended family from the Owl Barn.

Full documentation of the residency can be found at:
http://www.nearnessexhibitionbrokenhill.com/

Capper and Katzki - Broken Hill

When mysterious machines appear in the Australian outback, a remote mining community confronts its own history of industrial boom and bust.

In the midst of the Australian outback, a strange yellow machine scratches at the earth. There is no operator; no engineer in a plastic helmet. The object—more a sculpture than a machine—is the product of British artist James Capper, who joins filmmaker Alexander George in this hybrid art film; a project from Edward Campbell, founder of Forth Arts, which organized the residency. As Campbell explains, the project "aims to bring artists working in different disciplines and from different places together and enable to collaborate with each other, alongside a local community."

The ultimate brief of the residency was to create a film that explored the relationship between people, machines and landscape. "We had an idea of the type of film we wanted to make but, as with all great expeditions, you never know what will happen until you get out there. We had to work in a very agile, collaborative and flexible way." Shooting in unfamiliar and raw light, on 35mm film, in the heat and dust of the desert, was an acute challenge. "There were some very tense moments—it was incredibly exciting."

Beyond the mechanical, it was important for Campbell to cast among the local community—"to represent the human element." And so, the crew "cast members of the local community and they each added their own character to the film. The film is their's. It belongs to Broken Hill."

And watch the final film, BLUE FRAME, here:

https://www.nowness.com/story/blue-frame-james-capper-alexander-george-forth-arts