Congratulations to Jess MacNeil whose video work Revolution was recently acquired by the Art Gallery of New South Wales for their permanent collection. Revolution (2011) is the second piece by MacNeil to enter the collection, which also holds her painting Videographic painting: Paris Pale Blue (2007).
“Jess MacNeil explores the way we perceive and interpret the external world. Spaces such as town squares, the steps of public buildings or a river serve as the subjects for an exploration of the transitory nature of human presence. Breaking down our experiences of these places into fragmentary memories that rely as much on personal interpretation as they do on a collective understanding, MacNeil’s videos are a different take on the nature of memory and its representation.” – Andrew Frost
Revolution is a single channel video work exploring human movement through space and across time in the wintery landscape of London’s Trafalgar Square. Shot over one day, the people who cross the square generate what happens in the work. Filmed in High definition video, the human figures walking through the square were digitally removed, with the surrounding landscape filling their silhouettes
Jess MacNeil’s work can also be found in the collections of: the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, the Australia Council for the Arts, the Sydney Opera House, the University of Queensland Art Gallery, Hamilton Regional Gallery and Artbank.
Jess MacNeil’s video work ‘Revolution’ was a gift of Anita and Luca Belgiorno-Nettis to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2017.
