Exhibited at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
2016
Co-producers/Artists
Kassie Carter, Jazz Frost, Alexander Wood, Nathaniel Wood, Sara Wright
Duration: 20 minutes
Project Statement
Artist Sara Wright arrived in George Town with a car boot full of clay, art supplies, camera equipment and anticipation. Death and ephemerality were on the menu, but the young people would decide what direction the art would take.
It was a tall order for a group of youths to sit in a windowless Memorial Hall supper room, confronting the topic of Death while receiving social media about summer escapades, but together they worked through what they knew about Death, what their perceptions were and how it affected them. All agreed that despite the sadness, they felt lighter, and that it was much easier to talk about death as a natural part of life by the end of the session. Alison Finlay from Headspace came and talked about grief and support available in another powerful session for everyone.
Sara talked about how an artist looks at the world and walks in it, what it was to expand the aesthetics of the every day, intensifying the perceived experience. She introduced ephemeral art and art experiences such as eating chocolate mindfully, painting with water on concrete heated by the noonday sun, working with clay, and collecting ephemeral materials to play with and display at the beach. It was while playing around at Plastic Park, wearing matted seaweed and laughing to tears at Nathaniel doing impressions of what Death would sound like, that a character was born that infected everyone. “You guys really sure you want to make a film?” said Sara, “you realize how much hard work that entails?”
The final days were a frenzy of screenplay writing, site visits, costuming, set design, audio sampling and film. Kassie, Jazz, Alex, Nathaniel and Sara pushed hard, working long hours. There were moments of triumph, moments of sacrifice, moments of frustration and moments of carrying around dead animals.
A comedic “coming of age” genre short film, Your Name is Death portrays Death Junior, “DJ”, as an embodiment of coming to terms with the inevitability of death at a young age, and the courage to live a life true to yourself, not what others expect of you. Life is just too short.
Our Thanks to GCC, Anne Cameron, Lee-Ann Paterson and Chris Barraclough at George Town IGA