Big show success funds new exhibits
The Age
Thursday March 3, 2011
THE SUCCESS of blockbusters such as last year's record-breaking Tim Burton: The Exhibition, is allowing the Australian Centre for the Moving Image to fund a new series of commissions, the first of which will feature acclaimed Sydney video artist Shaun Gladwell.Shaun Gladwell: Stereo Sequences opens in June with seven new works by the artist, who represented Australia at the Venice Biennale in 2009. Gladwell's large-scale video works, inspired by action films, the Australian landscape, and youth cultures such as skateboarding, have been especially created for ACMI's vast, 900-square-metre subterranean gallery."I think I'm right in saying that this is the largest scale show and commission that Shaun's ever had," says ACMI director Tony Sweeney.The success of ACMI's Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series this year's Burton show, and 2007's Pixar: 20 Years of Animation is helping to fund the new commissions series. The Burton exhibition, which closed last October, attracted 275,770 visitors over 109 days, making it ACMI's most popular show since the film centre opened at Federation Square in 2002.With an average ticket price of $17, the Burton exhibition would have generated about $4.68 million how much of that ended up in ACMI's coffers Sweeney is not at liberty to reveal because of the funding agreement with Melbourne Major Events Company. The commissioning series will support Australian artists working at the nexus of art and film, with the next commission planned for 2012. International artists will also be approached.
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