Cirrus@Austlit

Title: SUMMER

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Date of production: 2012

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Medium: Single-channel digital video, duration 00:03:00

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Edition: 2/10

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Credit line: Collection of The University of Queensland. Winner of 'The University of Queensland National Artists' Self-Portrait Prize 2013'.

Accession no: 2013.241.01

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The fly in the video was a previous work created by Nell (Fly as high as me, 2001). After being in storage for ten years, Nell decided it was time for the fly to die. The video therefore represents a double self-portrait. The fly, as tall as Nell herself, is her totem. The fly was chosen for its nostalgic value. Nell grew up in the country and always thought of the blowfly as a beautiful and precious creature, even though it was much maligned.

Another element of self-portraiture in the video is the use of the artists own body to make the ‘self’ felt. Nell uses her own body to enhance the feeling of authenticity. At times it leaves the viewer feeling awkward, as if having stumbled uninvited into someone’s private and intimate space. You can see anger and sadness; but it is also quite comical.

There are a number of juxtapositions and ironies present in SUMMER. Nell’s Buddhist practice (central to her art practice) advocates non-violence. She communicates her respect for the fly (and ultimately herself) by silently bowing three times, a ritual common in Buddhism and throughout Asian cultures. This considered action is then contrasted with uncontrolled, wild beating of the fly from the wall. As bits fracture from the sculpture Nell ‘chants’, “god dam, god dam mother fucker”.

Though the video was conceived from an invitation to create a self-portrait on the theme “remix. post. connect”, the work speaks of Nell’s broader portfolio and engages with themes of death and birth; creation and destruction common in her work.

The work acts as a memento mori of sorts, reminding us of the inevitability of death. Far from mournful, the work recognizes that “everything dies and so life goes on”. What was once a sculpture becomes a performance and then a video. So, even though something is dying, something is also being born. SUMMER is therefore a double self-portrait in which I am concurrently living and dying," says Nell.

‘SUMMER’ is quintessentially Australian, recalling long hot afternoons, swatting flies, backyard cricket and drunken violence. But even the seasons must change.