Courtesy: Ngununggula Retford Park Southern Highlands Regional Gallery, NSW.

Video Commission is a research and residency project created in partnership with Shark Island Institute.

The brief was to commission, research, and discover what we can do together that we could not do alone. The project paired eight contemporary artists: Kate Blackmore & Dianne Smith, James Vaughan & Tom Polo, Matthew Griffin & Heath Franco, and Tony Albert & Serwah Attafuah.

In close consultation with the artists themselves, we approached each pair with the knowledge that their practice and research align. The brief was kept open to allow the research and residency outcomes at Shark Island (September 2022) guide the creative work. We welcomed artists to draw connections and explore contemporary modes of portraiture.