Country Wide Screen

ACMI is taking some of its digital art collection to the regions. Benalla Art Gallery beefs up its digital armoury with Panasonic projection.

19 December 2012

Text:/ Christopher Holder

Art and technology have been familiar bedfellows for some time now. But often there’s a chasm between the edgy studios of Paddington or Collingwood, and regional galleries where tastes lean more to the ‘oil on canvas’ conservative.

ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) is all about video and media, and, in a new initiative, is touring a selection of commissioned and collected video work around regional galleries. The first stop on the tour is Benalla.

The regional Victorian town may be a relatively small blip on the demographic radar but punches well above its weight when it comes to the presentation of art in the public sphere. The Benalla art gallery was built back in the 1970s and has a strong reputation and popularity.

TECH RIDER

The technical rider for the travelling exhibition, entitled Between The Details: Video Art from the ACMI Collection, required a not-insignificant complement of high-brightness projection.

Panasonic is ACMI’s major technology partner and provided technical assistance along with some practical assistance — working with local financial supporters and government grants to ensure the gallery would have the four Panasonic projectors as a permanent part of its inventory.

“We count it as a huge honour to be the first regional gallery to host ACMI’s Between The Details exhibition,” comments Benalla Art Gallery Director, Eric Nash. “But we wanted to do more than just host the exhibition; we wanted to do everything we could to present the works as they are intended. For us, it’s about building our in-house capacity, working with ACMI and Panasonic to deliver this exhibition. We’re excited by the future possibility of working with a host of Australian artists who are doing such wonderful work in the new media space.”

FUTURE CAPABILITY

The projection investment includes 4x Panasonic PT-MZ10KLBE units with ET-EMS600 and ET-EMT700 lenses. The 10,000-lumen WUXGA laser projector is a popular model for exhibitions and displays, with its versatile complement of removable lenses, high brightness and vivid image quality.

“These are hugely impressive projectors. Given ACMI’s trust in the Panasonic product we always knew we could be confident in the results,” comments Eric Nash.

Panasonic PT-MZ10 series projection help bring the ACMI digital commissions to life. Such as this piece by Jason Phu (Analects of Kung Phu, 2021).