Angelica Mesiti: The Rites of When

A contemporary reimagining of solstice traditions by the renowned Australian video artist

Angelica Mesiti is one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists. Celebrated for her distinctive moving-image and sound-based works, the Sydney-born, Paris-based artist explores individual and communal forms of expression, ranging from sign language, choreographic gesture, Morse code, and whistling to ancestral musical traditions, body percussion, and communication between nonhuman species.

The Rites of When, Mesiti’s first solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, pays tribute to ritual practices of seasonal renewal, both ancient and contemporary. The monumental, seven-channel video installation--comprising two sweeping movements that conjure hibernal (winter) and aestival (summer) solstice celebrations--is an immersive reflection on the age-old and continuing relationship between humankind, the natural world, and the cosmos. With choreographed performance, new music compositions, and soaring aerial views, the exhibition offers a vision of an enmeshed world and the renewal of hope.

Angelica Mesiti: The Rites of When documents the second major commission for the postindustrial Tank space at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Richly illustrated with stills from Mesiti’s cinematic video installation, it features a new essay by Isobel Parker Philip and an interview by Beatrice Gralton. An additional visual section illuminates the influences that shaped the work.

Isobel Parker Philip is director, curatorial and collection, at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra. Beatrice Gralton is the senior curator of contemporary Australian art and the Brett Whiteley Studio at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. The two are cocurators of The Rites of When.