SITUATE / August to October 2013
Kieran Boland is the Australian recipient of the RMIT SITUATE Austrian Arts residency exchange.
During his residency, Boland will produce a video project in which he appears in public spaces; part candid camera host/ part tour guide to his own youthful memories of a brief visit to Austria. As one might possibly find in a psychoanalytic session, the memories he recounts range from the isolated, the overlooked superficial details, to more concerted attempts at a recollection of places and events after a long absence. He presents himself within close proximity to a wide variety of unknown individuals — in what initially seems to be footage from a handheld video camera taken on vacation. These images are however a manipulation: the upshot of silently lip-syncing to pre-recorded memories using a discreet earpiece in a performance for a hidden camera, in conjunction with video postproduction techniques more often associated with special effects.
The basis of his investigation is an objective interest in the limits of what constitute free speech within an art practice. The role that memory plays as a catalyst within representations of psychoanalytic discourse, and social polarization surrounding surveillance and voyeurism are also investigated. Boland implicates himself in questioning the legitimacy of the foreigner’s experiences of place. What value are such representations distorted by time and memory? Can they lead us to reconsider our perception of what is mundane, typecast or even forgotten?