A lot of the research and work investigating the history of cinema in rural Victoria for Australian Cinemas (24 Frames) became the background research and informed the The Cinemas Project: a large-scale project based in Australia commissioned by NETS Victoria, curated by Bridget Crone.

The Cinemas Project is a program of major, new contemporary artworks that explore the spaces of cinema in regional Victoria. These projects, by five of Australia’s leading contemporary artists, evoke both the mechanics of film as well as the history and present day reality of cinema. In many cases the works are housed within or make reference to cinema buildings that still stand, have vanished or have been re-purposed.

In the early days of film, movie theatres occupied a pivotal place in our communities often doubling as town halls, dance halls and even skate rinks. They were places of social gathering but also of imagination and fantasy. The Cinemas Project aims to explore and to reignite these sites of living memories, spirited visions, and future possibilities.

Each of the five artists has worked in relation to a single location. In this way the history of cinema in regional Victoria provides an impetus for the contemporary artworks that have been commissioned for The Cinemas Project. The resulting artworks provide us with imaginative relationships and reflections upon the place of cinema.

Between April – August 2014 the five new commissions curated by Bridget Crone for The Cinemas Project opened across five regional galleries in Victoria, Australia. Find out more about The Cinemas Project. 

As well as research on individual cinemas and inputting into the conceptual development for the project, I built The Cinemas Project website. More about my website work here.