DRAWING inspiration from the beautiful Limestone Coast landscape, Mount Gambier man Luke Pellen’s latest video artwork is being projected to the region through the windows of the Main Corner this month.
After being involved in a mentorship program with talented New South Wales artist Heath Franco, Mr Pellen used a new range of skills to showcase the region’s beauty in the collaborative project Tracking.
Speaking to The Border Watch at the launch of the exhibition on Friday evening, Mr Pellen said it was a reward for hard work to finally see his video – which was developed in collaboration with Mr Franco and Millicent artist Caroline Hammat – projected at the Main Corner.
“I’m very satisfied as it is great to see it up there with the other artists’ pieces too,” Mr Pellen said.
“I have been involved with them and seen their snippets and ideas, but this is the first time I have seen the end result.”
The satisfaction was borne out of the weeks of work Mr Pellen spent learning the craft and developing the video.
He said it took time to familiarise with the program and he spent weeks experimenting to find exactly what it was that he wanted to communicate.
“The idea was to reflect geological time as the video slowly progresses from marine life to limestone, cliffs, lava and then to forests at the end,” Mr Pellen said.
“I wanted something that represented the landscape, but also tried to make it a touch surreal so that it is not an exact reflection of the landscape by adding a little bit of fantasy to it.”
Using cross-fade techniques on edited images of different elements of the South East landscape, Mr Pellen had his audience in mind when he was developing the video.
“It is slow moving as I wanted to make something that was accessible to people who are just passing by the Main Corner who might not have time to watch the entire video,” Mr Pellen said.
“In essence each image can be appreciated as a still, but the entire project is still a video.”
While his video will be on display to Mount Gambier at the Main Corner for the next month, Mr Pellen said he was fortunate to overcome some personal obstacles to make it to the opening on Friday.
“I had some health issues, which was a bit of a bummer, so I haven’t been particularly well,” he said.
“I went to hospital on Monday and got out on Wednesday, so I was ecstatic I could make it to the opening.”
