South Pacific (2007)
Single-channel video, sound, 10’ 30”. Courtesy: the artist & Starkwhite, Auckland. In collaboration with David Perry.
The term “South Pacific” is an outsider fantasy of the region of the Pacific Islands; a place constructed by trade routes, European and US voyagers, and perhaps especially the events of World War II. Stella Brennan’s dreamlike South Pacific alludes to the conflict’s legacy in the region by using and referencing sonar, radar and ultrasound – newly invented technologies for making images from non-visual sources and making the invisible visible. Overlaying the visuals run snippets of recalled stories. South Pacific uses the memories and aftermath of war, as glimpsed through the technologies of radar, video and ultrasound, to explore and challenge the antiquated perceptions of a region and its history.
