Spectacle

The Australian Centre of The Moving Image’s new exhibition presents music videos as an art form of our time. The exhibition brims with history, depicting the earliest sound films of Louie Armstrong and Bessie Smith all the way to their modern day counterparts. Walking through the space you are hit with examples of how these snippets of film and music are like microcosms of the pop culture of the time.

Spectacle takes the viewer through a maze of immersive and often overwhelming sections. However, this bombardment of movement, sound and light always feels expertly controlled as you navigate the space.The sections break down the some three hundred videos on exhibition into nine distinct parts: In the beginning, Shadows and Light, Art house, Smoke and Mirrors, Epic, Agent Provocateur, Body Language, Remix and Interactive.

The Interactive Section revolves around the Arcade Fire clips Wildnerness Downtown, Sprawl!! and Neon Bible. It allows viewers to interact with the music video artwork so that they create a unique version of the clip.

The Spectacle exhibition has toured internationally, however, ACMI has made sure to include quite a few Australian clips in the different sections which effectively shows the changes in Aussie music. They have incorporated the likes of Gotye, Alpine and Clubfeet as well as some great Richard Lowenstein directed 80s classics.

For more information head to acmi.net.au/spectacle.aspx