INANIMATE BRINGS TOGETHER THE WORK OF ZOE SCOGLIO AND BENJAMIN DUCROZ, ALUMNI OF THE MEDIA ARTS AREA IN THE SCHOOL OF ART AT RMIT (ROYAL MELBOURNE INSTISTUTE OF TECHNOLOGY). BOTH ARTISTS DEPART FROM AN ANIMATION PRACTICE BUT HAVE WOUND UP IN VERY DIFFERENT PLACES, WORKING ACROSS A RANGE OF PLATFORMS FROM HYBRIDISED PERFORMANCE EVENTS TO FESTIVALS AND MOTION GRAPHICS. TOGETHER THEIR WORK STILL SHARES THE FOUNDATION OF THE ANIMATION DISCIPLINE, THE BRINGING TO LIFE AND ANTHROPOMORPHISING OF THAT WHICH IS NOT ALIVE AND NOT HUMAN. FOR INANIMATE BOTH ARTISTS WILL COMBINE SCULPTURAL AND SCREEN ELEMENTS TO COMPLICATE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCREEN AND PHYSICAL SPACE, THE HUMAN AND THE NON-HUMAN, THE BANAL AND THE UNCANNY.

BOTH ARTISTS ARE INSPIRED BY NATURALLY OCCURRING FORMS AND FOR THIS WORK HAVE FOUND THE POINT AT WHICH THEY INTERSECT WITH THE PURE GEOMETRIC STRUCTURES RENDERED IN THE GLASSY NON-SPACE OF 3D ANIMATION. THEIR RESPECTIVE PRACTICES CHOREOGRAPH NEW RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN INANIMATE OBJECTS AND THE VIEWER TO FIND MEANS TO IMAGE THEIR ONGOING INTEREST IN GEOMETRIC ABSTRACTION, FANTASY, RITUAL AND METAMORPHOSIS. FOR INANIMATE THEY HAVE CREATED A SPACE BETWEEN THEATRE AND INSTALLATION TO HOUSE THEIR OWN, UNIQUE, CREATION MYTH. INSPIRED BY SPECULATIONS ON THE ORIGIN OF LIFE AND EVOKING THE IMAGERY OF SCIENTIFIC MODELLING, THE ‘ARTISTS IMPRESSIONS’ OF CONTEMPORARY ‘DOCUMENTARY’ TELEVISION AND CREATION SEQUENCES OF SCIENCE FICTION, INANIMATE CREATES A WORLD AT THE DAWN OF TIME. BENJAMIN AND ZOE INTERSECT GEOLOGICAL AND HUMAN TIMESCALES, TO TRANSFORM THE GALLERY SPACE INTO A VOID WHERE THE AUDIENCE ORBITS THE ROCK TO WITNESS THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE AS THEIR SMALL WORLD TURNS FROM DAY TO NIGHT, DARKNESS TO LIGHT.

-DOMINIC REDFERN