FORGETTING

2022 / ACSA GRADUATE EXHIBITION

‘Forgetting’ is made up of over 30 domestic televisions from the 1950s–1990s. This growing collection of televisions are privately purchased from homes in the regions where each iteration of the work is exhibited. Each screen presents a different flickering version of the same footage, varying in colour, scale, contrast, brightness, and pixelation. The camera floats through foliage of an orange tree in a smooth, dreamlike motion, leaves brushing against the camera lens. During the exhibition, elements of the installation begin to fail. Signals are lost, some enter ‘standby’ mode. An accompanying document reflects on the interactions with the previous owners of each television.

Button is interested in revealing the technological slippages and idiosyncrasies of these televisions, as a way of communicating notions of loss. Through material failure, loss of information, and dislocation from the home, ‘Forgetting’ describes the experiences of deteriorating memory, inaccessible moments, and the loss of a particular domesticity.

'Forgetting' was filmed on Nukunu land, on the artist’s family farm (the Mid-North region, South Australia).