What’s My Scene: For Allison Chhorn, memory makes good material
In our regular Q&A column What’s My Scene, InReview speaks to emerging and established local artists to get their take on the South Australian creative scene and their place within it. This week, artist and filmmaker Allison Chhorn shares how memory and family inform her new exhibition, Fruit Tree Sun.
Where was your first exhibition, and how did it go?
There were a few early graduate exhibitions and DIY screenings in the beginning but the one that I remember most was at the Mercury curated by Flinders University lecturer Nicholas Godfrey alongside other Asian Australian filmmakers. It was interesting to see my work within this broader context and realise how unique every filmmaker is in their own way, even under the same diaspora-themed program.
What is your artist origin story?
At a young age I was made to learn piano and encouraged to have a good education – the typical mindset of Asian parents. I think it was being exposed to indie rock music and anime that I decided on my own to learn guitar and copied drawing the anime characters I was watching. I think it was initially a kind of rebellious act which became an essential need for having a creative outlet and a sense of agency. Although I keep moving between mediums now, that need has carried on since then.
I later studied painting at UniSA where we also explored other mediums such as photography and sculpture. In that last year I became interested in film. Naturally, film was the perfect medium for me to explore, amalgamating all the mediums. It was also closest to music in terms of its temporal language: containing motifs, rhythm and movements.
What was your impression of the local scene when you first started, and how has that changed?
I grew up on the outskirts of the northern suburbs so have always felt a bit outside of the central city scene. I have mainly been working on my own and a few other people, looking from afar and learning about different circles from the outside. I really value long-term collaboration. However, the amount of collaboration time usually depends on funding and can change as much as people change. It also depends on the nature of the work and where people are at in their lives. So I believe the scene also changes naturally as people come and go, and sometimes return.
There seems to be a little more overlap now between different art forms such as the Moviejuice events holding both film screenings and live music. My friend Bryce Kraehenbuehl holds film workshops that has included participants from all sorts of different creative backgrounds. It’s also very common now for many artists to be multi-disciplinary.
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How has your own creative work evolved since you first started?
I’m very much a self-taught filmmaker and learn a lot by doing. Trying different things, seeing what sticks and finding your style can take a long time to figure out. Also, consuming other kinds of art and helped me find my own style. Hopefully my work has become more cohesive incorporating all of these different elements. They all feed back into each other.
Over the years, I find my creative work comes in waves or phases. Either prioritising the day job for a while or going fully into creative projects if grants are successful or doing a bit of both at the same time. An artist once told me to be sustainable sometimes you need breaks from certain things. Sacrificing something to make time for another thing. There is always a goal to balance everything. This kind of management is a practice in itself. At the same time I’m very impulsive and find I am most creative where the tools are easily at hand and I’m getting feedback from people I trust.
What is it about your next project that you’re most excited or nervous to share with the world?
I think my gallery installation work can be challenging for viewers. I try to push the boundaries of video installation and see what’s possible in the gallery that can’t necessarily be achieved in a cinema. (Even though I love the cinema). I make these works from a docufictional methodology – creating imagined scenes that are deeply rooted in real environments and emotions.
The next project is exhibiting at Nexus Arts. The film was shot on Super 8 and draws from everyday life and family around the garden. However, the installation intentionally fragments and abstracts the material. I see this process as analogous to the way memory works and the natural decay of life over time. The physical material is tea dyed muslin with projection and surround sound. Initially, it may be unfamiliar or too experimental for viewers but I believe this open and immersive form can allow for multiple interpretations and different access points.
Who are the artists around you that inspire or challenge you?
Annie Comelli, multidisciplinary artist. Her energy is very motivating, as well as how she continues to practice her range of artistic pursuits (painting, photography, ceramics, film).
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Bryce Kraehenbuehl, filmmaker. I’m inspired by his work ethic and at the same time his ability to find small joys and rest whether it’s a pillow to lay on, a coffee to be fuelled by or a cat to film.
Zach Caporale, musician. The kind of person you run into, after not having seen for a while, and immediately write new music, after also not playing music for a while.
Favourite venue to play?
ACE gallery, where I had my first solo exhibition.
Alternative venue: my old studio which was an old church in Semaphore where we held workshops, screenings and developed all my large-scale projects.
Dream artist to perform/exhibit alongside?
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, filmmaker/artist. I saw his installation ‘A Conversation with the Sun (Afterimage)’ which consisted of projections like memories and a massive piece of moving fabric where its spiritual presence completely took over the whole room.
Favourite artist to collaborate with?
Josh Peters, sound designer. He’s got a great ear and mind and I love working with him so much that whenever I’m not I start to think “what would Josh do?”
Where is your exhibition, and how do you hope it will go?
The upcoming exhibition at Nexus Arts is called Fruit Tree Sun from March 5.
It’s material that was filmed over a few years on Super 8 capturing my family and nieces since they were born and the garden I’ve been tending to over many seasonal cycles. I hope people can sit in the darkened room for a while, become immersed in the work and step into the bright light outside a little dazed like they’ve just left an other-worldly but somewhat familiar space (much like a good film-going experience).
Fruit Tree Sun is on display at Nexus Arts until March 26
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