Forecast: Emmaline Zanelli
Emmaline Zanelli’s playful, nostalgic practice reveals an ongoing fascination with memory, materiality and the human relationships that enrich our lives.
Image credit: Installation view Emmaline Zanelli, Dynamic Drills (still), 2019-21, three-channel video with sound dimensions variable. In the churchie emerging art prize, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2022. Photo: Markus Ravik. All images courtesy Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
Emmaline Zanelli contemplates memory and legacy through a practice spanning photography, moving image and performance. Born and raised in South Australia, Zanelli majored in photography at the Adelaide College of the Arts. Graduating in 2015, she has since developed a compelling DIY aesthetic imbued with empathy and honesty. Often created in collaboration with friends and family, Zanelli’s work is grounded in a desire to build meaningful human connection, which has resonated even more deeply in recent years.
Making waves on a national level, last year Zanelli won the churchie emerging art prize, held at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. For the finalists’ exhibition, she presented Dynamic Drills (2019–21), a three-channel video that marked her first foray into moving image. The work was initially shown at Adelaide Contemporary Experimental (ACE) in 2020, after which it was exhibited at Melbourne’s Meat Market in 2021. Featuring the artist and her Nonna Mila, the work reflects on family and the passing down of memory.
Across the half-hour montage, Zanelli and Mila perform a series of choreographed actions. They fan a wind turbine to fire an outdoor stove; use a seated pedal machine to rotate a conveyor belt; and ride a stationary bike to light a Skype call on a laptop. Repetitive and physically demanding, the movements recall those found in manufacturing. Mila worked as a knitting machine technician in Italy before moving to Australia, where she worked at a wool processing plant, a factory for shrink-wrapping poultry and an automobile company. ... Subscribe to read this article in full
