“Frontier”

THE act of venturing to Altona to view the latest work by Melbourne artist Matto Lucas is one of travel and exploration itself. Arriving at the train station, one is away from the cloistered confines of Melbourne. Separated. Ready to step towards the beach, and to turn inwards. A tourist in a familiar land. Spanning 14 countries and the breadth of Europe, FRONTIER is an experimental video artwork at the Louis Joel Arts and Community Centre. Part travel vlog, part performative sculptural video installation, FRONTIER interweaves and traverses both the personal anecdotal lived experience and the public, political nature of queerness. A visual diary of a trip abroad. The viewing of FRONTIER is akin to observing a foreign world flick by the window of a train or a rental car. The smooth imagery on the screen. The blazing brilliance of the cliffs of Dover. A rainbow flag beating in the wind. Colours like Kodachrome. Three men careening about Europe in an Audi convertible. It’s as sugary as gelato on a hot Roman evening. The installation of the art itself is part of the statement. The two screens, one for homosexuals, the other heterosexuals, cleaved in two by the space of the room. They sit, prostrate, on either side of the space. Forcing you to chose the moment you step into the room. Superimposed over everything are the stilted, robotic readings of crimes and laws. Constricting and restricting the movement of the queer community in Europe. News reports read aloud by computer. It speaks of violence. Death. Repressive laws, and fear. Continuously - persistently - playing over Lucas’s summery vignette. Later on, I think about the act of moving through a space as the train scythes through grassland west of the city. Past shipping containers. Lights blinking. The Melbourne skyline hunkered on the horizon. The rattling of the train. Pushing us through the humidity of a Victorian summer. Acutely aware of the nostalgia of travel, as it is happening. The viewing of the world through the lens. Filtering. Posting and uploading. The commodification of eyesight and imagery. How one can visit a place without ever fully plunging into reality. We skip through countries. Never understanding reality for people existing there, long after the holiday is over. Europe is beautiful. But, as Lucas highlights in his work, it can be violent. It is repressive for the queer community. That beauty comes at a cost. Then we return the rental vehicle and go home. - Words: Made Stuchbery Photos: Phil Soliman