33 is a dual screen installation which draws on Burton’s My Mother’s Village project which premiered at the 2012 Colombo Art Biennale. My Mother’s Village is, as the artist states, ‘a journey of inheritance’. It focuses attention on Sri Lankan communities where Burton’s parents conducted field research in the late 1970s and produced The Sri Lanka Series (1980), comprising three ethnographic documentaries. 33 years later, Burton visits the same villages/communities and the same participants from The Sri Lanka Series. His filmic treatment (gathered over 4 years [2010-14] as part of his doctoral research) pursues the original themes and issues of the former: economic conditions, colonialism, the roles and position of women, religion and ritual, and intergenerational change. The 33 installation includes excerpts from The Sri Lanka Series juxtaposed against Burton’s recent footage.
Image: ’33’, installation view (detail), NCCA, 2015; image courtesy the artist
Aaron Burton is a documentary filmmaker, photographer, and visual artist. His personal storytelling approach to moving and still images traverses the boundaries of documentary, visual ethnography, and video art. In 2009 Burton was awarded the inaugural Jeremy Hynes Award by the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, for his video-based documentaries. Aaron holds a PhD in Media Arts from the University of New South Wales and is currently lecturing at Charles Darwin University, NT.
www.aaronlburton.com