Angelica Mesiti’s The Calling at ACMI
Language plays a crucial role in defining our personal identities – as citizens of a nation, representatives of an ethic group, or even members of a clique. In Angelica Mesiti’s recent video work entitled The Calling, currently on display at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), the diversity of historic communication methods is highlighted through a study of ancient whistling languages.
In Mesiti’s video, we are shown that language is not merely an arbitrary and standardised device through which humans transfer messages. Rather, it is a bespoke resource, born out of precise environmental context and vital to projecting a sense of self.
Filmed across three locations – in Northern Turkey, the Canary Islands and the Greek island of Evia, respectively – Mesiti’s work documents and creatively interprets instances of non-verbal whistling language used by locals in these locations. Accompanied by immersive sound and shown across three screens in the gallery, The Calling offers an engaging viewer experience exclusive of any deeper consideration of the subject matter.
Yet the combination of subject and medium in this work compels the viewer to reflect on, for instance, how and why whistling languages first emerged and, moreover, how they might be preserved in an increasingly text-driven global communications market. The former question would seem to find an answer in the source landscape of the whistlers. These are mountainous terrains in which residents were historically dispersed, largely through farming practices, so the high-pitched notes could carry further and clearer than words. Not that these non-verbal methods existed in lieu of verbal language – they served, rather, as supplementary communication.
This work by Mesiti, who is based in Sydney and Paris, came about after she won the inaugural Ian Potter Moving Image Commission in 2013, which is a joint initiative by the Ian Potter Cultural Trust and ACMI. While the video takes its theme from locations distant to Australia, the links from, firstly, European immigration to Melbourne and, secondly, the universality of language preservation concerns, make this very much a local work of art. It also serves as a celebration of both non-dominant cultures and the beauty of language more generally.
Angelica Mesiti’s The Calling shows at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square, until July 13.
Images
1. Angelica Mesiti, The Calling (production still), 2013 – 2014. Courtesy of Anna Schwartz Gallery. Produced by Felix Media. Credit Mark Gambino
2. Angelica Mesiti, The Calling (production still), 2013 – 2014. Courtesy of Anna Schwartz Gallery. Produced by Felix Media.
3. Angelica Mesiti, The Calling (production still), 2013 – 2014. Courtesy of Anna Schwartz Gallery. Produced by Felix Media.
4. Angelica Mesiti, Portrait, 2013 – 2014. Courtesy of Anna Schwartz Gallery. Produced by Felix Media. Credit Gambino
