MELBOURNE.- The Ian Potter Moving Image Commissionannounced that the new work by acclaimed artist Angelica Mesiti The Calling opened today. After fifteen months of work, filming in three countries; this ambitious moving-image artwork will reside at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image until 13 July.

The Calling is the inaugural work to come from the Commission, a ten year joint initiative between The Ian Potter Cultural Trust (IPCT) and ACMI. Angelica was awarded the commission in December 2012 after an international call for Australian artists to submit their proposals for consideration by the judging panel.

ACMI Director and Chair of the IPMIC Judging Panel Tony Sweeney said of Angelica Mesiti “Angelica’s sensibility is poetic, lively and immediate and attuned to subtle relationships between performance, musicality and the visual image. This latest work The Calling exemplifies these talents on an ambitious scale and realised to stunning effect”

Projected against the length of the gallery wall, the three-channel video installation with sound is an immersive experience. In order to unpack the complexities of whistling languages explored in this work, Angelica has paired scenic landscapes with an immersive soundscape; comprising of whistling, silence and nature – birdsongs, grass rustles and sounds from the rural communities as they go about their lives.

Interested in looking at how cultural traditions, such as whistling languages, is kept alive in spite of evolution. In looking at three separate communities that are actively working at preserving the tradition, she found communities that are as tenacious as they are creative.

“The last 12 months working on The Calling has been a kind of odyssey and I'm very excited that the time to present the final work is here. It's been a privilege to work with these communities and develop the installation and now I look forward to passing it over to the viewers.” says Angelica.

Commenting on the work, Chairman of The Ian Potter Cultural Trust, Mr Charles Goode AC said, “Our sincere congratulations to the inaugural commission recipient, Angelica Mesiti. The Ian Potter Moving Image Commission is one of the most valuable commissions in Australian fine art so our hopes and expectations were great. Ms Mesiti has created an extraordinary, evocative work, worthy of its place as the newest addition in the ACMI collection, alongside works by artists such as Shaun Gladwell, Candice Breitz and Warwick Thornton. The Calling is sets a high bar for the future of IPMIC.”

The Calling will be at ACMI from Tuesday 4 February through to Sunday 13 July, 2014 and open to the public daily with free admittance.

Angelica Mesiti is a video, performance and installation artist based in Sydney and Paris. She uses cinematic filming devices to make studies of diverse human subjects in heightened states of rapture and performance. Her work Citizens Band (2012)premiered in NEW12 at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art and has since also been exhibited in the Istanbul Biennial, Turkey; the Aichi Triennial, Japan; Auckland Triennial, New Zealand; the Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates; the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India; and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (all 2013). She has also been the recipient of various awards and fellowships including the Anne Landa Award for video and new media at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (2013), the AFTRS Creative Fellowship Award (2011) and the 58th Blake Prize for Religious and Spiritual Art (2009).

Angelica Mesiti is represented by Anna Schwartz Gallery. Produced by Felix Media.