Magnesium Light

Project Overview

Dennis Del Favero
2009

Two Channel DVD Video. 4 minutes. BW. Stereo.

  1. Part 1: You and I
  2. Part 2: Hold Me

Magnesium Light is a video project investigating the interrelationship between war, the human and the natural. It uses as its focal point the original etching by Francisco Goya, What more can one do?, from the Disasters of War series of 1820. Previous interpretations of this series have focused on its depiction of the human cost of war. However, what is notable about this series is its pioneering investigation into the triangular relationship between war, the human and the natural. The Disasters is replete with images revealing the visceral feedback between all three. The project will explore how we are implicated in this feedback through our sexual relations with each other and our physical relationship with nature.

You and I: Viewers enter a darkened space showing images tracking over bodyscape fragments of the same male figure seen in the etching as a female figure touches this body with sexual caress. It appears to be a passionate love scene in the days leading up to the etching scene. The female voice-over, with its American accent, along with fragments of a uniform, subtly complicate this by suggesting it is the memory of a female soldier based somewhere in Iraq, as she sexually provokes a prisoner.

Hold Me: At the centre of the previous installation is a hollow black monolith. Looking down into its core, viewers see the previous scenes, but from the point of view of the man. The man’s voice-over can be heard through headphones. We watch and listen as he recalls his wife, and attempts to bury himself in memory.

Exhibited at

  • John Curtin Gallery, Perth, 2012
  • University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, 2011
  • Galerie Marion Scharmann, Cologne, 2009
  • Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney, 2009

You and I.7You and I.10You and I.4
You and I