Antipods is pleased to introduce USQ artist Chelsea Arthur: Helicopters

Helicopters

2014

3x video works

Play - duration 1:44 mins

Climb a Tree - duration 1:53 mins

Window - duration 2:03 mins

The imagination of a child creates a world full of wonder and sweet whimsy, not yet grounded by the practicality and logic of adulthood. Every part of nature has the potential of being something magical and beautiful, and this work investigates one such bit of magic – the wonder of poetic flight.

Through film, we are transported into the narrative of a bouncy, joyful character who is completely enthralled by the ‘helicopters’ or seed pods, chasing them about this way and that. Her comedic chase, for a fleeting moment, engages the onlooker in a story of childlike play. Additionally, another two projections of the pod’s movement, one filmed after having climbed up a tree and the other whilst scanning through the branches, act as little windows to other places of adventure. 

In the physical space, the pods, in softly muted, block colours, with the occasional shimmery bronze, are scattered about as though fallen from a tree and tossed about by the wind. The shapes are still recognisable but are now part of a parallel world where imagination and untold stories reside. A place where the imagination is allowed to roam free, and all good and lovely things are possible. 

Although the pods sit still on the ground, a trail of their movement is evident, and as they sit there, the pods pull on the viewer’s nostalgic heart strings, inviting or even daring the viewer to pick them up and let them be ‘helicopters’ again.