Against Nature

Curated by Jessica Reid
Designed by Jayne Joyce
Printed by Print Limited

Published on the occassion of Daniel du Bern's presentation at the 2006 Next Wave Festival in Melbourne. The 2006 Next Wave Festival was themed Empire Games to coincide with the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, which took place from 15 to 26 March 2006 in Melbourne, Australia. The program for the Empire Games Festival engaged with Melbourne’s characteristic architecture and urban space. The Containers Village at Melbourne’s Docklands presented the work of forty-three Commonwealth artist-groups in shipping containers.

Daniel's video work Against Nature documents two brothers fighting within verdant surrounds and continues in the long-standing tradition of New Zealand landscape art. Here nature appears as a contested site; the protagonist’s irreverent actions presenting a light-hearted critique upon issues of land and place within contemporary urban society.