Barry BROWN & Irene PROEBSTING

Barry Brown and Irene Proebsting often collaborate through film and photography and are based in the Boola Boola region of Gippsland. Much of their work takes on an industrialised aesthetic, with underlying themes of social and environmental politics.

Proebsting’s practice developed out of an initial interest in painting and photography, studying at the Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education and receiving a Diploma in the field. The material qualities that could be achieved through camera manipulation became a strong interest for Proebsting, leading her to study Multimedia several years later. Proebsting adopts a diaristic approach to filming and re-filming, utilising found footage and montaging with existing imagery in books, magazines, and her own work.

Also sharing an interest in film, Barry Brown’s practice stems from experimental sound, investigating the potential of post-reconstruction and manipulation of sound. As an area of interest, he undertook studies in Media Arts at RMIT, specialising in sound. During his studies, he began testing out Super 8 Film camera. Brown often uses the visualisations and effects created through film as an abstract ‘score’, which is then translated into a sonic experience.

In the work Harmonic Ghosts, Proebsting and Brown montage imagery of foliage, light and shadows, architectural elements like a spire and stained-glass windows, among other things. The super 8 film has a home-documentary feel, unsteady camera movements, taken both up close and at a distance, which abstracts details to form a new narrative.

This dynamic movement also suggests sporadic movements through time and the revisitation of memories that have become fractured through an experience of distorted duration. In this work, the ambiguity is layered with a constant thrumming and whirring sound. The widespread tones within the sound element of the work unfurl as the image shifts.