THE LONGFORD PROJECT: CRIME SCENE

Elizabeth Day, stills from Cold Case, 2019, MOV video, 11:23 mins.

The Longford Project: Crime Scene, exhibition presented in Longford Town Hall, TAS, as part of the 2019 Ten Days on the Island festival, 15-17 Mar 2019.

Crime Scene (2019) explores the history of Longford and its immediate surrounds (and by extension the history of Tasmania) as a crime scene, as each of the video works addresses a particular act of violence from the colonial period. This is a nationally significant project emerging from Tasmania about Tasmania, embodying issues relevant to most communities. Crime Scene brings new contemporary artwork back to its home, its place of generation, the place of cultural memory and personal imagining.

The Longford Project is a group of artists (Elizabeth Day, Anna Gibbs, Julie Gough and Noelene Lucas), who have intersecting family roots in Longford and see themselves as part of the Longford diaspora, now dispersed across the world. For several years this group has been creating contemporary art about the intersection of family and colonial histories in the wider Longford region. These works have been exhibited in two major exhibitions in Sydney in 2012, 2014 & in Longford 2015 and the project was awarded an Australia Council Development Grant in 2013 as well as residencies at the Bundanon Foundation, NSW (2016) and the University of Tasmania (2017).

Special thanks to Dee Alty, Dick Adams, Ivan Badcock, Bob Pitt, Ray Saltmarsh, Graham Carter, Sandra Bowdler, John Dent, Rhonda Hamilton, Fiona Dewar, Lucy Copas, Richard & Louise Archer, Angus Ashton, Jason James, Tasdance, Contemporary Art Tasmania, Kylie Rogerson from 10 Days on the Island & Longford Constabulary.

In-kind support from: Ten Days on the Island, Northern Midlands Council, University of Tasmania, Bundanon Trust.

Exhibition catalogue