ACMI + Hyphenated Projects Digital Commission

ACMI + Hyphenated Projects Digital Commission is a new opportunity for a moving image artist of Asia-Pacific heritage to develop a digital work for ACMI Gallery 5.

Through this joint initiative, the selected artist receives an artist residency and mentorship with Hyphenated Projects, as well as a part time residency at ACMI X. This unique opportunity recognises the sustainability of digital practice and offers time and space for artists working in digital forms.

VIEW THE WORK HERE

Minyak Sawit Keluarga (Palm Oil Family) examines the artist’s paternal family’s history of farming practices in rural Southern Malaysia. Footage of domestic-scale palm oil plantations in Bagan (Johor State) is interspersed with visual and auditory recordings of funerary Taoist rituals, documents and interviews that consider the palm oil industry and relevant history of migration in the local area.

Using a combination of new footage and archival film from ACMI's collection, with audio-mixing and post-production by Bonnie Cummings, Minyak Sawit Keluarga takes a fragmentary, ethnographic approach to history of palm oil production, tracing the emotional, social and political resonance of the industry across decades.

Image: Still from Minyak Sawit Keluarga (Palm Oil Family) (2023), Olivia Koh

About Olivia Koh

Olivia Koh is an artist and curator working in moving image production in Narrm/Melbourne. Drawing on a personal family history of land ownership, migration and extractive agriculture, her work examines the complexities and real challenges of navigating a diasporic identity and history. She holds a Master’s Degree in Fine Art Research at RMIT University (2022).

Olivia organises recess, an online platform for moving image works. The platform facilitates online exhibitions and physical screenings, including ‘the hearts of the people are bigger than the size of the land’ at RISING Festival (2021), 'recess presents', ACE Open (2020). recess is co-curating a suite of moving image works for the Artist Film Program for Melbourne Now, NGV Australia (2023).

Image credit: Kate Meakin