NATIONAL Gallery of Australia curators are over the moon at recent news that video, installation and performance artist Angelica Mesiti has been selected to represent Australia in the 2019 Venice Biennale.

Five intensely stimulating video portraits of creative human beings, among Mesiti’s most important works, are on display at the NGA until April 2, and the artist herself will be in town today (March 16) and tomorrow to present artist workshops at the gallery and the ANU.

Mesiti characteristically uses performance as a mode of storytelling and a means to express social ideas in physical form. In recent years she been making videos that reveal how culture is manifested in sound.

“Citynews” writer Rob Kennedy, when reviewing the show last year, was particularly fascinated by “The Calling”, in which the language of whistling, whether for birds or humans, is explored by Mesiti’s camera and sound-equipment.

The exhibition, installed in the NGA’s contemporary galleries, offers a view of the broad range of subjects with which Mesiti engages.

Angelica Mesiti, lower ground floor, National Gallery of Australia, April 2. Free entry.

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