“Summation Of Force” is a virtual reality moving image artwork created by internationally renowned photographers Narelle Autio and Trent Parke in collaboration with filmmaker Matthew Bate. Made entirely in their own backyard and featuring Trent and Narelle’s two young sons Dash and Jem (two of Australia’s most talented youth cricketers) this work plays out as a dreamscape, where the backyard becomes an epic sports arena in which hopes, dreams and anxieties emerge.
Since the 1980’s when video became commonplace, technology has become vitally important in the development and coaching of elite sport. Artists such as Muybridge and Francis Bacon have all studied the idiosyncratic game of cricket, whose vagaries of chance, luck and skill most accurately mirror that of life itself. Moving from the innocence of childhood the work examines the motion, biomechanics and beauty of athletic pursuit to comment on the high-tech industry that now accompanies the multi-million dollar careers of many elite sportspeople, that are far removed from their suburban beginnings. Electronic timing devices, slow motion capture, computers that measure force, trajectory and acceleration are shaping our athletes and evolving sport. The artists have re-created their own sports arena, laying a professional standard pitch and hand building sports science machinery to put their sons through a series of training rigors – to try and understand what it takes for a human to become an elite sportsperson. Trent Parke was himself a professional cricket player – putting down the ball for a full-time career as Australia’s only member of the illustrious Magnum Agency. He later spent 5 years touring with the dominant Australian cricket team of the 90’s – capturing some of the most iconic sports images we have seen in our media. Blending real life with fantasy, this unique artwork from two visionary photographers in collaboration with award winning filmmaker Matthew Bate (Shut Up Little Man: An Audio Misadventure), is a unique look at sport and the suburbs, exploring ideas around loss and innocence, physics and motion and sport as science and religion.

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Directors: Trent Parke, Narelle Autio & Matthew Bate

Australia, 2017