Andrew Hazewinkel: What the sea never told
5 May - 8 July 2018
AN MPRG exhibition
Andrew Hazewinkel spent 10 weeks in a residency at the historic Police Point at Portsea on the Mornington Peninsula. The resulting works filmed at, above and below the water around Port Phillip Bay are a meditation on the sea and the drowning of fifteen young men.
“the exhibition is a deeply personal meditation on the loss of the young men’s lives and more broadly the ongoing, complex, nuanced relationships between the sea and the communities whose lives are woven into it.”
Andrew Hazewinkel
The works including film, photography and publishing take as a starting point the tragic event of 21st May 1892, when fifteen men from Mornington drowned whilst returning from playing a game of football against the township of Mordialloc. Only four bodies were ever recovered. The event is still regarded as one of the worst sailing disasters in Victoria’s history and remains the greatest tragedy in Australian football history.
The death of these young men had a devastating social and economic effect on the young community of Mornington, triggering a nation-wide response whereby local football clubs as far flung as Broken Hill donated monies to support those families who were affected.
Hazewinkel is a leading contemporary artist who grew up in Mornington and spent his youth swimming in and sailing on the same waters that took the lives of the young footballers. He also lived for a period in the house of one of the families who lost three sons in the disaster.
Hazewinkel's project was developed while on residency at Mornington Peninsula Shire's Police Point Artist in Residency during 2016,2017 and 2018. This project is supported through an Artist or Curator Residency grant facilitated by the Copyright Agency's Cultural Fund and managed by Museums & Galleries of NSW.
VIDEO
Andrew Hazewinkel - What the sea never told from MPRG on Vimeo.
PODCAST
Andrew Hazewinkel
What the sea never told 2018
15 min HD multi channel projection
video still courtesy of the artist
The 2018 podcast program is supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation
