Images 1,3,4 by Chris Phelps
Video filmed by Bill Hart and Joe Shrimpton

Jerry on the Katabatic Wind, 2016
Installation, projected animation loop, sound, various materials

Jerry on the Katabatic Wind was created with technical assistance from artist and lecturer Bill Hart, Morgan Hart, and with sound created by musician and composer Leni Philippe-Janon.

The animations in Jerry on the Katabatic Wind are driven by a small weather station that was set up outside near the gallery space. Control has been given, in some part, to non-human influences; to the natural elements of the weather, and to the mechanical processes that translate the real-time weather data into behaviours for the animation.
If it’s raining outside there might be an increase in mosquito-like forms, or unseasonably warm weather might manifest an algal bloom. The animations and installation are in a state of flux, presenting viewers with an ever shifting experience of the work.
The title refers to the Bridgewater Jerry; a local nickname given to a snake-like fog formation above the Derwent River in Hobart. The Katabatic winds flowing down from the surrounding hills are responsible for creating the phenomena.

+ Created for New Alchemists curated by Dr. Alicia King
Participating artists – Art Oriente Objet (FRA); Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr (AUS); Michaela Gleave (AUS); Ian Haig (AUS); Nadege Philippe-Janon (AUS); Thomas Thwaites (UK) and Lu Yang (CHN).
Toured by Salamanca Arts Centre and Contemporary Art Tasmania – Flinders University City Gallery SA, 2018, Devonport Regional Gallery, TAS, 2017, UQ Art Museum, QLD, 2017, Long Gallery, TAS, 2016.