RED

del kathryn barton is recognised primarily for her highly detailed and layered figurative paintings. Her emotive imagery has expanded across media, revealing Barton’s capacity for storytelling through drawing, photography, animation and film, as well as painting.

RED, a fast-paced short film, represents Barton’s directorial debut with a cast that includes the Australian actors, Cate Blanchett and Alex Russell, and the Sydney Dance Company’s Charmene Yap.

A savage tale of female strength, RED was inspired by the mating rituals of the deadly Australian redback spider. The male spider, after copulating with the female, is either devoured by her or bound and stored on her web for a later meal. The artist captured detailed macro footage of spiders mating, which is interspersed with sequences of surreal drama in an unconventional narrative.

Primal in both content and palette, RED harnesses painterly and corporeal colour combinations of blood red, fleshy pink and high-contrast black and white. The set and costumes for the work were designed by Alice Babidge from the Sydney Theatre Company and the soundtrack composed by Tom Schutzinger, while the film was designed by Brooke Tresize, edited by Mark Bennett and produced by Australian film-maker Angie Fielder, at Aquarius Films.

Leigh Robb, Curator of Contemporary Art