Nixtieq li kont hawn (wish you were here)
2022 lenticular prints, aluminium frame
nixtieq li kont hawn (wish you were here), an installation of two lenticular prints each displaying four intersecting images taken from Busuttils 2022 moving image work Passage.
The works features boats and the ocean across time and place. Focusing on the movement of people, it requires the viewer to move around the room for the work to reveal itself in full.
The work is informed by Ghassan Hage, a Lebanese-Australian anthropologist, who in his book, The Diasporic Condition, argues that migrants, often portrayed as dwelling and being torn between two or three places, are capable of residing in these places at the same time. He refers to this theory as a lenticular ontology.
Through this research Hage has investigated what he calls a permanent state of comparative existence, that is to say he has observed that many migrants are continually drawing parallels between other places and their home. (Hage, 2021.)
The work was Acquired by The City of Adelaide through the Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition’s City of Adelaide Acquisitive Award 2022.
Photography by Sam Roberts.