SONIA LEBER & DAVID CHESWORTH – WHERE LAKES ONCE HAD WATER

2-screen Compile Compound

2-channel 4K UHD video, 5.1 audio, 28:14 minutes

Where Lakes Once Had Water is a spectacular and sensorial video installation that transports us to remote northern Australia – from the ancient dry lakes of the Northern Territory, to Nitmiluk Katherine Gorge and coastal Girraween Lagoon.

The project is built up around the fieldwork of Earth scientists working with Indigenous Elders, rangers and participants from the Marlinja, Elliot, Jawoyn and Larrakia communities, in areas of Australia where long-term aridification is most evident.

Where Lakes Once Had Water takes us on an imaginative journey, exploring the labour of Earth scientists and Traditional Owners as they dig and delve into the past, reading the signs and signals in the landscape, over concepts of deep time.

Filmed on the lands of the Mudburra, Marlinja, Jingili, Elliot, Jawoyn and Larrakia Communities in Northern Territory, Australia.
Filming, editing and sound design: Sonia Leber & David Chesworth
Colour grading: Peter Hatzipavlis
Where Lakes Once Had Water is the inaugural CABAH Art Series Commission of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH) in association with Bundanon. 
Courtesy University of Wollongong Art Collection, Australia.

ClientSonia Leber & David ChesorthServicesColour GradingYear2020Linkhttp://www.leberandchesworth.com