
For a Long Time
Video work, 2016
For a Long Time, is a video work that aims to recontextualise the concept of power and sovereignty through a feminist lens. Based on a photograph from "The Boho" series, it subtly alters the name of the well-known Powers Lookout in the King Valley, located in the traditional Country of the Taungurung People. This rocky escarpment was ironically named after a hideout of the notorious bushranger, Harry Power, in the 1860s.
The photograph features six women in Victorian ‘mourning’ dress linking arms in front of a hand-painted scene, viewed from the lookout. They hold striped souvenir rock candy collected from the same place that Stockdale visited on primary school field trips while living in Benalla, Victoria. Each stick of candy is inscribed with "Ned Kelly" and can be interpreted as symbolising magic wands, rainbow-making sticks, or relay batons. The soundtrack includes voice by the artist singing in Serbian, ‘magic, for a long time, magic.”
For a Long Time 2016
Duration: 5:02 minutes
Sound: Svetlana Bunic, voice: Jacqui Stockdale, editing: Michelle Jarni.
Commissioned by the 2016 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Magic Object