Elise Harmsen (AU)

Elise Harmsen (b. 1987, Perth, WA) is a Sydney based artist who works across performance, photography, video and projection. She has worked collaboratively with Jürgen Kerkovius as Elise/Jürgen from 2006-12 and in recent exhibitions & performances with MP Hopkins. From 2014-18 Elise was a resident artist at Sydney based ARI 55 Sydenham Rd. Her practice explores the nuances of digital images through examining their relationship to memory, time and space. In particular she focuses on the digitisation of film and how it gives easy access to the illusion of the frozen frame of the celluloid strip; the heavy presence of passing time and mortality associated with the still image, back and forth within a few clicks. Her recent work often appropriates scenes from films and found imagery which she then parallels with footage of her own, forming both a synthesis with and aversion to the original material used.