
ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) has announced that the recipient of the inaugural $80,000 Mordant Family VR Commission is Dr Christian Thompson, one of Australia’s leading visual artists. The commission, created in partnership with Catriona and Simon Mordant AM, the City of Melbourne and ACMI, builds on ACMI’s existing commissioning initiatives, and heralds a new era of artist support at ACMI for emerging platforms. The Mordant Family VR Commission will allow Thompsons’ practice to extend into the exciting medium of VR for the first time. Thompson is a contemporary artist whose work explores notions of identity, cultural hybridity, and history; often referring to the relationships between these concepts and the environment. Formally trained as a sculptor, Thompson’s multidisciplinary practice engages mediums such as photography, video, sculpture, performance, and sound. His work focuses on the exploration of identity, sexuality,…