Monday March 4th 2013 - PSM Lecture Series - Todd McMillan

The premiere speaker for this year’s Photography and Situated Media Lecture series was Sydney based artist, Todd McMillan. In 2006 he was awarded the Helen Lempriere Travelling Scholarship and is currently represented by GrantPirrie Gallery in Redfern. While failure is the recurring theme often discussed in Todd’s work, he is far from being one himself. His ability to see the triumph in unsuccessful endeavors endows his so called failures with a romanticism reminiscent of the past writers and artists from whom he draws inspiration (Caspar David Friedrich, Lord Byron).

                    (Todd McMillan 2005)

One might argue that his work isn’t necessarily about failure. Some earlier pieces, such as Good friends and conversation or Waiting despite/to spite myself give off a melancholy, but cynical vibe. To quote McMillan, “Nothing means anything and we’re all lost and doomed, it’s quite funny.” Moving into film, Todd stays – as with earlier works – in the frame, though almost never shows his face. The work is not autobiographical, it is a first person narrative, but he is not the character. He is allowing us to witness for ourselves by inviting us into the experience through his presence. When asked which failures were successes, his response was simply, “the honest ones”. It’s that sincerity in works such as By the Sea that, in my opinion, don’t communicate failure at all. He discusses an opposing sense of hope “I will try to do something that’s beyond me”, as well as allowing himself to be overcome. I, personally, see surrender. I see a willingness to open oneself up to whatever an experience has to offer; be it beauty or suffering, be it reaching the limits imposed on the body by time or the elements… In By the Sea Todd stood atop a cliff (a la Caspar David Friedrich) for 12 hours, from 6PM until 6AM, back to camera, looking out over the ocean he “shivered and shook” to create a time lapse that silently spans just over a minute when seen.

(McMillan 2011) 

Time is another element one can’t ignore in Todd’s work. From By the sea to Go on, (in which he hobbles up stairs on crutches somewhere in Berlin), and into later works where he no longer features in the frame, Mountain Study and albatross. Albatross, shot on 16mm film off the coast of Tasmania on a rocking boat, of the Shy Albatross circling over the horizon is hypnotic. The albatross, thought to be a symbol of the souls of lost sailors, faces extinction. As does the 16mm film the piece is recorded on, every play of the film slowly eroding its existence. This is not lost on McMillan who appreciates the fragility and scarcity of film as a media and believes, accurately in my opinion, that it supports his work conceptually.

  Image References:

Todd McMillan, Waiting despite/to spite myself, 2005, Art Monthly Australia, viewed March 10th 2013, <http://www.artmonthly.org.au/artnotes.asp?aID=5&issueNumber=194>