APHIDS: DESTINY

Saturday 11 December 2021
Screening: 2pm–10pm with a panel discussion from 4–5pm

APHIDS is a long-standing experimental arts organisation, currently led by artists and co-directors Eugenia Lim, Lara Thoms and Mish Grigor. Collaborative, feminist, intersectional and future-focused, the work of APHIDS brings artists into meaningful exchange with audiences through performance, critical dialogue and unpredictable encounters in the public realm.

APHIDS’ latest project, DESTINY 2021, is a moving-image work made in collaboration with on-demand or ‘gig economy’ workers, including rideshare drivers, food delivery riders and cleaners, that explores personal and global experiences of the platform economy. Against the backdrop of the historical union stronghold of Melbourne’s Trades Hall, four workers perform work in isolation, fuelling an unseen ‘machine’ of platform capitalism: objects are delivered, unwrapped and accumulated en masse. An electric bike weaves around obstacles and entry points. The pace of work builds. Over time, through shared action, the workers transport themselves into a collective space, fleeting but real, of protest and resistance.

Mimicking the form of the eight-hour workday, DESTINY is presented as part of Who’s Afraid of Public Space? as a one-day only offsite project from 2pm–10pm at Cardigan House Carpark in Carlton. DESTINY will be screened on loop throughout the day, with a public panel discussion from 4–5pm, furthering the consideration of embodied and racialised labour within the platform economy and how ‘convenience’ is shaping bodies, behaviours and perceptions of time.

Register for the panel discussion here »

This film will also be screened at ACCA, in the Project Space: The Hoarding over the duration of the exhibition.

DESTINY Credits

Artist thanks:

Sissy Screens, Steadipalms, Antony Moore and all at Trades Hall, Folklore Sound & Music, Crayon, Jensen Cope, Eben Olson at Reel Locations, Amos Gebhardt, Truce Films, Benjamin Pitt, Ruben Pinzon, Darren Tan, Becky Sui Zhen, anonymous Amazon worker, Grace Herbert and all at Rising, APHIDS Board and Donors, Misha Lee, Nat Cursio, Jessie French, Chris Tomkins, our past EASY RIDERS  Worker–Collaborators, Alan Macgill, Melbourne Fringe, Freya Waterson, Collingwood Yards, Jo Porter and QVWC, Max Delany, Miriam Kelly and Annika Kristensen at ACCA, Amelia Wallin, Lana Nguyen, Harpy Film Services, Karli Laredo and Stefan Polastri. Most importantly, we thank our entire team of collaborators and our loved ones for their collective support in realising this ‘labour of love’.

Supported by:

The work has been made possible by the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government initiative; the Australia Council for the Arts, its funding and advisory body, The City of Melbourne through its Triennial Grants program 2018-2020, Creative Victoria through its Organisation Investment Program.

APHIDS would also like to acknowledge the generous funding and support from partners: RISING Festival; Centre of Visual Art, The University of Melbourne; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art; West Space; Trades Hall and MPavilion.

Access:

This event takes place on the 6th floor, which is accessible from the street and car park by lift. The pedestrian entrance via Grattan Street has a ramp. Seating provided. The panel discussion will be Auslan interpreted. $5 all day parking is available onsite at the Cardigan House carpark from levels 1-5. Tram and bus access are in close proximity on Swanston St. The nearest public toilets are located at 10 Argyle Pl N, Carlton. Please contact ACCA if you have any further queries about access and this event 03 9697 9999 or info@acca.melbourne