Trent Crawford & Stanton Cornish-Ward, In a World Full of Angels, 2022, single channel HD video, sound, 10:55 mins. Courtesy of the artists.
Gertrude is pleased to present In a World Full of Angels (2022), the organisation’s first Digital Commission for 2022 and the second collaborative film by artistic duo Trent Crawford and Stanton Cornish-Ward.
Referencing films such as Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), and La Rabbia (1963), In a World Full of Angels presents a mosaic vision of faith amidst turbulent technological and historical developments. As a pilgrim skydiver prepares to fall to Earth, she contemplates her place in history, drawing through-lines between the world today and two notable events of “divine” aerial intervention – the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, Portugal in 1917, and the use of atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Muddled by her own temporal and cultural distance to these events, the skydiver confronts her own modernity by channeling an eschatological prophecy that attempts to grasp meaning in an otherwise groundless world.
Trent Crawford is an artist and filmmaker based in Naarm Melbourne whose work considers the impact images and image-based technology have on notions of truth, belief, and agency. In recent years he has exhibited artworks at Palazzo San Giuseppe, Italy (2022); ACE, Tarntanya Adelaide (2021); Hobiennale, nipaluna Hobart (2019); Myojuji Sarue, Tokyo (2019); and Auto Studio, Beijing (2018). He was awarded the Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Traveling Fellowship in 2017 and the Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship in 2022 which he used to participate in the Maumaus Independent Study Program in Lisbon, Portugal.
Stanton Cornish-Ward is an artist and filmmaker based in Naarm Melbourne of Ukrainian and Bugendidj heritage. Her work looks at the fallacy of memory, intergenerational trauma, and the effects of emerging technologies on the human condition. She is one half of Hiball, a film production company specializing in moving image for the digital world. Her film work has been part of the official selections of film festivals in Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Ireland, Germany, Hong Kong, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, Spain, Mexico, U.K, and U.S.A.
In 2022 Cornish-Ward and Crawford’s film LOCK (2021) received the award for best experimental film at the Cologne International Film Festival. The work has been exhibited in Australia, Italy, and Germany.
Acknowledgements
Written, shot and edited by Trent Crawford & Stanton Cornish-Ward
Skydiver
Maura Rosqvist
Voiceover
Willow
Composition & sound design
Mitchell Mackintosh
Audio mix
Mitchell Mackintosh
Mastering
Pat Telfer
A special thank you to:
Matthew Hill
Dreamfly, Lisboa
Skydive Portugal, Evora
Tim Riley Walsh
Hilary Thurlow