Artist Statement

Anne Landa Award for Video and New Media Arts 2013. 

James Newitt orchestrated a mock confrontation between two groups of demonstrators, although it is never clear what they are arguing about. [source: ttps://www.johnmcdonald.net.au)
Say it like you want it is a video of staged protest/demonstration which incorporates signs, slogans and ideologies taken from opposing political positions which have been decontextualised from their original sources. The work was filmed in Liverpool UK within a community theatre space and reveals an artificial social encounter that brings together a group of non-professional actors who were provided with pre-made banners, masks, flags and disguises. The performers were paid an hourly fee for their time. https://jnewitt.com/work/say-it.html

By participating in the ‘protest’ the performers were asked to try to temporarily erase their identity and personal ideologies and perform someone else’s words, which may or may not resonate with their own belief. The work explores the spaces between hearing something, saying something, understanding something and believing in something.

The video is exhibited alongside documentation of an Orange Order march which was filmed in Toxteth, Liverpool – the site of the infamous 1981 Toxteth riots.

• James Newitt (b.1981 Australia) has exhibited in galleries, museums and film festivals. He has lectured Time Based Media, at the University of Tasmania, School of Creative Arts and has been a visiting professor at the City University of New York and the Tromsø Art Academy, University of Tromsø, Norway. https://jnewitt.com