Soda_Jerk is a two-person art collective which formed in Sydney in 2002 and has been creating uniquely funny, politically charged and incisive video ever since. Their work challenges both cinematic and national history by cutting up and sampling memorable film and audio to create new narratives from disparate parts. They recently joined with The Avalanches for an extended music video collage work called 'The Was', featuring everybody from Jerry Seinfeld to John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.
But their new 55-minute work was commissioned specifically to be shown at ACMI, and splices together iconic images from Australian cinema. Mad Max is included, and Australia's own Olivia Newton-John may pop up in full Sandy mode.
In a statement, the duo said: “Given the real life horror of our contemporary moment, we’ve chosen to wear our rage on our sleeve. 'Terror Nullius' is a sample-based film which reconstructs Australian cinema to create a political revenge fable in three acts. It is our un-writing of Australian mythology, where a misogynystic remark is met with the sharp beak of a bird, or the jaws of a crocodile. Where feminist bike gangs conspire and rampage, and bicentenary celebrations are ravaged by flesh-eating sheep. It’s arthouse meets grindhouse, both dark and hopeful and irreverent and urgent.”
If you want some sense of what to expect, just check out the trailer.