In Derek Kreckler’s work poetic free associations create distinctly uncanny and disturbing moments frozen, slowed down and repeated. Even the most banal setting seems to suggest something other-worldly and strange. Using simple sculptural or installation set-ups - combined with often comic performance elements - Kreckler’s videos are masterpieces of understatement. 

In this single-screen work Blind Ned [1997], Ned Kelly emerges from behind a bush in full armour amidst a nondescript landscape, to slowly shuffle forward with a blind man’s cane. The “film” is a fake, its look achieved through treated video with odd frames removed and “scratches” added to create its faux-vintage look. The image is arresting, suggesting something very peculiar about this icon of Australiana. In its installation set-up two stuffed kangaroos stood silent witness to the bizarre apparition of blind nationalism. 

In Flash In The Pan [2006], Kreckler installed two screens. On one large projection, huge plumes of flaming gas blast over muddy ground, while shown on another smaller projection shown to the right of the former, the artist is seen in a sparsely furnished room dancing to crappy honky tonk music. The only apparent connection between the two sequences of images is a gas fire seen in the background of the room. The sound of the flame and Kreckler’s dancing suggested some obscure energy conversion between one image and the next.

Kreckler’s major installation piece Antidote [2005] was a six screen work that featured images of waterfalls in wide shots and close-ups of rushing water. With very little obvious intervention beyond selecting and editing the shots together, Antidote slowly revealed itself to be a mesmerising experience. Subtle variations of speed of the footage, the hypnotic thunder of the water, and the abstract close ups suggested the structure of nature is revealed at quantum scales.