This award-winning video installation (above) was created by Melbourne artist Amalia Lindo (right).

An artist with a link to the Apollo 11 moon mission has won the national 2022 Digital Art Prize for her video installation showing the impact of automation on the workforce.

On display at the Goolugatup Heathcote Gallery, Two Marionettes Collide by Melbourne multi-disciplinary artist Amalia Lindo shows how automated technologies replace human labour by blurring the line between work and consumption. 

“Growing up in Zimbabwe, I had minimal exposure to the internet or its communication networks with limited access to necessities like water and gas,” Lindo says.

“Zimbabwe did not have the resources to accommodate the technological developments afforded to other countries.

“When I came to Australia in 2005, the internet was readily available and emerged as a source of endless communication and information, and since then, I have been interested in how my continued participation with technology has affected how I engage with the world around me.”

Lindo says she was inspired to be an artist by her grandfather, who would encourage her to constantly observe objects and images. 

“My grandfather was a renowned geochemist who in 1969 was one of the co-investigators called upon to age-date the moon samples returned from the Apollo 11 mission,” Lindo says. 

“He was also an avid collector and he showed me how chosen materials offered infinite possibilities for reinterpretation and presentation, a lesson that has remained important in my artistic practice.” 

The biennial digital art prize is presented by the City of Melville and Goolugatup Heathcote cultural precinct.

Lindo’s Two Marionettes Collide will be on display at the Goolugatup Heathcote Gallery until October 23.

by DHANYA VIMALAN