Irene Proebsting
b. 1957, Melbourne, Australia.

BIOGRAPHY:   Irene began her studies in Fine Art at RMIT before obtaining a Diploma in Visual Arts (Painting) from the Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education in the late '70s. She moved to Melbourne in the early '90s and studied multimedia at Western Melbourne Institute of TAFE.

In the '90s Irene was a member of the Melbourne Super 8 Film Group and regularly participated in monthly open screenings and festivals. She was also active within the group assisting with production of monthly newsletters and designing posters and catalogues for several MS8FG film festivals.

Irene participated in Ultraprojections, a collective initiated by Arthur & Corinne Cantrill which organised and promoted independent film screenings at La Mama and Dancehouse in Carlton, and she also exhibited multimedia work with Modern Image Makers' Association and New Media Network.

As well as her own films, she collaborates with Barry Brown on film and video projects.

	Field

CRITICAL OVERVIEW:   Coming from a background in painting and photography and after being exposed to Experimental Cinema through joining the Melbourne Super 8 Film Group, I was immediately attracted to the material qualities that could be produced by using soft focus, camera movement and in-camera editing. I especially enjoyed the resulting montaged and fractured narrative abstraction that ensued. Films took shape in the form of diary recordings, re-filming footage from television, video, books, magazines and my own artwork.

I am interested in feminism, social and environmental issues on a personal and political level and this informs most of my work.

Irene Proebsting 2008

See also Field Recordings

FILMOGRAPHY:

	Still Life without Oranges

Yallourn Power Station (1994, 3 mins, Super 8)

Six Sequences for Jordan (1995, 3 mins, Super 8)

Newport Open Day (1995, 4 mins, Super 8)

The Trades Assistant (1995, 2 mins, Super 8)

Philip Island (1995, 3 mins, Super 8)

Mayana (1995-96, 9 mins, Super 8)

Field (1997, 6 mins, Super 8)

Water Music (1997, 3 mins, Super 8)

Luna Berlin

Mayana (remix) (1997, 6 mins, Super 8)

Postcodes (1998, 4 mins, Super 8)

Escape from Station E (1998, 3 mins, Animation, Digital sound)

Made In Collaboration With Barry Brown:

The Last Metal Trades Junior (1992, 15 mins, Computer, photocopies, 2 tape players)

Industrial Vesper #11 (1993, 18 mins, Computer & tape player)

Still Life without Oranges (1997, 7.5 mins, Super 8)

Instruments for Chorus & Orchestra (1999, 12 mins, Super 8)

	Instruments for Chorus & Orchestra

The Noojee Garden (1996-2001, 16 mins, Super 8)

Harmonic Ghosts (2009, 3 mins, Super 8)

Abandoned Empire (2012, 9 mins, Col & B&W, Super 8)

	Abandoned Empire

Luna Berlin (2013, 9 mins, Super 8)

	Mirrored Light

Postlude (2013, 3 mins, Super 8)

Industrial Nocturne No. 2 (2016, 6 min, Video)

Edge of the Range (2018, 6 min, Super 8)

Tonal Drift (2018, 6 min, Super 8)

Mirrored Light (2019, 3.15min, colour, Super 8)

Rising Thermal (2022, 9:46, col, video from Super 8)

Industrial Vesper #11 (reconstructed) (2023, HD Video, 18:33)

All sound apart from 'Escape from Station E' produced by Barry Brown.

Rising Thermal

Selected Screenings:

	Harmonic Ghosts

1995, Reel Art, Gorman House Arts Centre, ACT. Super 8 Film

1995, Virtualities, Industrial Vesper #11 with Barry Brown, Scienceworks, Melbourne. Computer Installation

1995, Super Kiosk 8, State Film Centre Melbourne and 24 Hour Art Darwin, Super 8.

1996, VIVA 8, London Filmakers Co-op, Super 8 Film

1996, Dispersions, Erwin Rado Theatre, Melbourne. Super 8 Film

1996, Naked 8, State Film Theatre Melbourne, Super 8 Film.

1997, SURPRISE International Short Film Festival, Taichung City, Taiwan. Super 8 Film

1998, Mayana (remix) 24 Hour Art, Darwin, Super 8 Film.

1999, Best and Worst, Open Screening, Erwin Rado Theatre, Fitzroy.

1999, Ultraprojections #2, Dancehouse, Melbourne, Super 8 Film

2001, Ultraprojections #3, La Mama Theatre, Melbourne, Super 8 Film

2010, Artist Film Workshop (Performance and projections), Tape Projects, Melbourne, Super 8 Film

	Postlude

2011, In the View of the Lens, AIEFF, The BAck doOR Preston, Super 8 Film

2011, Nomadic Zoom, ARC Yinnar, Photomedia and video installation

2012, seensound: visual/music, LOOP Project Space, Melbourne, DVD

2012, Transiting Cities, Dual monitor and sound installation, Latrobe Regional Gallery Morwell and RMIT Design Hub Melbourne

2013, Questions of Beauty, The Question of Divinity, AIEFF, LOOP Project Space, Melbourne, Super 8 Film.

2013, Abandoned Empire, Night Projection, Bus Stop Clock Tower, Winter Festival Morwell, Video.

2014, Luna Berlin, Seensound:Visual/Music Series, LOOP Project Space, Melbourne, DVD.

2014, Of the Human Condition, AIEFF, The Artists Film Workshop, Melbourne and Replants Perth, Video.

2015, Enantiodromia, ARC Yinnar, Video.

2016, Discreet Montage, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Video.

2017, A Landscape Sideways, Metanoia Theatre Brunswick, Video.

2018, Obscure Transmissions, RetrOZ!, Artist Film Workshop, Fitzroy, Super 8 film.

2018, Industrial Nocturne No. 2, CCP, Fitzroy, Video.

COLLECTIONS:

Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art, Berlin

Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Melbourne

Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale

Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY:

"Industrial Vesper #11", by B. Brown & I. Proebsting. Cantrills Filmnotes, No. 79-80, November 1995.

"Field Recordings", by Irene Proebsting, Cantrills Filmnotes, No. 85-86, June 1997.

"Naked 8, Heinz Boeck examines the state of Super 8", by Heinz Boeck, Cinema Papers, No. 114, February 1997.

"Escape from Station E", by Irene Proebsting, RealTime, August-September 1999.

Mise-en-phónics, by Jake Wilson, Discreet Montage catalogue, 2016.

Irene Proebsting and Barry Brown's website

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