Artwork information

The video comprises one long take of a scene in a church called Tu, or the St Francis Xavier Church in Naiserelagi village in the Ra province of Viti Levu, Fiji. The camera’s attention rests statically on a mural fresco painting by French-Mexican artist Jean Charlot. Charlot was a contemporary of Diego Rivera. He moved away from America to reside in Hawai‘i, from where he was commissioned in 1962 to make this painting for the Fijian Catholic mission. While the camera records a seemingly still scene across six hours in a day, through the soundtrack we hear the presence of people: from the 6am awakening of local children who emerge unseen by the camera but are heard performing prayer – a meke in the style of a Gregorian chant – to the afternoon when a typhoon rattles the church structure as rain pelts down on the building’s roof.