Liang Luscombe <em>Itchy IOUs</em> 2020 (still); HD video. Courtesy of the artist<br/>
© Liang Luscombe

NGV X recess: Artist Film Program – Itchy IOUs Liang Luscombe

Free entry

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Fed Square

Community Hall Ground Level

Liang Luscombe <em>Itchy IOUs</em> 2020 (still); HD video. Courtesy of the artist<br/> © Liang Luscombe
Past program

Co-curated with Olivia Koh from recess – a Melbourne-based online platform showcasing contemporary moving-image works – this series will comprise daily screenings in Community Hall. Featuring all Melbourne-based filmmakers, the films highlight the city’s breadth of talent in art-filmmaking – an expanding arena of creative practice with a bright future.

Liang Luscombe’s practice encompasses painting, sculpture and moving images that ask how images and film affect audiences.

Itchy IOUs, 2020, is shot entirely within constructed sets and features a cast of puppets, including a giant mouth, Miss Wiggy and Cermit the Frog. The surreal comedy follows two Asian-American women, Fran and Sol, as they struggle with debt. Every two minutes, Fran’s bank balance drops $4.95, and she can’t figure out why. As her balance keeps plummeting, she contemplates extreme actions: bitcoin mining, looting, maybe even selling her teeth. Itchy IOUs humorously asks the audience to contemplate the precarity of individual existence in late capitalism and the impact of image production (advertising, self-presentation, icons and artworks) in contemporary life.

Luscombe received her Master of Fine Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University, United States. She has been included in screenings at Table, Chicago; The Front, New Orleans; The Sunview Luncheonette, New York; Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne; Composite, Melbourne; OpenTV, Chicago; Comfort Station, Chicago; and Vehicle, New York. She has undertaken residencies at Bemis Center of Contemporary Arts, Omaha (2022); Chicago Artist Coalition’s HATCH residency program, Chicago (2019); SOMA Summer, Mexico City (2018); Australia Council Studio, British School at Rome (2013); and Perth Institute of Contemporary Art Studio Residency, Perth (2011).


Film credits
Itchy IOUs, 2020, HD video, 22 minutes 40 seconds. © Liang Luscombe.
Directed and Produced by Liang Luscombe
Dedicated to David Graeber


General enquiries

Ph +61 3 8620 2222
ngvenquiries@ngv.vic.gov.au
9am–5pm, daily