A Launceston artist's already illustrious career has continued to take strides towards bigger and better things as 2022 gets underway.
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Darryl Rogers started his art career at college and went into theatre, becoming an art director and set designer. Over 30 years, he learnt from some of the best in the industry.
"That sort of catapulted me into designing tourism attractions across Australia. There was major initiatives around that time that were spending a lot of money trying to get people to go into the outback," he said.
"We were using lots of technology. We were innovative by telling stories in quite dynamic ways using multiple screens, multiple projectors, using holograms, all sorts of things."
In the midst of all the work, Rogers realised his passion for being a filmmaker while he was creating television for SBS and ABC.
"Movie making was always sort of central to what I was interested in ... I was really keen and developing a real interest in telling stories through videos," he said.
"Now I make video art. My interest is trying to make video look like paintings. I try to use video in a way that's expressive."
So how did Rogers come to bring his talent to Tasmania? Well, the artist decided he wanted to revisit his roots as an artist and found himself thinking the island would be the place to do it.
After going back to university and completing several degrees, Rogers decided to commit to what he calls his art practice of video work.
The decision has led to the artist creating some incredible works for places like the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, and working with some very talented artists.
"As part of my practice, I've actually formed a relationship with a couple of other guys ... and we created a group called Soma Lumia - a tech art collective," Rogers said.
The team has worked with Mona Foma over the past three years to create works such as a VR experience of the Tarkine rainforest, a video art laser experience at the Penny Royal, and a responsive work where the participant could dance in real time with others located in different areas.
"[For Mona Foma 2022] we were asked to collaborate with pakana kanaplila, Tasdance, and others to bring to life a 60,000 year long story of [the Aboriginal people to] existence," Rogers said.
"What Soma Lumia is bringing to the work is we are essentially designed and producing all the immersive projections as part of the work."
There will be four projectors projecting on to material dancers can perform behind and in front of to create a dynamic work while depictions are also projected on the material.
"For me, my art is about trying to show a spark of something that's beyond all of the day-to-day and elevate who we are as sentient beings into something quite spiritual," Rogers said.
Rogers has also recently worked with Australian band Midnight Oil, and will be working with Encore Theatre for their production of Chicago in March.
"It was exciting and pretty scary at the same time, because you don't normally get that opportunity. I haven't done that sort of level of work for a band like Midnight Oil," he said.
The Soma Lumia team are busy in 2022, with one of the main projects a work at Launceston's Franklin House.
"It's blooming into something amazing and I'm just a pig in mud right now," Rogers said.
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