Hetain Patel's Don't Look at the Finger makes its Australian premiere at Sydney Opera House as part of The Hidden Pulse Free Screenings and Talks, which comprises artists’ videos and films that use music and performance as their stimulus. Across four curated screening sessions, the programme explores the capacity of music and performance to build community, resist authority, transform culture, shape identity, excavate history, and reclaim space.
Don’t Look at the Finger is a major moving-image work by artist Hetain Patel. The film follows a ceremonial ‘fight’ between two protagonists, a man and a woman, in the grand architectural setting of a church. The way the characters communicate is a feat of choreography that combines Kung Fu with signed languages to express a ritualistic coming together.