Irish artist Richard Mosse’s moving image work, Broken Spectre, is a powerful response to the devastating and ongoing impact of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest.

Filmed in remote parts of the Brazilian Amazon, the immersive video installation Broken Spectre is the result of three years of careful documentation using a range of scientific imaging technologies. Seeking to overcome the inherent challenges of representing climate change and making visible one of the world’s most crucial yet often ignored environmental emergencies, Broken Spectre is Mosse’s most ambitious work to date.

Created in collaboration with Australian composer Ben Frost and American cinematographer Trevor Tweeten, Broken Spectre combines and expands upon Mosse’s contemporary art and documentary practices. The work is presented across an immersive 20-metre widescreen panorama, utilising different visually arresting strategies to depict the unfolding crisis.

Richard Mosse
Broken Spectre, 2022
colour digital video projection, sound
74 min 12 sec
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Co-commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, VIA Art Fund, the Westridge Foundation, and by the Serpentine Galleries. Additional support provided by Collection SVPL and Jack Shainman Gallery. Suzanne Dawbarn Bequest, 2023