Carriageworks Summer 2020
Carriageworks has become a transformative balance of light and protest across four exhibitions for the Summer program 2020.
Words: Emma-Kate Wilson | Photography: Zan Wimberley
Radiant Flux by Rebecca Baumann, Carriageworks 2020. Photo - Zan Wimberley.
The first work you notice as you arrive at Carriageworks is Melbourne-based Kamilaroi artist, Reko Rennie’s Remember Me (2020). Standing tall, in searing red writing, the billboard outside the gallery reads out REMEMBER ME. As January 2020 sees the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook’s first landing at Botany Bay, Reko’s work sets the stage for an important reminder. He asks us to remember his memories of Redfern, but also linage that proceeds him— that this always was, and will always be, Aboriginal Land.
Walking past the luminous artwork to the gallery entrance, Rebecca Baumann's Radiant Flux (2020) begins the framing of her site-specific colour installation. Installed in December, the exhibition continues until June, where the dichroic film that wraps the building will offer new technicoloured shadows. The dry material coats the windows and manipulates the sun into purples, pinks, yellows, reds, and blues. The gallery, with its industrial-era building, is continuously changing — the site becomes the performer as it shifts through the sun's position and the colours that illuminate it.
All Auras Touch by Kate Mitchell, Carriageworks 2020. Photo - Zan Wimberley.
Radiant Flux by Rebecca Baumann, Carriageworks 2020. Photo - Zan Wimberley.
“We begin 2020 with major site-specific artworks that both illuminate the history and architecture of this site and demonstrate Carriageworks’ commitment to social and cultural diversity. ”
Radiant Flux by Rebecca Baumann, Carriageworks 2020. Photo - Zan Wimberley.
Kudjala/Gangalu artist, Daniel Boyd continues the themes of light and darkness as you enter the studio bay. Titled VIDEO WORKS, Carriageworks presents an immersive room with three of Daniel’s works,A Darker Shade of Dark #1-4 (2012);History is Made at Night (2013); andYamani(2018). The space transforms into a fast-paced journey through cosmos galaxies with overlapping sound from Ryan Grieve and Leo Thomson. Within the cycle, Daniel offers an infinite sequence of moving light, dots, and music that set out to disrupt the eurocentric model of history.
In the last space of the summer program, Kate Mitchell presents the absurd task of taking the photographs of representatives from each 1,023 recognised occupations on the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations. However, like with the other artists in the program, light and colour is at the forefront. Kate exclusively uses the colours of each sitter using the AuraCam 6000. In the exhibition, the artist presents these aura photographs in order of profession, yet as we see from the job's energy field, the occupations do not define us.
Kate Mitchell’s All Auras Touch, Carriageworks 2020. Photo - Zan Wimberley.
VIDEO WORKS by Daniel Boyd, Carriageworks 2020. Photo - Zan Wimberley.
Radiant Flux by Rebecca Baumann, Carriageworks 2020.