ART-PRESENTATION: Frontier Imaginaries

Gordon Hookey, MURRILAND!, 2016 and ongoing, A commission of Frontier Imaginaries supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and with presentation partners IMA Brisbane, Photo: Sam Cranstoun, Courtesy , Institute of Modern Art“Frontier Imaginaries” brings together two Brisbane art venues connected by the Brisbane river, the Institute of Modern Art (IMA) and QUT Art Museum. As a significant place in the history of the city, the river has been a crucial site for Indigenous people, a geographic and cultural boundary line, a space for recreation, a central transportation network, a prime real estate position, and setting for natural disaster. It is a site that also connects to the central concern of “Frontier Imaginaries” in researching the role of the frontier within the global era.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Institute of Modern Art Brisbane Archive

“Frontier imaginaries” is a new multi-platform project that explores the condition of the frontier with the era of globalisation, conceived by, Vivian Ziherl, through a one-year Institute of Modern Art (IMA) Curatorial Fellowship. The launch edition of the project runs across two exhibitions “No Longer at Ease” at IMA and “The Life of Lines” at QUT Art Museum. Across the two venues, local and international artists address this theme through works ranging from an oyster shell installation to monumental history paintings and multi-channel video. Linking both spaces together will be a specially commissioned exhibition design by award-winning Brisbane architects Kevin O’Brien and Claire Humphreys. This design will include an “assembly point” conceived to host reading groups, community meetings, workshops, and artist talks. “Frontier imaginaries” stages dialogues around Queensland’s unique experience of ‘the life of lines’. From the history of the ‘Brisbane Line’ to ecological lines such as the Great Barrier Reef, current urban/rural and digital divides, and across-sea borders with neighbouring pacific nations to the north; Queensland is a region marked by a history and unique knowledge of the life of lines. Participating Artists: “No Longer at Ease”: Alice Creischer, Gordon Hookey, Rachel O’Reilly, PA/LA/CE Architects (Valle Medina and Benjamin Reynolds), Rodrigo Hernandez, Juan Davila, Demian DinéYahzi’, Bonita Ely,  Tshibumba Kanda Matulu,Ryan Presley and Wendelien van Oldenborgh. “The Life of Lines”: Megan Cope, Ho Rui An, Tom Nicholson, DAAR, the Karrabing Film Collective, Elizabeth A. Povinelli and Sawangwongse Yawnghwe.

Info: Curator: Vivian Ziherl, Institute of Modern Art, Judith Wright Centre, 420 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, Duration: 14/5-9/7/16, Days & HoursTue-Wed & Fri-Sat 12:00-18:00, Thu 12:00-20:00, www.ima.org.au & QUT Art Museum, 2 George Street, Brisbane, Duration: 14/5-9/7/16, Days & Hours:  Tue-Fri 10:00-17:00, Sat-Sun 12:00-16:00, www.qut.edu.au

Horizontal Rev, from Rachel O’Reilly, The Gas Imaginary, iteration #2 (2014), with Rodrigo Hernandez and Pa.La.C.e. (Valle Medina and Benjamin Reynolds), Courtesy the artist., Courtesy , Institute of Modern Art
Horizontal Rev, from Rachel O’Reilly, The Gas Imaginary, iteration #2 (2014), with Rodrigo Hernandez and Pa.La.C.e. (Valle Medina and Benjamin Reynolds), Courtesy the artist and Institute of Modern Art

 

 

Wendelien van Oldenborgh, From Left To Night, 2015, Installation at The Showroom, London 2015. Photo: Daniel Brooke, Courtesy the artist, Wilfried Lentz-Rotterdam and Institute of Modern Art
Wendelien van Oldenborgh, From Left To Night, 2015, Installation at The Showroom, London 2015. Photo: Daniel Brooke, Courtesy the artist, Wilfried Lentz-Rotterdam and Institute of Modern Art