Sydney Contemporary, 2024

4 September – 8 September 2024

With works spanning the last 40 years, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery’s presentation is a considered deep dive into our archive. ⁠

Our selection includes: a highly anticipated painting by Daniel Boyd; Dale Frank’s oily, resplendent black monochrome from 2008; a selection of dark, dream-like oil paintings by Louise Hearman; unseen works from Bill Henson’s celebrated 'Paris Opera Project' (1990-1991); cinematic photographs from Sir Isaac Julien’s most recent body of work Once Again… (Statue Never Die); architectural marvels by Linda Marrinon from the 1990s; Imants Tillers’ first foray incorporating text in painting from 1988 and never-been-seen works from the estate of Ms. N. Yunupiŋu.

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Installation Contemporary: Patricia Piccinini

I’m looking for new ways to understand our relationship with the world and the creatures and objects within it. The surreal juxtaposition and metamorphosis of beings, plants and manmade objects attempts to document a world where the traditional boundaries are no longer useful. – Patricia Piccinini

Patricia Piccinini is renowned for her work that blurs the lines between the natural and artificial, human and animal, creating chimeras that appear so realistic as to be conceivably alive. She is interested in unpicking the distinction human animals have shored up between ourselves and the rest of the living world, a falsehood that has resulted in the current state of climate emergency. For Installation Contemporary she presents an intimate ecosystem, with two smaller sculptures in conversation with a constantly moving corona of hair – a recurring material and symbol used by the artist because as she notes, ‘it is both alive but inert, unfeeling but sensuous’.

Cloudgazer takes the form of an albatross, but not quite. Its vibrant hues and patterned wings render it perhaps transformed by technological intervention. It is now a desirable thing, and alongside the shoe form of Tresses, speaks to the deliberate allure, and attendant environmental impact, of consumer culture.

The magnificent albatross was historically seen by sailors as an omen of good luck, but metaphorically the term is used to describe something that causes persistent deep concern or anxiety, in allusion to Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, whose protagonist kills an innocent albatross and is forced to wear its carcass around his neck as punishment. When he realises the consequences of his actions and can see the beauty of the sea and its creatures, the weight is lifted. Indeed, connection, empathy, vulnerability and responsibility are at the heart of Piccinini’s practice.

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