POSTWORLD, the next exhibition to feature at Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery, will open on Friday 10 May, followed by a talk from renowned artist Gail Mabo on Saturday 11 May.
Curated by Kate O’Hara and Daniel Qualischefski of Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts, POSTWORLD features Australian artists and collectives who create parallel universes in their creative practice.
Daniel said the exhibition’s inception was a 10-year postal collaboration between Queensland artists Ron McBurnie, Catherine Parker and Stephen Spurrier.
“The idea of artists collaborating with each other across time and space, and the concepts they were exploring, led us to consider the human epoch and what a ‘post-world’ or parallel world might look like through the eyes of artists,” he said.
Gurambilbarra-based artist and Meriam woman Gail Mabo, who’s multidisciplinary practice incorporates sculpture, installation, printmaking and painting, will appear in conversation with curator Kate O’Hara to speak about the exhibition and Gail’s extensive art practice.
Kate said Gail’s work often connects Torres Strait Islander knowledge and political histories, including that of her own family, to manifest contemporary advocacy.
“Gail’s work in POSTWORLD was developed during her residency at Urban Art Projects in 2021,” Kate said.
“Taking the star sand of Mer (Murray Island) that her father (Eddie Koiki Mabo) shared with her as a child, enlarging and casting it in bronze with a rich tortoise shell patina, Mabo deifies it as a Cultural material of the land and sea beyond our lifetimes.
“Many of the artists in this exhibition create their own language and iconography from the detritus and sometimes divine of the ‘lived world’ existing in alternate time and space.”
The exhibition includes a gesture-controlled artwork by Melbourne-based artist Alison Bennett which enables audiences to explore Australian botanicals in deep digital space.
Conceived in the long Melbourne lock downs of 2020-21, the inspiration came from Alison’s walks through her neighbourhood that led to a new sensory appreciation of the colour and forms she was experiencing.
“It also sits within the context of the digital gardening movement and theories of ‘vegetal thinking’, a concept of critical plant studies that considers our symbiotic relationship with plants”, said Bennett.
POSTWORLD features artworks by Alison Bennett, Neil Binnie, Keith Deverell (Blue Screen of Death), Gail Mabo, Ron McBurnie, Jenny Mulcahy, Catherine Parker, David Rowe, Jason Sims, Stephen Spurrier and Rhonda Stevens.
POSTWORLD
Where: Gallery One, Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery, 1 Barolin Street
Opening: 5.30 pm, Friday 10 May.
Free, all welcome, no booking required.
Artist talk: Artist Gail Mabo and Curator Kate O’Hara
11 am, Saturday 11 May.
Free, all welcome, no booking required.
POSTWORLD, along with contemplate by Kym Barrett, will be on display at Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery until Sunday 7 July.
