Living deadly:
haunted surfaces in contemporary art

21 July-19 September 2010

Art has an uncanny ability to re-animate the dead or forgotten.

Throughout the history of both Western and non-Western traditions, artists summon ghosts of the past and give them a physical presence through the palpable artistic sensations of colour, form and texture.

This exhibition has been specifically inspired by the way contemporary Indigenous artists from Arnhem Land talk about their use of finely painted cross-hatching or rarrk. The optical effects produced by these highly patterned surfaces are said to make the viewer feel the presence of the ancestors. Extending this notion across a range of contemporary art practices, Living deadly explores ways in which optical effects are used to make the viewer aware of things beyond their physical reality.

Living deadly includes work by Brook Andrew, Anne Ferran, John Gollings, Ruark Lewis, John Mawurndjul, Rod McNicol, eX de Medici, James Morrison and Robyn Stacey.