Queensland’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) has turned 10 and headlining the celebrations is Sugar Spin: you, me, art and everything – an exhibition featuring over 250 contemporary artworks exploring light, space, architecture and the senses.
From brand-new immersive works to large-scale visitor favourites, Sugar Spin reflects the complex connections to the natural world with an explosion of colour, sensation and spinning delights, as it draws visitors between distinctive chapters – sweetmelt, blackwater, treasure, cosmos, soaring – establishing a dramatic itinerary through GOMA’s unique exhibition spaces, reflecting the urgent challenges of our day, as well as the beauty of the world we live in.
Exhibition highlights include: the return of Carsten Höller’s much-loved Left/Right Slide, spiralling visitors from the top floor of GOMA to the bottom; Ron Mueck’s oversized In bed; Olafur Eliasson’s interactive installation of thousands of white Lego pieces The cubic structural evolution project; and Céleste Boursier-Mougenot’s musical installation of live finches, from here to ear (v.13) 2010.
Guests visiting Sugar Spin will also experience major new commissions such as Nervescape 2016 – a large-scale, multi-coloured landscape of synthetic hair by Icelandic-born, New York-based artist Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir, her first work in Australia and largest in the world to date.
Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) Director Chris Saines CNZM said the 10-year milestone was a time to reflect on GOMA’s impact locally and nationally, and to look toward its future.
“GOMA has been a force for cultural change, stimulating our appetite for contemporary art and ideas. We can take pride in a decade of world class exhibitions and programs and celebrate wonderful additions to the state art Collection,” said Mr Saines. “It’s only fitting that in marking this milestone we offer visitors of all ages a multi-faceted, sensory and participatory art experience.”
Mr Saines said Sugar Spin would also include many acquisitions secured through the Gallery’s flagship Asia Pacific Triennial series of exhibitions, such as Huang Yong Ping’s monumental skeletal serpent Ressort, 2012, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s multi-panel mirror mosaic Lightning for Neda, 2009, and Lee Mingwei’s invitation to share intimate stories of how we relate to others in Writing the unspoken, 1999.
Geraldine Barlow, QAGOMA’s Head of International Art said Sugar Spin would make full use of GOMA’s unmatched exhibition spaces, taking audiences on a journey from the majestic to the minute.
“The exhibition will reflect the colour and energy of Queensland, Australia’s sugar state, drawing works from our leading artists together with their global peers,” said Ms Barlow. “Playful and seductive, Sugar Spin will bring moments of joy together with dizziness and a deeper sense of unease. It will reflect the beauty of the world we live in, as well as the complex challenges of these turbulent times.”
Sugar Spin: you, me, art and everything
Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Stanley Place – Cultural Precinct, South Bank (Brisbane)
Exhibition continues to 17 April 2017
Free admission
For more information, visit: www.qagoma.qld.gov.au for details.
Image: Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir aka Shoplifter, Nervescape V, 2016. Modacrylic fiber, nylon zip ties, steel staples. Installation view, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane. Commissioned for Sugar Spin: you, me, art and everything – photo by Natasha Harth