Spanning moving image, sound, sculptural intervention and performance, the University of Melbourne has announced the new group exhibition, The same crowd never gathers twice, will be presented at Buxton Contemporary from 10 May 2024.
The same crowd never gathers twice features new work by Cate Consandine, Riana Head-Toussaint and Yona Lee, alongside significant projects by Taryn Simon, Angela Goh and Laresa Kosloff.
The exhibition tests the limits of the ‘arena’ – the setting where people come together to collectively witness and participate in public life. Works consider the social and structural architectures that bind these spaces, and by extension, the elastic nature of performance and reality, audience and participant.
The same crowd never gathers twice invites audiences to consider their own presence and agency inside the gallery: their role as passive spectators versus the potential for a more active form of engagement.
“Throughout the exhibition’s duration, the physical gallery is offered as an active site for discussions, new work and performance responses,” said Annika Aitken, Curator, Art Museums at the University of Melbourne.
The exhibition premieres the highly anticipated multi-channel film work RINGER by Melbourne artist Cate Consandine, and a new site-specific commission by South Korean-born, Aotearoa-based artist Yona Lee spanning Buxton’s Heritage Gallery.
New York-based multidisciplinary artist Taryn Simon’s first Australian presentation of major sound installation Assembled Audience, will also feature; while interdisciplinary artist Riana Head-Toussaint will present video work Animate Loading: 1, alongside a new choreographic commission Guided Wrestling in July.
The exhibition also brings together a group of super-8 works by Melbourne artist Laresa Kosloff, produced between 1998 and 2010, and highlights the recent acquisition of the iterative and evolving performance work Body Loss by Sydney-based dancer and choreographer Angela Goh by the University of Melbourne, which will be presented during the run.
The same crowd never gathers twice will feature an expanded range of live events and programs, including performances, talks, film screening and a symposium, as well as a concert curated in response to the exhibition by students from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, led by Dr Joseph Lallo.
The same crowd never gathers twice
Buxton Contemporary, Corner Southbank Boulevard and Dodds Street, Southbank
Exhibition: 10 May – 13 October 2024
Free entry
For more information, visit: www.buxtoncontemporary.com for details.
Image: Cate Consandine, RINGER (still), 2024, three channel video, sound – courtesy of the artist and Sarah Scout Presents.