When times are hard, we often turn to art to remind ourselves that beauty and hope persist. Mercifully, a favourite artwork, poem or film can lift us from the darkness.

The idea of art as an agent for good is the central theme of Hold the world to its word, a group show curated by Michael Moran. Bringing together nine artists working across painting, photography, text-based work and sculpture, Moran says the main drive behind the show was “a genuine belief art has a purpose, and that artists have a job to do. It’s to make the world a better place.”

Tying together conflicting feelings of tenderness, mortality and the immense beauty of life, Stephen Ralph’s pair of sculptural works, Evans Crown, 2023 and Sleepless, 2023 represent parts of the human body – a torso and disembodied legs – rendered in marble and sliced into pieces. Cast from the real-life bodies of the artist’s sons, the forms are placed horizontally on plinths, their combined parts at rest yet not quite aligned.

Positioned as a centrepiece is Resounding (infrared), 2013, a video work by celebrated British conceptual artist Susan Hiller. A large screen pulsing with colour occupies its own room, and viewers are invited to sit and listen to audio recreations of the Big Bang, combined with voices talking about unexplained happenings. An artist with a strong interest in the paranormal, Hiller’s work implies there is a multilayered symphony of beauty and poetry in the unknown. As Moran says, “it’s about finding ways through and finding a voice for a multitude.”

With additional works by Sandra Selig, Hoda Afshar, Matthew Harris, Spence Messih, and Michael Riley, this collection of work offers a point of respite and an opportunity to re-centre oneself, away from the stressors of contemporary life.

Hold the world to its word
Murray Art Museum Albury
On now—16 March

This article was originally published in the January/February 2025 print issue of Art Guide Australia.