We tend to think of alchemists as medieval proto-scientists vainly trying to transform lead into gold. But, in the group show curated by Dr Alicia King, the New Alchemists are Australian artists Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr (in collaboration with American engineer Corrie van Sice), Michaela Gleave, Ian Haig and Nadege Philippe-Janon, as well as Thomas Thwaites from the UK, Chinese artist Lu Yang and French duo Art Orienté Objet.
Collectively, King describes them as “some of the most engaging artists working internationally in the cutting-edge fields of art and science today”.
In New Alchemists these artists use their work to explore and expand the notion of what it means to be human by probing the boundaries between human and non-human worlds.
Many of the artists tread into territory normally claimed by science and conduct their own art-based experiments with biotechnologies. For example, in their performance video, May the Horse Live in Me, 2011, the female half of Art Orienté Objet is injected with horse blood in order to become a literal manifestation of a mythical chimera: part human, part horse. Needless to say, don’t try this at home.
“Advancements in biological technologies stand to have immense influence on the future of the human body, and the manipulation, application and meaning of bodily materials,” King explains. “Contemporary art plays an important role in exploring and engaging the public with the cultural, social and ethical significance of these technologies and their use of biological materials.”
And, as befits any healthy debate, she admits that New Alchemists “may spark more questions than answers”.
New Alchemists
Flinders University City Gallery
17 February – 15 April 2018
65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art is an extraordinary account of the unique art of this continent, published alongside a landmark exhibition at the Potter Museum of Art. Necessary and urgent, it tells the story of Indigenous Australian art; a new art history unlike anything we’ve seen. For Jane O’Sullivan, it’s a remarkable and must-read book.
In a new series of illustrated postcards available as a free gift with purchase only at the Art Guide Bookstore, Oslo Davis takes on classic and contemporary art terms and genres and reimagines what they could be referring to.
With so much to choose from, we’ve rounded up the major summer exhibitions in each capital city, open all summer long. Spanning Yayoi Kusama, Magritte, the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, and many more.
bagan bariwariganyan: echoes of country, curated by Jonathan Jones and now showing at Bundanon, highlights a long history of Indigenous art on the New South Wales south coast, with works and installations from Jones, Aunty Julie Freeman, Aunty Cheryl Davison, and Mickey of Ulladulla.
Bringing together 70 artists from 30 countries, the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art fosters connections across cultures and borders, and translates cultural knowledge for the present day.
Ahead of the National Gallery of Victoria’s major retrospective on singular Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, we invited four artists to respond to the influence of Kusama on their own practice—and meditate on what her work means to them.
