Sugar Spin starts with Carsten Höller’s twin spiralling slides, a much-requested interactive artwork. Then a bright seething sea of synthetic hair, Nervescape by Icelandic artist Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir – which was specially commissioned for the show – draws visitors into GOMA’s vast exhibition spaces. There the show is divided into what Barlow calls “chapters”, titled sweetmelt, blackwater, soaring, treasure and cosmos.
“I wanted people to feel like there was quite a dramatic, and hopefully exciting, itinerary that they could navigate as they move through the spaces.”
In mapping out the journey of Sugar Spin, Barlow listened to a wide range of voices, from her fellow curators to the public and the people who work in the GOMA shop. “Because,” she points out, “it’s kind of about GOMA and its place in people’s hearts, but it’s also about trying to make that into something that feels coherent and can tell us about where we are in the world, and who we are in the world.”
Which is, after all, what good art does best. And you can’t ask for a better present than that.
Sugar Spin: you, me, art and everything
GOMA, Brisbane
3 December – 17 April