“There are no fixed rules about what form this exhibition can take,” says TarraWarra Museum of Art’s director Victoria Lynn of the TarraWarra International, which, in 2017, will be its third iteration. Lynn does, however, have strong goals for the International – the promotion of Australian artists to the international art world.
Indeed, Lynn’s rationale addresses an ongoing conversation about the perceived provincialism of Australian art and how that might be shifted.
To this end, Lynn has brought the works of Australian artists Patrick Pound, Tom Nicholson and Cyrus Tang together with those of Turkish artist Didem Erk and Chinese artist Cao Fei. The curatorial backbone of All that is solid… is an examination of the archive. Archives are approached here with a critical eye, as has been the trend in dealing with the topic in recent years. Cao Fei, for instance, “always maintains an element of criticality about the everyday in China,” while Erk’s work “combines an interest in archives, contested zones, performance and text.”
Following on from the 2015 TarraWarra International 2015 – featuring a solo exhibition of works from Pierre Huyghe that considered alternate histories detached of linear temporalities, All that is solid… continues to explore the meaning of being beyond hegemonic narratives. The exhibition takes pains to consider “art as a world making activity” and fulfils a desire to bring a cosmopolitan current to the Victorian countryside where TarraWarra is situated.
TarraWarra International 2017: All that is solid…
TarraWarra Museum of Art
2 September – 12 November
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