Sydney’s stalwart for contemporary and kooky works of art that get your senses tingling is bringing out its obscure best for the 23rd Biennale of Sydney. Participants here have been called on to reflect on deep time, primal waters, and ancient histories. Nineteen works are inhabiting the first and third floors of the expansive gallery.
Further blurring the lines of art, science and history, the MCA also presents the Biennale’s oldest participant. Alongside the artworks is a 365-million-year-old fish fossil from Canowindra in NSW, which is being displayed to the public for the first time.
Venezuelan artist Milton Becerra presents an installation with three large stones held in space by a network of coloured threads. These threads are the structural elements holding the stones, which appear to levitate as central points within the mass of energy. The lines that radiate from them simulate orbits that create vibrations and subtle sounds.
Presenting a series of large-scale tapestries exploring themes of climate change and climate justice, German artist Kiki Smith has been exhibiting her artwork internationally for over 30 years, but her involvement with the Biennale is her first significant presentation in Australia. Her unique style draws on mythology, folklore, fairytales and feminism.
In his Connective Reveal series, artist Robert Andrew, a descendent of the Yawuru people of the Broome area in the Kimberley, uses what he calls a palimpsest machine; a modified 3D printer programmed to wash away mineral layers from prepared surfaces. In this new work for the Biennale, two palimpsest machines dispense jets of pressurised water onto the MCA walls that have been covered in thin layers of earth pigment and a final layer of chalk. As the water hits the wall, it slowly reveals lines of text in language that bleed through the white surface, creating ochre-stained tributaries.
The Biennale of Sydney is showing at the Museum of Contemporary Art daily from 10am to 5pm, with extended hours until 9pm on Fridays. The exhibition is free to visit.
