Internationally acclaimed British visual artist Tacita Dean is renowned for her works made with analogue film, reflecting upon the precarious conditions of the digital age. This summer visitors to Circular Quay can experience the largest presentation of her work ever shown on this side of the equator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.
The MCA's major survey, presented as part of the 2023-24 Sydney International Art Series, showcases Dean’s sweeping artistic practice across mediums that explore themes of chance, time, history and the medium of analogue film itself. Visitors will be treated to spaces dedicated to large-scale drawings, photographic and print series, installations and recent 16mm and 35mm film works.
The exhibition will be a Sydney exclusive, so make sure you take this coveted chance to immerse yourself in the works of one of the world’s most admired artists this summer.
One highlight of this major exhibition is Dean’s most biographical work to date, an immense film diptych called ‘Geography Biography’, incorporating outtakes from the cutting room floor to form what she calls an “accidental self-portrait”. Alongside this, Dean’s large-scale chalk on blackboard drawings ‘The Wreck of Hope’ and ‘Chalk Fall’ (seen together for the first time) employ the inherent fragility of chalk to illustrate a landscape under the threat of the climate crisis. The exhibition will also showcase Dean’s photographs and etchings from her collaboration with choreographer Wayne McGregor and composer Thomas Andès from the Royal Ballet, London.
Director of the MCA Suzanne Cotter says the museum is excited and honoured to be presenting the exhibition. “Tacita Dean is undoubtedly one of our greatest living artists and truly an artist that speaks to our contemporary moment”, she says.
“Aesthetically seductive and scintillating in its intelligence, her work is a profound and poetic response to the world as visual sensation and as a metaphor for time.”
Tickets to Tacita Dean’s solo exhibition at the MCA are on sale now via the MCA website. Entry is $25 for adults, $18 for concession holders, and free for youth and children 17 years or younger.
The exhibition is made possible with the support of the NSW Government through its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW.
