Wonderstruck encourages viewers to experience the extraordinary in the everyday through art until 6 October. Head on over to the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane to take in spectacular large scale works of art as well as small treasures and immersive experiences.
With 100 pieces on show the gallery have been highlighting pockets of the exhibition to entice the viewer. They’ve name dropped Nick Cave’s Heard 2012, Ron Mueck’s In bed 2005 and Yayoi Kusama’s The Obliteration Room 2002-present as works to watch out for, let’s unpack what they might mean below.
Heard by American artist Nick Cave is made up of 15 ‘sound-suits’ which camouflage the human form, refreshing our view of the body and identity. The costumes take the shape of horses, constructed with raffia, buttons and beads; when a performer moves alone it is noisy and expressive, climaxing and compounding as more dancers join and form a herd. The designs are fanciful and refer to the feeling and act of ‘playing dress up’. They take cues from the abundant ornamentation of African ceremonial costume to the elaborate garb of New Orleans’ Mardi Gras performers. While these visual notes are present the work is also about freedom from labels. As the gallery says “The ‘Soundsuit’ camouflages the human form, eliminating markers of identity such as race, gender, class and sexual identification, thereby protecting the wearer from discrimination. By creating costumes that facilitate physical transformation, in his terms Cave asks his audience to ‘look without judgement’, and to question their understanding of complex concepts of identity.”
Ron Mueck’s In bed offers a moment to consider vulnerability. The realistic sculpture is larger than life and depicts a woman who appears to be lost in pensive thought, as she reclines in her bed with her hand gently resting on her cheek. We don’t know what she’s thinking but we are obviously voyeurs to an intimate or private moment. A moment when you wouldn’t usually stare. However something about the monumental scale draws you in to eye-ball her. The gallery praises Mueck, stating “Mueck’s sculptures invite us to reflect on universal emotions, the artist uses his remarkable craftsmanship to arrest his subjects in psychologically and physically exposed states. By manipulating the scale of his figures, and paying meticulous attention to their expression, pose and gestures, Mueck magnifies the inner lives of ordinary people in these frozen portraits.”
Yayoi Kusama’s The Obliteration Room was created in collaboration with the gallery. The world-renowned Japanese artist shares a series of domestic-like rooms with locally sourced furniture painted all white, to be adorned, filled and “obliterated” with sticker dots. So, why dots? “When Kusama was young” explains the gallery, “she started seeing the world through a screen of dots, they covered everything she saw — even her own body. Dots first emerged in Kusama’s work in the 1960s where they appeared in her paintings, sculptures, installations, and people’s bodies. Later, dots developed into an artistic strategy that the artist described as ‘self-obliteration’.”
You can participate in the show online here as a Wonderstruck Wanderer.