The Biennale of Sydney is Australia’s largest contemporary visual arts event with artists from all over the world exhibiting their work at one of seven venues around Sydney for the exhibition’s duration. Some works are actually created specifically for the biennale with artists often on site creating their work in the weeks before the festival opens to the public.
Cockatoo Island plays host to 20 artists and their interpretations of the theme Superposition: Equilibrium and Engagement.
We picked one of those amazing bonus summer’s days of April to visit.
Cockatoo Island was previously a convict penal establishment between 1839 – 1869.
Mexican artist Abraham Cruzivillegas created Reconstruction I & II which he has suspended from the roof of one of the ship factories. The works are constructed entirely from materials left on the island from previous events.
Ai Wei Wei, perhaps China’s most famous living artist (though he lives and creates in Berlin) has several works featured across multiple sites of the Biennale this year. ‘Law of the Journey’ is a confronting work that features a 60m long rubber boat filled with the anonymous figures of refugees willing to risk everything to sail uncertain seas in uncertain dinghies to a potentially better life far from home and all that they previously held dear.
The second part of this massive installation is a wall of images Ai took on his iPhone while producing the documentary Human Flow.
Whatever perspective I viewed ‘Law of the Journey’ from whether it was from a distance, up close or from above, I was struck by the utter despair and facelessness of what it means to be a refugee in 2018.
The works manipulate space and time in a manner that is unique to the space in which they have been created.
Timesheet by Martin Walde is a dynamic work featuring pieces of paper bearing the dates from when the Biennale opened until 2071. Every six minutes, a new date is ejected from a printer in the ceiling. Occasional prints feature additional drawings and print by the artist.
I’m still not quite sure what it all meant but it was both restful and questioning to my mind to gaze over the arrangements of vases and bowls across the floor of the warehouse. I wonder what it would be like to create art like this, without brushes or tools but using instead your hands and the space and objects in front of you to express an idea.
Diabethanol is the work of Julian Abraham ‘Togar’. It’s a statement about the diabetic epidemic that is sweeping the world and how keenly the disability it leaves in its wake is felt in emerging economies such as many of those in South East Asia. What if there could be some kind of benefit to society from the misfortune of this disease?
The objects of the installation include a toilet which is the source of diabetic urine that would then be converted to a fuel source, Diabethanol.
The Biennale of Sydney runs until June which gives me plenty of time to explore the other sites featured.
Have you been to the Biennale yet? Which location has been your favourite so far?