ARTISTS: Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Alex Seton, Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro, David Cross, Franz Ehmann, Karla Dickens, Keg de Souza, Michelle Nikou, Rosie Miller, Tim Sterling and Will French
Safe Space is a major touring exhibition of contemporary sculpture, showcasing the works of 12 acclaimed Australian artists.
Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro, Downstairs Dining Room – Octopus, 2014, Lego, IKEA chair and plant with hanger, 96 × 100 × 72 cm. Photograph by Ivan Bulijan. Image courtesy of the artists and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.
Featuring a diversity of sculptural materials, techniques and scale, Safe Space explores different notions of space — abstract or real, physical, psychological, political and social — to spark the viewer’s curiosity.
Many of the works in this exhibition take as their point of departure the human body: its dimensions, the spaces it occupies, the narratives that contain it and the theatre or spectacle that unfolds around it.
Rosie Miller, Paper Town time-based installation for Tinkering Tank (made in conjunction with participating children at Tanks Arts Centre during the 2018 Cairns Children’s Festival) 2018, time-lapse digital animation on flat screen, duration 4min 18sec. Photograph by Lily Castleman. Image courtesy the artist.
According to exhibition Curator, Christine Morrow, “The title of the exhibition coaxes viewers to consider the ways these artworks engage the themes of safety and its lack; space in all its rich possibility and — perhaps unexpectedly — in all its difficulty. Sculpture is conventionally defined by the way it occupies three dimensions. Yet these works project into other psychological and cultural dimensions; those that cannot be contained within the physical realm”.
Alex Seton, Someone Else’s Problem, 2015, marble dust, epoxy resin, Tasmanian Oak, cable ties, dimensions variable (approximately 300 x 200 x 200 cm). Photography by Mark Pokorny. Image courtesy of the artist and sullivan+strumpf.
Museums & Galleries Queensland’s Executive Director, Rebekah Butler said, “Museums & Galleries Queensland is committed to developing and presenting high-quality, diverse touring exhibitions — Safe Space is no exception. We trust audiences will enjoy engaging with this thought-provoking, diverse, often playful, sometimes confronting exploration of Safe Space.”
Franz Ehmann, Fourteen Days, 2018, beeswax on cotton shirts with resin buttons, four works approximately 41 x 46 x 70 cm each. Photograph by Andrea Higgins. Image courtesy of the artist.
Safe Space is an initiative of Museums & Galleries Queensland developed in partnership with Logan City Council through Logan Art Gallery, and curated by Christine Morrow. This travelling exhibition is supported by the Visions regional touring program, an Australian Government program aiming to improve access to cultural material for all Australians; the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland; the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory governments; and is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
