The Tangible Trace: TarraWarra Museum of Art
The 7th TarraWarra International 2019, entitled The Tangible Trace, is curated by Victoria Lynn, who explains: “The artists in this exhibition explore the concept of trace through tangible fragments – natural materials, pressings, mappings, markings, journeys and gestures. The artworks are about sensations that exist in the world: they can be seen, felt and experienced in our real environments. They are not imagined. They are material, situated and responsive.” Since its inception in 2013 the International series has sought to exhibit Australian artists alongside international artists through the commissioning of new work. The exhibition includes the works of Francis Alÿs (Belgium/Mexico), Carlos Capelán (Uruguay/Sweden), Simryn Gill (Singapore/Malaysia/Australia), Shilpa Gupta (India), Hiwa K (Iraq/Germany) and Sangeeta Sandrasegar (Australia) whose new installation, Things fall from view, (2019) is comprised of five large floor-to-ceiling panels. Expanding on the concept of what is seen and unseen, the work employs Indian indigo and Australian native cherry botanical dyes to allude to the post-colonial relationships between Australia and India, and is designed to disrupt the picturesque views to the Yarra Valley landscape outside the gallery windows, and play with the changing light of the day.
Indian artist Shilpa Gupta has been commissioined to create two new works, one of which takes the form of a large piece of stone, engraved with text in multiple languages. Gupta will fragment the work into hundreds of pieces on site, and invite the audience to take away a piece as a ‘trace’ of the work. Gupta’s second work is a continuation of her copper maps series, for which she will create an outline of Australia from fine copper wires. The Tangible Trace runs from June 8 until September 1, 2019 at TarraWarra Museum of Art.
