QAGOMA announces huge summer exhibition Air and solo showcase from thread-weaving creative icon Chiharu Shiota
QAGOMA has hit us with not just a double whammy, but a triple dose of goodness with its blockbuster 2022 program announcement. Some huge exhibitions are coming to Brisbane’s art and culture hub, including a summer blockbuster on air and its centrality to life, an exhibition highlighting Queensland contemporary art and a solo exhibition of work by the revered Japanese-born, Berlin-based artist Chiharu Shiota. Here are all of the need-to-know deets …
QAGOMA’s 2022 program is truly awe-inspiring, to say the least. The first cab off the rank is the Chiharu Shiota: The Soul Trembles, which will follow hot on the heels of The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10). Opening at GOMA on June 18 and sticking around until October 3, The Soul Trembles highlights 25 years of Chiharu Shiota’s practice across large-scale installation, sculpture, video performance, photography and drawing. Coming to Brisbane from Japan’s Mori Art Museum, this worldy showcase will be the largest solo exhibition of Chiharu’s work, who is renowned internationally for her transformative installations constructed from millions of fine threads and works that express the intangible experiences of life. Punters can expect to traverse through rooms filled from top to bottom with webs of threads created from strands of red and black wool – an art-filled adventure most definitely worth capturing for the ‘gram.
This crowd-pulling showcase will be joined by a monumental exhibition of homegrown artists, Embodied Knowledge: Queensland Contemporary Art. Headed to QAG from August 13 and staying put until January 22, 2023, this riveting exhibition will feature new commissions and recent work by a bunch of Queensland-based artists including Robert Andrew, Burchill/McCamley, Megan Cope, Archie Moore, Ethel Murray, Ryan Presley, Obery Sambo, Vanghoua Anthony Vue, Rosie Ware, Jenny Watson, Warraba Weatherall and Justene Williams. Highlights of the exhibition will include a towering work by Erika Scott comprising fish tanks and found objects, a series of textural, shaggy rainforest shields by Girramay artist Ethel Murray, and a major new commission by Archie Moore in the QAG Watermall that highlights Indigenous deaths in custody.
The gallery’s blockbuster summer exhibition Air will be the season’s must-see, opening on November 26 and running until April 23, 2023. This fresh showcase is set to feature immersive and large-scale works by leading international and Australian artists exploring the cultural, ecological and political dimensions of, you guessed it, air. You can expect to see QAGOMA Collection favourites In bed (2005) by Ron Mueck and Crossing (2016), a solid-light installation by Anthony McCall, along with major works by international and Australian artists like Dora Budor, Jonathan Jones, Dr Uncle Stan Grant Sr AM and Carlos Amorales. We can feel it in the air tonight that this is going to be a bucket-list-worthy event.
Image one: Chiharu Shiota / Japan b.1972 / Installation view of Uncertain Journey 2016/2019, in ‘The Soul Trembles’, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2019 / Metal frame, red wool / Dimensions variable / Courtesy: Blain | Southern, London/Berlin/New York / Photograph: Sunhi Mang / Image courtesy: Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
Image two: Jonathan Jones (Artist), Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi peoples, Australia b.1978 / Dr Uncle Stan Grant Snr AM (Cultural advisor and speaker of recorded Wiradjuri, Wiradjuri people), Australia b.1940 /untitled (giran) (detail) 2018 / Purchased 2018 with funds from Tim Fairfax AC through the QAGOMA Foundation /Collection: QAGOMA / Photograph: Natasha Harth, QAGOMA
Image three: Chiharu Shiota / Japan b. 1972 / Installation view of In Silence 2002/2019, in ‘The Soul Trembles’, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2019 / Burnt piano, burnt chair, Alcantara black thread / Dimensions variable / Production support: Alcantara S.p.A. / Courtesy: Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya/Tokyo / Photograph: Sunhi Mang / Image courtesy: Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
Image four: Ryan Presley / Marri Ngarr people / Australia b.1987 / Blood Money Exchange (detail) 2018-ongoing / Performative installation with mixed media / Dimensions variable / Photograph: Louis Lim / Image courtesy: The artist
Image five: Chiharu Shiota / Japan b. 1972 / Installation view of Accumulation – Searching for the Destination 2014/2019, in ‘The Soul Trembles’, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2019 / Suitcase, motor and red rope / Dimensions variable / Courtesy: Galerie Templon, Paris/Brussels / Photograph: Kioku Keizo / Image courtesy: Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
Image six: Rachel Mounsey / Australia b.1975 /Mallacoota fires in the sky 1 (from ‘Mallacoota fires in the sky’ series) 2020 / Inkjet print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag paper / 100 x 150 cm / Image courtesy: The artist
This article was written in partnership with our friends at QAGOMA.
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