When life imi­tates art: a cau­tion­ary tale

Leigh Robb
In Daily

When Mikala Dwyer pro­posed her instal­la­tion for the 2020 Ade­laide Bien­ni­al of Aus­tralian Art: Mon­ster The­atres more than a year ago, she had been research­ing the Quar­an­tine or Q” flag – a bright yel­low mar­itime flag that was his­tor­i­cal­ly hoist­ed from ships to warn of dis­ease on board.

For the Bien­ni­al, Dwyer had been invit­ed to cre­ate a work in two parts – for the exter­nal neo-clas­si­cal façade of the Art Gallery of South Aus­tralia, and for the inter­nal vestibule – the first port of call and entry where vis­i­tors are wel­comed into the gallery.

Respond­ing to the dual provo­ca­tion of the the­atre and the mon­ster, or warn­ing, Dwyer want­ed to cre­ate a Bay of Sick, a med­ical the­atre turned dystopi­an well­ness centre.

She cloaked the gallery’s columns floor to ceil­ing in acid yel­low and black ban­ners. This is then echoed inside on a vast 10m-long back­drop sport­ing a design with con­cen­tric cir­cles ref­er­enc­ing the bio­haz­ard sym­bol, like an omi­nous cur­tain set­ting the scene of what is to come, and a fore­shad­ow­ing for a 21st-cen­tu­ry glob­al crisis.

The space is divid­ed into yel­low on the left and black on the right. Behind the front desk, the gallery atten­dants wear aproned cos­tumes designed by the artist.

Flank­ing the walls are large black and white caped cos­tumes and beaked masks, like loom­ing nurs­es or sen­tinels, not dis­sim­i­lar to the masks worn by Venet­ian doc­tors dur­ing the Black Plague.

We opened the exhi­bi­tion on Feb­ru­ary 29 BC, or Before COVID” times, and had three weeks of nor­mal” atten­dance, see­ing tens of thou­sands of vis­i­tors through the front doors. Then in late March, the Art Gallery of South Aus­tralia, along­side all gal­leries and muse­ums around the world, closed its doors to the pub­lic for more than 10 weeks, re-open­ing on June 5.

Dwyer’s work has always walked the line between rit­u­al and kin­ship, inter­est­ed in meta­phys­i­cal explo­ration of space and the sym­bol­ic pow­er of images.

In light of COVID-19, her instal­la­tion reads as extra­or­di­nar­i­ly prophet­ic. Her the­atre has re-opened, and has shift­ed dra­mat­i­cal­ly from its spec­u­la­tive” pro­pos­al, a work of sci­ence-fic­tion, into a docu-dra­ma – a hyper-real sick bay where all vis­i­tors are treat­ed like patients, and duti­ful­ly per­form their roles like well-trained actors.

There are new props in the form of hand-sani­tis­ing sta­tions and con­tact-trac­ing slips. There’s a revised script for all of us, but every­one already knows their marks and cues – sign­post­ed on the floor in yel­low and black.

The time apart has made the space between us even more charged; we are all acute­ly aware of social and spa­tial distance.

Dwyer’s instal­la­tion speaks to the height­ened sen­si­tiv­i­ties and remark­able abil­i­ty of artists to tap into anx­i­eties and fears, to not only heed the warn­ings but sound them loud­er. It is a thresh­old work that demar­cates the bound­ary of a new real­i­ty; just as the present pan­dem­ic is a water­shed moment in world his­to­ry sep­a­rat­ing the past from an unclear future.

What­ev­er awaits, artists will be at the fore­front of envi­sion­ing our shift­ing reality.

The 2020 Ade­laide Bien­ni­al of Aus­tralian Art: Mon­ster The­atres is on at the Art Gallery of South Aus­tralia and Ade­laide Botan­ic Gar­den, until 2 August.

»»»

Filter

LAU­REN BRIN­CAT | BENEATH THE SUR­FACE, BEHIND THE SCENE

Beneath the Sur­face, Behind the Scene­Un­til 22 Octo­ber 2023 Hei­de Muse­um of Mod­ern Art, Melbourne […]

Read More

MUT­LUERKEZ | AUDI­TIONS FOR AN UNWRIT­TEN OPERA

Audi­tions for an Unwrit­ten Oper­aUn­til 8 Octo­ber 2023 Staatliche Kun­sthalle Baden-Baden The exper­i­men­tal exhi­bi­tion format […]

Read More

ANGEL­I­CA MESI­TI | TREMBLEMENT

While explor­ing the cor­ri­dors of the Coupole at Galeries Lafayette, I was cap­ti­vat­ed by three […]

Read More

AMRI­TA HEPI | BANKSIARRR

Amri­ta Hepi with Vanes­sa Mor­ris Dis­cussing Straight torque, twin series on Banksia, RRR Amri­ta Hepi joins […]

Read More

The vast and uncom­pro­mis­ing prac­tice of Mike Parr assumes mul­ti­ple forms through a con­fla­tion of draw­ing, print­mak­ing, sculp­ture and performance.

Mike Parr Half Way House, 2021 dual-chan­nel video, 16:9, 4K, colour, sound 3 hours 18 min­utes Per­former: Mike […]

Read More

DAVID NOO­NAN | VIVI­ENNE SHARK LEWITT | JEN­NY WAT­SON | Thin Skin

Jen­ny Wat­son White Horse with Tele­scope, 2012 syn­thet­ic poly­mer paint on rab­bit skin glue primed cot­ton 20 […]

Read More

DAVID NOO­NAN | VIVI­ENNE SHARK LeWITT | JEN­NY WATSON

Thin Skin,Monash Uni­ver­si­ty Muse­um of Art (MUMA) 20 July – 23 Sep­tem­ber, 2023 Thin Skin […]

Read More

ROSE NOLAN | CEN­TRAL STATION

All along­side of each oth­er, 2023 Cen­tral Sta­tion, Syd­ney, Aus­tralia. The pub­lic art­work All alongside […]

Read More

Night­shifts at Bux­ton Contemporary

night­shifts 26 May – 29 Octo­ber 2023 Bux­ton Con­tem­po­rary night­shifts con­sid­ers the impor­tance of […]

Read More

Su san Cohn | Pieces of Peace | Per­for­mances | NGV Mel­bourne Design Week

Su san Cohn​’s exhi­bi­tion Pieces of Peace at Anna Schwartz Gallery from 20 May […]

Read More

Re-Invent­ing Piet. Mon­dri­an and the Con­se­quences | Joseph Kosuth

On view at Kun­st­mu­se­um Wolfs­burg, Ger­many until 16th July 2023, Re-Inven­t­ing Piet. Mon­dri­an and […]

Read More

The Inti­mate Resis­tance: Mike Par­r’s Per­for­mance Work 1971 — 2023 | Museo de Arte Mod­er­no de Bogotá & Fon­dazione Morra

The Inti­mate Resis­tance: Mike Parr’s Per­for­mance Work 19712023 opens on 29 June […]

Read More

Chi­haru Shio­ta | Ham­mer Museum

Chi­haru Shio­ta (b. 1972, Osa­ka) is a Berlin-based artist whose instal­la­tions, sculp­ture, and per­for­mance art […]

Read More

Portrait23 | Nation­al Por­trait Gallery

Portrait23: Iden­ti­ty is a major exhi­bi­tion at the Nation­al Por­trait Gallery of Aus­tralia, pre­sent­ing of […]

Read More

STIEG PERS­SON, EMI­LY FLOYD: LIV­ING TOGETHER

Bendi­go Art Gallery presents an instal­la­tion of select­ed con­tem­po­rary works from the col­lec­tion will […]

Read More

JAN NEL­SON, JOHN NIXON & VIVI­ENNE SHARK LEWITT: MEL­BOURNE NOW

The sec­ond edi­tion of Mel­bourne Now will be pre­sent­ed at The Ian Pot­ter Centre […]

Read More

EMI­LY FLOYD: KNOWL­EDGE POWER

Shang­hai Library East by Schmidt Ham­mer Lassen Archi­tects has opened, one of the largest […]

Read More

EMI­LY FLOYD: BUT­TER­FLY KITES

Shang­hai Library East by Schmidt Ham­mer Lassen Archi­tects has opened, one of the largest […]

Read More

JOHN NIXON: MONOCHROME/PIANO 1992

Pre­sent­ed in the Fitzroy Town Hall by Con­nors Con­nors, John Nixon’s Monochrome/​Piano 1992 is […]

Read More

DANIEL CROOKS: BOUND­ARY CONDITIONS

Bound­ary Con­di­tions is an ambi­tious video work that seam­less­ly weaves togeth­er an alter­nate world […]

Read More

ROSE NOLAN: HAL­LAM STATION

YOU/ME/US/HERE/NOW is an open, pos­i­tive and bold text-based propo­si­tion for peo­ple to con­sid­er as […]

Read More

ANGEL­I­CA MESI­TI: STILL LIFE

In Still Life, imag­i­na­tion and empir­i­cal obser­va­tion unite in con­tem­pla­tion of life’s inter­con­nect­ed­ness. Exquisite […]

Read More

AMRI­TA HEPI: THE ANGUIL­LA PURSUIT

Agency Projects and Com­pos­ite: Mov­ing Image Agency & Media Bank have part­nered to present an […]

Read More

CAL­LUM MOR­TON: CITY LIGHTS

Cal­lum Mor­ton’s newest pub­lic art­work,​‘City Lights’, launch­es on the back façade of the […]

Read More