悉尼当代艺术展惊艳之作 · 六大人气装置解读

Above: Nadia Hernández,Con la punta de los dedos (With the tips of your fingers), 2021, installation view at STATION, Sydney. Image credit: Document Photography. Courtesy the artist and STATION.Since its debut in 2013, Sydney Contemporary has established itself as the most influential modern art fair in the region; every edition attracts esteemed gallerists, significant artists and notable collectors from every corner of the globe, all of them vying to get a feel for what’s currently resonating in the local artistic sphere. But Sydney Contemporary is also the perfect playground for those who simply like to appreciate art for art’s sake. And this year, a cutting-edge installation program curated by Associate Curator at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) Annika Kristensen will see the fair unveil its most boundary-pushing experiential program yet.Titled‘Amplify’, the installation program features large-scale artworks from a diverse range of mediums, including moving image, projection, sculpture, paint and even artificial intelligence. According to Kristensen, the 16 works that make up Amplify give visitors a moment to pause and ponder.“Amidst the atmosphere and hustle of the art fair, the works for Amplify serve as interstices or interruptions, offering moments of curiosity, whimsy, exuberance, respite, and reflection,” she says, adding that in some cases, the artworks are created to interact directly with those of us who make our way through the fair.Ahead of Sydney Contemporary’s highly anticipated return this September—this year will mark the fair’s first physical edition since 2019—Kristensen sat down withVogue Livingto share the stories behind six of the installations she highly recommends seeing, from works by Australia’s most exciting emerging artists, as well as some of the region’s most established names.Nadia HernándezA new commission created especially for Amplify, Nadia Hernández’s vibrant installationIn the water where the beans soak (+++LaVisita)responds to the unique architecture of Carriageworks, cheerfully greeting visitors upon entry to the fair. The title of work relates to the process of allowing lentil beans to soak before cooking, from a recipe passed onto the artist from her mother. Conflating the personal and political, Hernández’s work is informed by her experience as a Venezuelan woman living in Australia, often reflecting on ideas of loss, memory and memorialisation. Creatures and symbols that have made recurrent appearances in Hernández’s previous works are here transformed into loose, gestural marks, rendered in animated colour and light.Peta Clancy“A descendent of the Bangerang people from south-eastern Australia, Peta Clancy’s photographic seriesUndercurrentappears, at first glance, to portray images of serene and dream-like landscapes. Made in collaboration with the Dja Dja Wurrung community, on whose country Clancy has created the work, the images in reality depict waterways–created as a result of colonial occupation of the land–that submerge and conceal sites of indigenous massacres.Above: Peta Clancy,Undercurrent (3),2018-19. Courtesy of the artist and Dominik Mersch Gallery.“The work is projected at scale onto the Carriageworks façade, and visible only after nightfall. The projection also brings the colonial architecture of the building into the frame. This additional context provided by the architecture prompts us also to consider the history of the site in which we are encountering the work–a former colonial railway workshop on Gadigal land, and one of the first places to employ Aboriginal people on an equal basis.”Image credit: @angelatiatiaAngela Tiatia“Angela Tiatia’s moving image workNarcissusis a slow-motion and seductive reimagining of the eponymous Greek myth. Making reference to a painting from 1597-99 by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Tiatia’sNarcissuscasts forty subjects in the titular role, each portrayed in varying stages of ecstasy and self-adulation.Above: Angela Tiatia,Narcissus,2019, single-channel 2K HD video, 13 minutes 11 seconds, edition of 5 plus 2 artist’s proofs, courtesy the artist and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney | Singapore.“Arching from contemplation to catastrophe,Narcissusserves as a striking and timely reminder of the enduring relevance of the classical narrative in our individualistic, self(ie) obsessed, contemporary present. Presented in the context of an art fair,Narcissusmight also prompt audiences to consider challenges for contemporary art in an ‘Instagrammable’ age.”Above: Sam Leach,Self-portrait assisted by machine learning, oil on linen, 51 x 51 cm, courtesy the artist and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney.Sam Leach“This work is intentionally positioned in an area of high footfall and near a hospitality offering within the fair, as Sam Leach’s projectAutomatic Evolution of the Art Audienceuses machine learning technology to create a composite and evolving portrait of visitors to Sydney Contemporary.Above: Sam Leach,Automatic Evolution of the Art Audience, artist rendering. Courtesy the artist andSullivan+Strumpf, Sydney.“Trained from the artist’s previous paintings, the technology captures images of the faces of passing visitors (both willingly and unwittingly) to generate an infinite series of portraits of a generic art audience.”Image credit: Jessica MaurerRamesh Mario Nithiyendran“Ramesh Nithiyendran’s large-scale bronze sculptureDouble-Sided, Multi-Limbed Guardianwelcomes visitors at the entrance to the fair. It’s a new work made especially to be presented for Amplify, and the many-limbed creature, entwined with a large snake, is both bold and beguiling, exuberant in colour and form.Above: Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran,Multi Armed Bi Head, 2020, bronze, 180 x 120 x 30 cm. Image credit: Mark Pokorny. Courtesy of the artist and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney | Singapore.“Referencing the use of bronze in early colonial monuments, as well as the language of Hindu Dvarapala and Japanese Nio guardian figures,Double-Sided, Multi-Limbed Guardiancontinues Nithiyendran’s interest in themes of idolatry, worship and monumentality.”Kenny Pittock“Across a practice encompassing ceramics, painting and drawing, Kenny Pittock employs humour and vernacular language to reflect upon aspects of everyday life. His largest work to date,The World’s Gone Pear Shapedis exactly that–an inflatable sculpture of the globe in the form of a pear. Positioned centrally within the fair, Pittock’s work offers visitors an unexpected moment’s pause–both from the bustle of the fair and the chaos and uncertainty of the world at large–to playfully remind us of the necessity of humour and the possibility of hope.Above:Kenny Pittock,The World’s Gone Pear Shaped, 2022, inflatable, 300 x 200 x 200cm, installed at Shepparton Art Museum for White Night 2022. Photo by Kenny Pittock. Courtesy of MARS and the Artist.Sydney Contemporary is presented at Carriageworks, Australia’s largest multi-arts centre, from Thursday 8 – Sunday 11 September, 2022. The Collector Preview is held on Wednesday 7 September, 2022.@sydneycontemporaryWant moreVogue Living? Sign up to theVogue Livingnewsletterfor your weekly dose of design news and interiors inspiration.