In March, the National Gallery of Australia unveiled a gender equity plan that requires new acquisitions, commissions and exhibitions to represent a split of 40 per cent women artists and 40 per cent men. The remaining 20 per cent is to be shared by both sexes and those identifying outside the gender binary.
Natasha Bullock, Assistant Director, Collections and Exhibitions, said the gallery recognised the “lived realities of exclusions, inequities and histories that have shaped their collections, programs and foundational structures”.
“We are now addressing the significant imbalances that exist. We recognise that to effect societal change, we need to ensure our own workplace culture, policy and artistic programs demonstrate gender equity, inclusivity and respect.“
Page said she was not a fan of targets. “Over the past two decades we have been working with women artists and building our collection to reflect our values, and we will continue to do so. It’s not a recent and short burst.”
Francis Upritchard’s towering figures at Sydney Modern.Credit:Nick Moir
Among the female artists to feature prominently in Sydney Modern is Lisa Reihana’s video installation, Groundloop, in the central atrium. It charts a futuristic waka hourua (twin-hulled ocean-going canoe) travelling an old trade route from Aotearoa, New Zealand, to Australia and asks: “What if Captain Cook had not come?”
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South Korean multi-disciplinary artist Kimsooja has set up a 19 metre-long table on which visitors are invited to create pieces of clay and leave their spheres behind for the “cosmos”.
Lorraine Connelly-Northey’s rustic and rusty narrbong-galang (many bags), are displayed in the 20 metre-long window of the new Yiribana Gallery, dedicated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.
Another work with a public wow factor is a kaleidoscopic architectural illusion by Los Angeles artist Samara Golden. Using mirrors to make an octangular reflection, Golden has created an illusory multi-storey apartment stretching infinitely to the sky above and to the abyss below. She handpainted some of its components – snakes and crabs and intestines and miniature furniture -from expanding foam in the conservation laboratory of the Art Gallery of NSW over the last several weeks.
Golden first created her work for the Night Gallery in Los Angeles last year, knowing it was to be presented at Sydney Modern as part of the opening exhibition Dreamhome: Stories of Art and Shelter. The exhibition looks at the hopes and anxieties people share in places across the world.
Golden says the work grew out of the COVID-19 pandemic and chases feelings of disconnection, social isolation and layers of consciousness. In terms of the illusion itself, Golden says it’s her biggest work to date and applauded the gallery’s push to open Sydney Modern with gender parity.
“It’s amazing for any institution to be equal, right?”
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