In the book Species of Spaces (Espèces d'espaces, 1974) French novelist and philosopher Georges Perec elaborates on the predicament of understanding space. "The space of our lives is neither continuous, nor infinite, neither homogeneous, nor isotropic." To get a better sense of space, Perec argues, the challenge is not so much "to reinvent space, … but to question it, or even simpler, to read it." His subject is not the void exactly, but rather what might be round about or inside it.
Round About or Inside aims to explore how artists from different geographic and cultural contexts might contribute to Perec's attempt to map and describe the manifold spaces and sites that mark our lives. To what extent do art and artists partake in defining, shaping and ultimately understanding the spatialities of worldmaking? The positions of the artists included in this exhibition are as rich as they are diverse, addressing space as a pictorial substance, a field defining the relationship between land and being, a bodily feature, an architectural material, the sphere of social gathering and exclusion, an arena of ritual exchange, a new way to negotiate gallery spaces, a feat of technological exploration, and a realm of administrative organisation.
Curators: Wouter Davidts and Angela Goddard
Artists: Paul Bai (AUS), Elizabeth Dkajurrurr (AUS), Valérie Mannaerts (BEL), Philip Metten (BEL), Archie Moore (AUS), Yukultji Napangati (AUS), Brian O'Doherty (USA), Sarah Oppenheimer (USA), Steve Van den Bosch (BEL)
Exhibition architecture: Ashley Paine (AUS)
Art Museum opening hours: 11am - 4pm, Tuesday to Saturday. Closed public holidays.
Round About or Inside is supported by the research project 'Is Architecture Art? A history of concepts, categories and recent practices' funded by the Australian Research Council and The University of Queensland's School of Architecture / Architecture Theory Criticism History Research Centre (ATCH), in partnership with Ghent University.
Image: Archie Moore MIS SPACE, 2021. Ink on paper; intervention in Georges Perec's Species of Spaces, 1974. Courtesy the artist and The Commercial, Sydney. Photo: Carol Ha