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Taking inspiration from the Wunderkammer (cabinet of curiosities), the 2016 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art’s ‘Magic Object’ delves into a world of wonder and enchantment as seen through the eyes of twenty-plus Australian contemporary artists.
Presented by the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) and curated by Lisa Slade, Assistant Director, Artistic Programs at the Art Gallery, ‘Magic Object’ runs from 27 February to 15 May 2016, as part of the Adelaide Festival of Arts. The 2016 iteration is the most ambitious Biennial to date, unfolding across an unprecedented number of venues in Adelaide, including the AGSA and Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art at UniSA.
Artists such as Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Glenn Barkley, Loongkoonan, Danie Mellor, Tom Moore, Nell, Ramesh Mario-Nithiyendran, Gareth Sansom, Robyn Stacey, Jacqui Stockdale, Hiromi Tango and Michael Zavros, invite us into their own ‘cabinets of curiosity’. Through photography, painting, performance, sculpture, installation and the moving image, the artists explore cultural rituals, talismanic ideas, and material riddles through magic and object-hood in order to captivate the viewer.
The Vernissage weekend of the 2016 Adelaide Festival features free artist talks and lively panel discussions offering a Wunderkammer of perspectives on material and magical thinking, as artists and thinkers examine the juxtapositions that make the world itself a magic object.
27 February to 15 May, 2016
South Australia
Tiger Yaltangki, Self Portrait, 2014, oil on canvas, 51 x 36cm
Courtesy the artist, Iwantja Arts, Indulkana and Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Michael Zavros, The Poodle, 2014, oil on canvas, 135 x 155cm
Courtesy the artist, Starkwhite, Auckland and Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
