Digital production may now dominate the landscape in the everyday, however many artists are still entranced by the mechanical qualities of contraptions and the analogue nature of their often hand-made forms.
This exhibition considers how artists use machines for experimentation, play, and hands-on exploration of ideas, examining humanity’s relationship with technology by using elements of whimsy and absurdity to conjure unexpected encounters that enhance our perception of the world. Geoff Kleem, Stuart Ringholt, and Erwin Wurm, for example, deliberately upend original purpose of a device so they are seen anew.
Gallery of Modern Art
4 October 2025 to 22 February 2026
Queensland
Liam O’Brien (Australia b.1987), Domestication (still), 2014, single-channel HD video: 10:15 minutes, colour, stereo
Purchased 2015. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation. Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
© Liam O’Brien
Courtesy the artist and Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
