Artist Laith McGregor is calling on members of the public to contribute their own’ message in a bottle’ for one of his most ambitious large-scale installations to date as part of the 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Free/State.
McGregor’s new work, Strange Days, will feature more than 1000 bottles fixed to the walls of the Art Gallery of South Australia spelling out S.O.S and filled with hand-written messages or artwork from participants.
Laith McGregor, Strange Days, 2021-22, Byron Bay, New South Wales and Adelaide, pencil, paper, miscellaneous objects, bottles, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist, STATION Gallery, Australia and Starkwhite, New Zealand
McGregor is one of twenty-five Australian artists assembled in the 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Free/ State by curator Sebastian Goldspink, an exhibition that will challenge histories and art forms, and offer reflections on an era of multi-faceted global upheaval. McGregor sees the sealed vessels as holding the potential for universal communication and as being representative of hope in a time when we need it most.
McGregor says, “At some stage over the last three years, we have all felt like a castaway stuck on an island reaching out to loved ones with our own messages in a bottle. However, even in times of distress – as poet John Donne once wrote – ‘No man is an island’, and this work reflects our collective state of being during these strange times . . .”
“I invite participants to engage with the work and create a message in a bottle, expressing everything from their fears, concerns, feelings, notes to self, messages to loved ones; anything that they feel like they want to share, get off their chest or simply play with,” McGregor says.
Laith McGregor, Floating, 2013, ink on paper, glass, cork, 31.75 x 13.97cm. Courtesy the artist, STATION Gallery, Australia and Starkwhite, New Zealand
If you would like to participate in this project, place a hand-written message, drawing, note or artwork in a bottle or jar (labels removed) with a screw top lid. If you don’t have a bottle, you can send your contribution, and it will be placed inside a bottle on your behalf.
For Melbournians and Sydney-siders, STATION is also collecting contributions for Strange Days until Saturday, 5 February.
The 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Free/State will be presented from 4 March to 5 June 2022 as part of the 2022 Adelaide Festival.
For more information on how to submit a message in a bottle, visit agsa.sa.gov.au/SOS.
