“The seen and the unseen.”
The “after hours” as a metaphor is explored in nightshifts at Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne, with the exhibition focusing on the wholistic concept of retreat – an invitation to temporary seclusion, rest, and quietness from others.
Curated by Hannah Presley and Annika Aitken, nightshifts centres on the importance of solitude through contemporary arts practice. One celebrated in the hibernation aspects of bitterly cold Melbourne winters, and one to be thoughtfully reflected on in re-emergence to a post-covid world.
Installation view of nightshifts, Buxton Contemporary, The University of Melbourne, 2023. Featuring Lisa Sammut, Full circle (ii), 2023, and How the earth will approach you, 2023. Photograph: Christian Capurro. Courtesy the artist and Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne
Drawn from the University of Melbourne’s Michael Buxton Collection, the exhibition features thirty works by artists Benjamin Armstong, Peter Booth, Tony Clark, Mikala Dwyer, Marco Fusinato, Teelah George, Shaun Gladwell, Mira Gojak, Brent Harris, David Jolly, Mabel Juli, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Laresa Kosloff, Lindy Lee, Tracey Moffatt, Callum Morton, John Nixon, David Noonan, Gekko Ogata, Mike Parr, Rosslynd Piggott, Sandra Selig, Ricky Swallow, Louise Weaver, and Constanze Zikos, accompanied by two new commissions: an immersive soundscape drawing by Gunditjmara and Keerray Woorroong artist Dr Vicki Couzens in collaboration with Rob Bundle, and a large-scale sculptural and moving image installation by Canberra-based artist Lisa Sammut.
Aitken shares that together with Presley, they looked for new stories to tell in the collection: “Solitude, and the night, were both things that Hannah and I had both been thinking about, probably on some level in response to the focus on hyper-connection, collaboration, visibility (and light!) in art and curatorial practice in recent years.” Rather – and critically to their core audience of students – they wanted to acknowledge the whole picture of an art practice: “The seen and the unseen,” explains Aitken. “We were interested in how the shadows and ‘after hours’ could be used metaphors for the work and thinking that happens beneath the surface, away from the public gaze.”
Installation view of nightshifts, Buxton Contemporary, The University of Melbourne, 2023. Featuring David Jolly, Office part of Liquid Nature, 2006; Lisa Sammut, Full circle (ii), 2023; and Mira Gojak, Prop for instabilities 2, 2013. Michael Buxton Collection, The University of Melbourne Art Collection. Photograph: Christian Capurro. Courtesy the artists and Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne
The curators began planning the show by pulling out works they felt particularly drawn to. “There were three very small, mysterious Peter Booth paintings that we had both returned to with fascination,” says Aitken. “These were probably first on the list, and we started to build a series of subthemes: working at night, solo journeys, ‘glare’ and the legacy of modernism in architecture and urban design, sleep, self-doubt, Deep Listening.”
From here, they leaned towards works by well-known artists like Parr, Gladwell, and Moffatt before looking to the broader holdings: a recent Teelah George acquisition, a work by Rosslynd Piggott, Vizard Collection works by Emily Kame Kngwarreye, and Lindy Lee. The two commissioned pieces extend the core ideas of nightshifts discovered in the collection. “Dr Vicki Couzens and Rob Bundle’s work First Sound, First Light is a beautiful and generous view into the constellation of life and practice for the artists, who have been married for many decades,” says the curator. While Sammut’s commission links the trajectory of Halley’s comet to the duration of human life.
Installation view of nightshifts, Buxton Contemporary, The University of Melbourne, 2023. Featuring Mike Parr, Bronze Liars series, 1996; and Marco Fusinato, Mass Black Implosion series, 2007-08. Michael Buxton Collection, The University of Melbourne Art Collection. Photograph: Christian Capurro. Courtesy the artists and Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne
Installation view of nightshifts, Buxton Contemporary, The University of Melbourne, 2023. Featuring John Nixon, Untitled (black and white monochrome), 2013, Silver Monochrome, 2003; Mabel Juli, Garn’giny Ngarrangkarni; and Mira Gojak, Prop for instabilities 2, 2013. Michael Buxton Collection, The University of Melbourne Art Collection. Photograph: Christian Capurro. Courtesy the artists and Buxton Contemporary, Melbourne
Finally, nightshifts is a journey through a dream-like state that allows the audience to explore a multitude of paths as light, colour and sound transition within the exhibiting space, evoking this particular partition of the day. “There are plenty of darkened areas where you can spend time alone with the works, without feeling observed, or any sense of obligation to perform or engage in any particular way,” Aitkens adds. And with the effort of leaving the house and rugging up, the curator reminds us: this is a show to take in slowly. One to hover and pause. To retreat into the darkness and find the meditative and quiet patina in art and artmaking.
Emma-Kate Wilson is an art and design writer and editor based on Gumbaynggirr Country (Bellingen, NSW).
Buxton Contemporary
26 June to 29 October 2023
Melbourne
