The Australia Council has unveiled Australia’s representation at the 55th La Biennale di Venezia. The Australian Pavilion features a site-specific project by Simryn Gill, called Here art grows on trees, curated by Catherine de Zegher. The project continues Gill’s work with the passage of time and the habitation of places.
“Simryn Gill’s terrain is the intertidal zone, the insecure in-between zone– that shifting place on a beach where the ocean comes in, covering over shells and crabs, sandflies and sprouting mangroves, and bringing with it detritus of man-made goods down maritime trade routes, to then retreat again,” curator Catherine de Zegher says. “Her work proposes a space of negotiation between the small and the global, between nature and industry, as it reveals an understanding of the interconnectedness of all in a world of flux.”
Gill’s work considers the building’s structure, composed of two rectangular volumes alongside each other, each with a different height and floor level. The upper floor contains the series Let Go, Let Go, and the lower floor hosts the series Eyes and Storms. The exhibition will continue for six months, during which visitors will witness the disintegration of Gill’s work by processes of nature.
One of 29 pavilions within the Biennale Gardens, the Australian Pavilion was first opened in 1988, designed by renowned Australian architect Philip Cox. Australia’s representation at the Venice Biennale began in 1954 with an exhibition of Sidney Nolan, Russel Drysdale and William Dobell. Other representatives have included Bill Henson, Howard Arkley, Patricia Piccinini and Shaun Gladwell.
55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia Australian Pavilion
Until 24 November, 2013
1) Let Go, Lets Go, 2013 (detail), collage and ink on 12 paper and wood panels, each 120 x 280cm, 144 books
2) Half Moon Shine and Eyes and Storms, 2012-13 (exhibition view)
Photography by Jenni Carter