SYDNEY.- Carriageworks will present four large-scale art installations by leading Australian contemporary artists that will be unveiled on 8 January, 2020 as part of Sydney Festival. Rebecca Baumann, Daniel Boyd, Kate Mitchell and Reko Rennie have been commissioned by Carriageworks to create immersive and participatory artworks at the Redfern-based multi-arts institution that will be accompanied by a public program of talks and workshops.

While each presentation stands as a solo entity, they individually address a number of broad thematic ideas which include the concept of time, the use of light as a medium, the contrast of monumentality versus immateriality, and our basic interconnectivity as humans, collectively, the site specificity of the installations will engage audiences with the unique history and architecture of the Carriageworks precinct.

Carriageworks CEO Blair French commented, ‘Carriageworks is committed to working closely with artists to develop and present bold work that engages audiences with contemporary ideas and issues. We begin our 2020 program with major site-specific artworks that demonstrate Carriageworks’ commitment to social and cultural diversity. Two of these artworks are by Aboriginal artists, reflecting the importance of Carriageworks Aboriginal Arts Strategy to our overall Artistic Program. 2020 brings with it an array of Federal and State Government supported projects and activities commemorating the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook’s first voyage to Australia and the Pacific. Along with many of our peer institutions, Carriageworks will respond to this sensitive element of Australia’s history in the form of art-making, presentation and conversation led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and communities. Our specific focus will be in bringing attention to regional South-Eastern Aboriginal Australia to celebrate the continuation of Aboriginal presence and place through a number of ambitious programs and multi-arts projects, with the presence of Reko Rennie’s REMEMBER ME at the entrance to Carriageworks throughout the year a constant reminder of the continuing impact of invasion.’

The works are as follows:

REBECCA BAUMANN: RADIANT FLUX
8 JAN – 14 JUN 2020
Radiant Flux is Perth-based artist Rebecca Baumann's site-specific response to the unique light, space and architecture of the Carriageworks building. Spanning over one-hundred metres in length, Baumann will cover every glass surface of the Carriageworks exterior and skylights in dichroic film, a dynamic material that shifts colour when viewed from different angles and transmits the opposite chromatic spectrum to what it reflects. The result will be a spectacular immersion into a kaleidoscopic world of colour and light that responds continuously to the environmental conditions around it. Baumann's practice oscillates between states of precision and variance, permanence and impermanence. An encounter with Radiant Flux will never be the same twice.

DANIEL BOYD: VIDEO WORKS
8 JAN – 1 MAR 2020
VIDEO WORKS is an immersive composite of three major video installations by Sydney-based Kudjala/Gangalu artist Daniel Boyd. A Darker Shade of Dark #1-4 (2012); History is Made at Night (2013); and Yamani (2018) will map the walls of the gallery with Boyd's infinite cosmos of dynamic compositions and prismatic colour. VIDEO WORKS is an experience that is both otherworldly and grounded, expansive and atomic. Set to a remixed soundtrack by long-time music collaborators Canyons, VIDEO WORKS is an abstracted journey through time immemorial, and a gesture to the impermanence of life on this planet.

KATE MITCHELL: ALL AURAS TOUCH
8 JAN – 1 MAR 2020
In her new work All Auras Touch, Sydney-based artist Kate Mitchell will create an expansive installation of human energy fields, otherwise known as auras. Taking the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations as the starting point, Mitchell will photograph the aura of one representative for each of the 1023 recognised occupations – capturing a snapshot of contemporary Australia. During the course of the exhibition, participants are invited to register online to have their aura portrait taken and included in the evolving installation. A series of workshops will accompany the installation, exploring the way we work through practical seminars and philosophical discussions. In an era where empathy is all but lacking in public discourse, All Auras Touch reminds us that we are all energetic beings made up of the same matter.

REKO RENNIE: REMEMBER ME
8 JAN 2020 – JAN 2021
REMEMBER ME is a monumental illuminated text work by Melbourne-based Kamilaroi artist Reko Rennie. Located prominently at the Wilson Street entrance to Carriageworks, REMEMBER ME references Rennie’s history as a graffiti artist whose adaption of urban spaces created sites of protest, politics and poetry.

2020 marks the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook’s first landfall at Botany Bay and the HMB Endeavour’s charting of the East Coast of Australia. In a national climate currently marred by tension and division as to how this history is acknowledged, Rennie’s work is a searing reminder of the frontier wars, the massacres and the survival of the real sovereigns of this country, the Aboriginal people of Australia.