Located in the most multicultural city in Australia, the exhibition will be uniquely presented across multiple venues spanning several blocks throughout central Dandenong, such as the cultural precinct (Walker Street Gallery and Arts Centre, the Drum Theatre, Heritage Hill Museum and Historic Gardens), public spaces and the Dandenong Market. This approach mirrors the rationale of HOME, which tells a shared story through a multiplicity of perspectives.
Visitors to the exhibition will be encouraged to experience HOME 25: Invisible Cities through an intuitive exploration of artworks and sites over 14 weeks of a multi-sensory interactive exhibition. Revisiting HOME 25 in a diverse urban environment will reward a different exhibition experience each time. As artwork and geography, personal memory, and 'psychogeographical' interpretation of paintings, sculptures, site-specific experimental and multimedia and sound installations are explored, visitors will uncover more layers of the Invisible Cities.
The artists participating are: Vernon Ah Kee, Alee Afzali, Barat Ali Batoor, Rushdi Anwar, Atong Atem, Belinda Farinaccia, Carla Gottgens, Emily Jacir, Soyoun Kim, Karo Moret Miranda, Kent Morris, Adrian Olguin, Maroulla Radisavic, Hayden Ryan, Ka Yan So, Joseph Williams (Tennant Creek Brio).
Curator Miriam La Rosa from City of Greater Dandenong says, after a nationwide callout, we received 22 submissions from an array of talented Australian artists, all working across different mediums, styles, tones, and voices. Featuring existing and newly commissioned works, the exhibition provides an intimate look at how the concept of "home" shapes our lives and connections.
'This exhibition explores how the idea of "home" influences our perceptions and sense of belonging. It examines language, gesture and sign as markers of identity and potential sources of displacement. Named after Italo Calvino's acclaimed 1972 book, Invisible Cities, the exhibition blurs the lines between reality and fiction, memory and desire, and past and present. It also explores how symbolic communication, such as verbal language and visual maps, simplifies reality – while the complexity inherent in symbols and arbitrary boundaries, like borders, often demands deeper interpretation.' Dr La Rosa said.
The exhibition is part of HOME, an ongoing program presented by City of Greater Dandenong since 2016. -----------
Image credit: Atong Atem, Three Women, 2019, Ilford smooth pearl print. Image courtesy of MARS and the artist.
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