Offsite exhibition at Metro Arts as part of AIRspace and Metro Arts, with love
01.02.2020 - 15.02.2020 @ Metro Arts, Studio 3.14, Level 3, 109 Edward St, Brisbane.
Default Collective, Projection, 2020. Installation Detail.
Kuiper Projects present, Projection, a new site specific artwork by Default Collective as part of AIRspace at Metro Arts. This offsite project is a component of From Metro, with Love, a festival celebrating 40 years of Metro Arts and the end of Metro Arts at its iconic 109 Edward Street location.
An empty Metro Arts studio space, which for decades has been the site of creative labour, is reimagined as a pristine space that is reminiscent of architectural warehouse conversions. Elements of the space have been preserved, while others have been erased.
The work speaks to the broad economic conditions in which warehouse properties are reinvented and reimagined in late capitalism. SoHo lofts are the oft-cited historical story of the movement of urban warehouses from industrialisation, to artistic hubs, to the eventual leveraging of this cultural capital for lifestyle marketing and gentrification. Indeed, Michael Sorkin notes that the converted loft, or warehouse, has become an ever‐expanding global model of homogenised space: “The planet becomes its own ‘loft’, a yielding, equi‐potential surface ready to be equipped with uniform climate and culture‐indifferent architectures.”
This installation brings the physical studio space that is filled with marks and traces of the previous occupants into dialogue with the idea of a pristine environment that retains the spirit of the space via key architectural features.
More specifically, but within this broad context, Projection addresses the conditions that affect contemporary art organisations, in a neoliberal context where value is reduced to economic exchange. Self-aware, the work does not create a clear distinction between the activities of cultural organisations and the wider economy, hence the implication of the white cube as an architectural non-place.
Projection brings together the past, present and future of this physical space, for a brief moment.
The Metro Arts studio is here seen as a site of resistance, moments before its disappearance.
Further information on AIRspace is here.
As part of AIRspace, Kuiper is also presenting a Panel Discussion:
Within These Walls
Rachael Haynes,
Jeanelle Hurst, Amy-Clare McCarthy and
Simone Hine (Chair)
2pm Saturday 8th of February at Metro Arts
Studio 3.9/3.10 Level 3 109 Edward St, Brisbane
Projection, 2020. Site Specific Installation, Metro Arts, 109 Edward St, Studio 3.14. Installation View (detail).
Projection, 2020. Site Specific Installation, Metro Arts, 109 Edward St, Studio 3.14. Installation View (detail).
Projection, 2020. Site Specific Installation, Metro Arts, 109 Edward St, Studio 3.14. Installation View (detail).
Projection, 2020. Site Specific Installation, Metro Arts, 109 Edward St, Studio 3.14. Installation View (detail).
Projection, 2020. Site Specific Installation, Metro Arts, 109 Edward St, Studio 3.14. Installation View (detail).
Projection, 2020. Site Specific Installation, Metro Arts, 109 Edward St, Studio 3.14. Installation View (detail).
Projection, 2020. Site Specific Installation, Metro Arts, 109 Edward St, Studio 3.14. Installation View (detail).
Projection, 2020. Site Specific Installation, Metro Arts, 109 Edward St, Studio 3.14. Installation View (detail).
