2112: Imagining the Future

RMIT Gallery
2 December 2011— 28 January 2012
Curator: Linda Williams

Low-Res catalogue pdf

84 pages plus covers

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 This exhibition entitled 2112 Imagining the Future follows several of the

foreword
Suzanne Davies
distinctive features of RMIT Gallery exhibitions—meticulous presentation
of curatorial outcomes arising from the exploration and development of the
practice-led research interests of academics and artists in an international
context. Where this is the generative process, the creative capacity of the gallery
is to collaboratively shape the research into a compelling, visceral experience,
enabling a global and local integration of interests relevant to a range of academic
disciplines in the public domain of the gallery.
In 2008 Associate Professor Linda Williams worked with RMIT Gallery to present
Heat: Art and Climate Change. Like Heat, 2112 draws on the practice-led research
of artists and architects to create an inclusive conduit for their research
outcomes into the public realm. In 2010 celebrated US author Kim Stanley
Robinson gave a keynote address at a conference titled Changing the Climate:
Utopia, Dystopia and Catastrophe at Monash University. Williams also gave a
keynote at the conference on science fiction film, and following this began to
reconsider the role of images of the future in contemporary art.
Research undertaken by Williams and RMIT Gallery revealed that most visual
artists who were thinking about the future were considering it in the context
of climate change. While science fiction was a strong force for imaging the
future in literature, philosophy and film, it was relatively marginal in the field of
contemporary art. Nonetheless, several artists whose work is presented in 2112,
cross the generic boundaries between science fiction and contemporary reflection.
That said, we are aware that any selection of artworks cannot be definitive.
This catalogue invites reflections on the future through two brief essays designed
to provide a conceptual framework. Professor Andrew Milner focuses on the
relativity and history in Western European thought of the notion of utopias as
“‘social dreaming’ about better ways to live” in this world or another. Dr Jane
Mullett cites Kim Stanley Robinson’s trilogy The Science Chronicles, conjuring
future worlds “with a climate run amok” through human agency—the proliferation
of nuclear weaponry and greenhouse gases. Mullett grounds her account in the
findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change making clear that the
future lies solely and unequivocally in the hands of humankind in this decade.
Curator Linda Williams then engages incisively with each of the artworks,
acknowledging that, while the future is unknown, the featured artists “speculate
on how conditions in our time may prove to be the conduits of unintended
consequences for how things might look in 2112” in all manner of permutations of
the broad thematic of utopia and dystopia.
Accompanying the exhibition and catalogue is a substantial public programme
providing opportunities for further public engagement with the artists, including
our international guests Kenji Yanobe (Japan) and Lyndal Osborne (Canada), the
work of Evelyn Tsitas, Media, Education and Public Programmes Coordinator
at RMIT Gallery. We thank the artists, architects and their representatives, the
Australian Institute of Architects, Japan Foundation, and Vanessa Gerrans,
Exhibition Coordinator who assisted with exhibition research along with Jen Rae
a member of the Art and Sustainability Research Group led by Linda Williams in
the School of Art. Peter Wilson, Installation Manager has ensured that a complex
installation appears seamless. We also acknowledge the intellectual leadership
of Professor Paul James, director of the Global Studies Research Institute who
opens this most prescient exhibition.

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 The term ‘Utopia’ was coined in 1516 by Thomas More—later Sir Thomas Australia. He lives amongst the camel-riding Sevarambians for nearly
utopia
Andrew Milner
More, later still Saint Thomas More—as the shortened title of his literary fifteen years, studies their language, constitution and religion, takes
fiction, Utopia, and the name of the fictional island it depicted. Originally three wives and fathers sixteen children before eventually being given
published in Latin, the book was translated into English by Ralph Robinson permission to return to Europe.
in 1551, sixteen years after More’s martyrdom.
Such imaginings became less plausible when European explorers brought
The word is actually a Greek pun in Latin between ‘ou topos’, meaning no back detailed accounts of Australia’s climate, topography and people.
place, and ‘eu topos’, meaning good place. This alerts us to the fact that Utopias were therefore progressively relocated further into the interior,
More himself was clear it was indeed a fiction, rather than a political but the realities of inland exploration soon proved equally disappointing.
proposal or a philosophical treatise. Although the term dates only from The subgenre of ‘lost world’ stories of ancient communities hidden in the
the 16th century, it is clear that there are earlier examples of similar kinds desert nonetheless attained high popularity in the 1890s.
of writing. More himself explicitly mentions Plato’s Republic, which was
The earliest Utopias were almost always set in this world, in this time, but
written in the fourth century BC, but as a work of philosophy rather than of
in an as yet unexplored country, very often an island, as in both More and
fiction.
Bacon. In 1771, Louis Sébastien Mercier’s L’An 2440 took the original step
It can be argued that all human cultures produce Utopias, in the sense of of relocating Utopia away from geography and into future history, thus
‘social dreaming’ about better ways to live. But many are supernatural, anticipating one of the most common strategies in contemporary science
rather than this-worldly. These are not strictly Utopias in More’s sense, but fiction.
rather Heavens of one kind or another. Others are situated in this world, but
The device did not become general, however, until well into the nineteenth
in the good time before time. These too are not Utopias proper, but rather
century, when the Europeans’ successful mapping of the world rendered
Dreamtimes or Edens.
the older Utopian islands implausible. Topos means place, rather than time.
Utopias are often described as perfect societies, but this is certainly not Strictly speaking, then, these future-Utopias might be called ‘Uchronias’
true of More’s Utopia, which depicts only a better world not a perfect one. —from the Greek ‘ou chronos’—rather than Utopias. The vast majority of
He was devoutly Catholic and so, presumably, would have been his own these have been science fictional in character.
version of the perfect society. Yet his Utopia is not Christian, for the very
Many late nineteenth century Utopias combined different versions of
obvious reason that news of Christianity has only recently reached it.
socialism or feminism with science fiction. Important examples included,
Rather, it practices toleration of many religions, including moon-worship
in the United States, Edward Bellamy’s 1888 Looking Backward 2000-1887
and sun-worship.
and, in England, William Morris’s 1890 News from Nowhere, which is set
Whether Utopias are understood as perfect or merely better, the obvious in 2003. In Australia, too, Utopias increasingly became future-fictional.
question arises: perfect or better in whose opinion? The only practical Catherine Helen Spence’s A Week in the Future and Joseph Fraser’s
answer is that of the writer or other artist who creates it. So one person’s Melbourne and Mars, both published in 1889, are good early examples.
Utopia might well be another’s anti-Utopia. If More’s Utopia is determinedly
The most famous early twentieth century Utopian writer was almost
humanist, Francis Bacon’s Nova Atlantis, first published in Latin in 1624
certainly the English Fabian Socialist, H.G. Wells, who wrote three: A
and in English translation as New Atlantis in 1627, is correspondingly
Modern Utopia in 1905, In the Days of the Comet in 1906, and The Shape
scientific. It is not always easy, however, to understand the intended
of Things to Come in 1933. The latter was adapted for the cinema in 1936
meaning of any given Utopia. There is still much debate, for example,
as Things to Come, produced by Alexander Korda and directed by William
about what exactly More intended by his Utopia. Some Utopias seem to
Cameron Menzies, and became one of the most successful inter-war
be written primarily for fun, as kinds of ‘thought experiment’; others as
science fiction films.
serious political recommendations; yet others as satires on different
aspects of the real world. Utopian themes continued intermittently throughout Australian literary
history, from Barnard Eldershaw’s 1947 Tomorrow and Tomorrow and
Well before the European invasion of Australia, this continent had already
Tomorrow to contemporary science-fictional Utopias, such as Terry
become a site for European Utopian imaginings. The earliest example is
Dowling’s 1993 Twilight Beach and Greg Egan’s 1997 Diaspora.
Dr Andrew Milner is
Peter Heglin’s An Appendix To the Former Work, first published in 1656.
Professor of Comparative More influential, however, was Denis Veiras’s L’histoire des Sévarambes, The 1970s and ’80s witnessed the emergence of new Utopian science
Literature and Cultural first published in part in English in 1675, in whole in French in 1679. fictions in the United States. These included Ursual K. Le Guin’s 1974 The
Studies, Monash Veiras’s Captain Siden is en route to Batavia, when he is shipwrecked on Dispossessed, Joanna Russ’s The Female Man and Ernest Callenbach’s
University.
the coast of Sevarambia, somewhere in what we would now call Western Ecotopia, both published in 1975, Samuel R. Delany’s Trouble on Triton

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 and Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time, both published in 1976, Humans have always speculated about the future, about their own potential

— fear is not a pretty sight

imagining the future

Jane Mullett
and Kim Stanley Robinson’s 1990 Pacific Edge. The second version of the for good and evil and their place in the universe. These often take the form
Star Trek television franchise, The Next Generation, which ran from 1987 of diatribes against the way things are or fearful imaginings about what may
to 1994, also presented the most consistently Utopian version of its future be in store. There are many examples in popular culture, from Mary Shelley’s
‘United Federation of Planets’. famous novel Frankenstein – a constructed human created by science and
turned brutal as a result of inhumane treatment—to films of the last few
The best known early twenty-first century Utopian writer is probably
decades that invoke dystopian futures or fearful post-apocalyptic worlds.
the Scottish SF novelist, Iain M. Banks, whose ‘Culture’ novels—the
Water wars, sudden ice ages, post-disaster urban environments where the
most recent is the 2010 Surface Detail—depict a technologically hyper-
hero, and occasionally the heroine, is left to battle with chaos, are a few
advanced, pan-galactic, anarcho-communist, stateless society. Banks
of the well-known storylines. Science fiction writing is full of end-of-the-
describes the Culture as ‘my personal ideal for a Utopian society’. His early
world battles, and while many are set in the future, this type of story has a
Culture novella, The State of the Art was dramatised by Paul Cornell for
history that goes back at least as far as the Bible. Most people are familiar
BBC Radio 4 in 2009. A Gift From The Culture, another story from the same
with images of the four apocalyptic horsemen riding before the storm that
collection, is currently being adapted for film by Dominic Murphy for Mass
signifies the end of the world as we know it, a judgement on humankind’s
Productions.
‘wickedness’ and a deeply significant and meaningful story for many people.
Utopia is in principle representable in almost any art form, but in practice
The future worlds of science fiction are speculative but draw on our
it has been a mainly literary and philosophical genre, to a lesser extent
understanding of ourselves, and are firmly rooted in our own cultural,
cinematic. The challenge of how to save a warming world for Utopia is
political, psychological attitudes—of course, how else could it be? The
perhaps the most immediately pressing in our century. Whether science
best works are metaphors for exposing inequalities or paradoxes within
fiction writing or cinema – or some other art form altogether—will rise to
our own world. George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a classic, as is Stanley
that challenge remains to be seen.
Kubrick’s Doctor Strangelove or his A Clockwork Orange (based on the book
by Anthony Burgess). Kim Stanley Robinson’s trilogy The Science Chronicles
—
which imagines a possible future with a climate run amok may well
become a classic. These stories include worlds that deal with two tangible
manufactured global conditions that have the potential to seriously disrupt
our climate: firstly, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, which if exploded in
large numbers could lead to a ‘nuclear winter’, and secondly the proliferation
of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which if left unchecked could lead
to major changes in the Earth’s climate. These two threats are represented
on the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic device originally created by the ‘Bulletin
of Atomic Scientists’ to help communicate the threat from nuclear weapons
which has now been expanded to include other threats including ‘global
warming’. It is currently ‘6 minutes to midnight’ and the clock reads: “The
dangers posed by climate change are still great, but there are pockets of
progress.”1 This clock is one way of talking about possible futures.

But the way that the world’s climate scientists talk about the future is
different. It is a type of imagining that has changed the way we are able
to think about the future: a paradigm shift. The projections for a changing
climate that have been published every four years since 1990 by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2, come from computer-
based global circulation models of the Earth’s climate. It is only fairly
recently that there has been enough computing power to create and run
Dr Jane Mullett is a
Research Fellow in
viable mathematical models of the world’s weather systems to develop
the Climate Change plausible projections of future climates. While there is never going to be
Adaptation Program, certainty about the future, there are now powerful methods of modelling
Global Cities Research what the climate might be like given certain conditions. These are implied
Institute, RMIT University.
in six scenarios of future conditions created by the IPCC. They are not

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 often discussed, but include alternative development pathways that

— All that is solid melts into air

Contemporary art as futuristic fiction

Linda Williams

tony lloyd—catalogue no 20—Photo: margund sallowsky

will influence what is in the atmosphere in the future, how large the
worlds’ human population may grow, how quickly new ways of generating
electricity can be created and how fast the worlds’ economies grow. For
example, the IPCC indicates that, “the A1 storyline assumes a world of very
rapid economic growth, a global population that peaks in mid-century and
rapid introduction of new and more efficient technologies … B2 describes
a world with intermediate population and economic growth, emphasising
local solutions to economic, social, and environmental sustainability. A2
describes a very heterogeneous world with high population growth, slow
economic development and slow technological change.”3

We don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, but the knowledge we

do have has changed our ability to think about the future. The scientific
mechanisms that have been created to investigate the long-term future Reproduced above is a work from 2112: Imagining the future, by the
shine a spotlight on the implications of what is happening now. Mike Melbourne-based painter Tony Lloyd: All That is Solid Melts Into Air (2011).
Hulme says, “climate change demands that we focus on the long-term This title is a well-known phrase from the Communist Manifesto (1848) in
implications of short-term choices.”4 We need to talk together about which Marx and Engels wrote of a modern world not so dissimilar from our
what sort of world we would like to live in and to investigate the worlds in own, a world where: everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the
the IPCC scenarios, imagining our possible futures so we have the best bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones ... All that is solid melts into air, all that
information from which to make decisions about what to do today. Art is a is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses,
vital part of this discussion and deep imagining. Is not much of dystopian his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind… The need of a
art a lament for the lost utopia, a complaint that we have got it wrong and a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over
beginning to imagine how it could be? the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere,
So welcome to the ‘Age of the Humans’, the dawning of the Anthropocene establish connections everywhere.
—a time when the Earth is dominated by the actions of one species.5 On this view, our contemporary sense of uncertainty is something that
Welcome to ‘the critical decade’ 6 —a time when collectively we make has been gathering momentum for some time, at the very least from the
decisions that will affect the Earth’s climate for hundreds of thousands 19th century when the social and environmental impacts of the European
of years to come. Welcome to the epoch when authoritative scientific industrial revolution had begun to take effect, rather than a more recent
consensus about the physical transformation of the world’s climate has product of a putative post-modern condition.1
changed ... well, everything. Welcome to a new way of thinking about the
future. Welcome to your everyday world, a time of rapid change, radical Along with the doubts and insecurities of late modernity, one of the major
uncertainty, and technological transformation. Things haven’t been this themes explored in this exhibition arises from the question of why imagining
unsettling since Galileo’s era, when humans were ousted from the centre of the future through science fiction thrives in literature and film, yet appears
the universe and instead sent hurtling into space, speeding around the sun, to be a genre that is fairly marginal to the field of contemporary art. While
just one planet among many. Now, ironically, we are firmly back to centre- research for the exhibition largely affirmed the view that relatively few
stage, the main actor on the Earth. It is up to us to determine whether our artists cross paths with the visions of future worlds conveyed by science
future becomes a dystopia or utopia. fiction, those who do, or whose works explore the idea of the future,
generally appear to imagine fairly somber, dystopian scenarios.
— Essentially the future remains unknown to us, and if we extend our everyday
thinking about time beyond the immediate range of short-term interests,
1—The Doomsday Clock http://www.thebulletin.org/content/doomsday-clock/timeline
2—The IPCC Reports http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/publications_and_data_reports.shtml then the future, as they say of the past, becomes a foreign country.2 Few
3—The IPCC Synthesis Report 2007 http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/publications_ipcc_fourth_ contemporary artists seem to respond to these foreign realms, or to
assessment_report_synthesis_report.htm p.44. Dr Linda Williams
4—Mike Hulme, Why We Disagree About Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2009, p.363. is Associate Professor
consider a model of time as conceived for example by the historians of the
5— Curt Sager, Deep Future: The next 100,000 Years of Life on Earth, Thomas Dunne Books, New York, 2011
of Art, Environment & Annales School as a longue durée.3 Fewer artists explore deep time as it is
6— The Climate Commission, The Critical Decade http://climatecommission.gov.au/topics/the-critical-
decade/
Cultural Studies in the described in evolutionary theory or in the long genealogies of the earth,4
School of Art, RMIT and those who might imagine a world several centuries or millennia into the
University.
future appear to be very rare.5

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 Contemporary artists then, appear to be well grounded in their own time. There are three other works by Lloyd in the exhibition. In one, Sometimes
Yet this exhibition draws on the way artists speculate on how conditions You Have to Leave Without Saying Goodbye (2010), a rocket blasts up into
in our time may prove to be the conduits of unintended consequences for the sky away from an unpopulated, pristine landscape. This appears to
how things might look by 2112, or a century away, when in particular the be an image of people making a last departure into space from a familiar
question of an ecological ‘tipping point’ is likely to have become much world. Yet it is imbued with a great deal of nostalgic irony since the rocket is
clearer to everyone. more reminiscent of Cape Canaveral in the sixties than a starship, and the
landscape itself is an image of Nature with a capital N, or nature, as it were,
A contemporary sense of unease about the future is evinced by the many
“over there” as the ecocritical writer Tim Morton might say.7 The irony of this
sites on the web proclaiming 2012 as a year of global Armageddon. Or, if not
LLOYD [pp40–41] work is emphasised by its title, which is more reminiscent of a sentimental
2012, perhaps another time when various prophecies can be adapted for a
sixties pop song rather than a departure from the Earth. The question of
forthcoming catastrophe that will blast us all to kingdom come. Some will
to which place the rocket might be heading only creates further ambiguity,
be elected to arrive in the kingdom in one piece, while the rest of us, and all
since Nature in this work is as lovely as a picture on a chocolate box, and
other species,6 are to burn in a hell that the biblical prophesies suggest the
the whole scenario suggests that rocket science as an escape route from
world will become. Alternatively, new age believers may yet be transported
the Earth’s problems was a half-baked idea even in its own time. Lloyd’s
in UFOs to the Sirius binary star system, or wherever else in the galaxy
other works The Shape of Eternal Vigilance (2009) and Why Do We Remember
harbours enlightened aliens. These scenarios are, to be sure, dreadful – and
the Past and Not the Future? (2010) propose imaginary worlds of a more
not least for their poverty of imagination. Yet they do tend to recur as a kind
distant future, where isolated clusters of buildings and domes appear
of resistant B-Grade cultural virus at the level of emotional affects, and like
against an unfamiliar moon, or as fragile outposts on massive cliffs of ice
the conspiracy theories with which they are semiotically connected, they marchand & MEFFRE [pp42–43]
suggestive of a future terrestrial ice age.
are, as such, worthy of scrutiny.
Several artists in 2112 speculate on urban futures, yet in the photographs
The global endgame is alive and well on the internet. And like many
of French artists Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre a version of urban
conspiracy theories, at its core is a vehicle for individual anxiety in the face
dystopia seems to have already arrived in contemporary Detroit. From 2006
of overwhelming odds. It is, in short, a gauge of political helplessness in the
to 2008 the artists photographed various deserted and decaying buildings
context of the kind of inexorable global changes that the individual feels
in Detroit, in this once dynamic heart of Fordist automobile manufacturing
powerless to change.
and capitalist progress. Home to many thousands of factory workers,
In the hands of artists, however, scenarios for global change are rehearsed the port of Detroit was known as Motor City, and also as ‘Motown’: the
in ways that engage the imagination in complicity with an imagined city of up beat African-American soul music in the sixties and seventies,
motoda [pp46–47]
worldview, or, conversely, present dystopian scenarios that clearly invite (if not unprocessed Mississippi soul, then at least soul lite). Since then
us to find imaginative forms of resistance to the images they evoke. In however, as Marchand and Meffre’s photographs attest, parts of the urban
either case, there is an imaginative process of adaptation to possible future infrastructure started to crumble as factories, school rooms, apartments,
scenarios that enable engagement and also reflection on what it might theatres and churches were abandoned and began to fall apart. In some
mean to inherit that kind of future. ways these images of decay were prophetic, since by 2010 Detroit was hit
particularly hard by the crises in subprime mortgages and the car industry,
In Lloyd’s painting, snow-peaked mountains are rendered vulnerable as
when a third of the population was unemployed and mortgage foreclosures
snow and glaciers retreat into higher altitudes due to the effects of global
led to a drop in property prices of 80%.8
warming, and where even the solidity of mountains or the earth itself
appears to melt into air. The theme of climate change recurs in many, if If from Melbourne the lives of Americans in Detroit seems a long way ‘over
not most of the works in this exhibition. There are, however, one or two there’, and perhaps even the Global Financial Crisis seems relatively distant
subsidiary themes that could be described as in some way coming under in a country in the midst of an extractive mining and mineral export boom,
the general aegis of an interest in the capacity of science in an age of risk. this has not prevented artists from articulating a sense of anxiety that a
Hence underscoring all the works there are two major concerns about how more general collapse of the global economy, or other possible disasters
the world might look to us in a hundred years’ time and they pivot on the might impact on cities in our own region. The Japanese artist Hisaharu
question of potential global ecological destruction and the potential of Motoda for example, has tapped into this sense of unease about the future
science. A third, more inchoate theme is the question of the role of art and in a series of lithographs called Indications in which Australian icons such
its capacity for conveying more complex scenarios, even if only by dint of as the Melbourne Cricket Ground, or the Sydney Opera House look as if
negation through the imagery of dystopian catastrophe. Hence the artworks they have been through the same processes of decline and decay as the
should not be read literally as pictures of the future, but rather as a means dilapidated buildings of Detroit. Similarly in Indication—Shibuya Center
of reflecting on a range of ideas and responses to possible futures. Town (2005) Motoda reconfigures central Tokyo as a post-apocalyptic ruin.

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 These bleak future visions are of course, not in any way prophetic, but If Haley presents a world swallowed up by sites of capital, consumption
like the best works of science fiction are a means of symbolic critique of and leisure, these aspects of our world meet a more ignominious future as
contradictions in the conditions of the present. they are themselves swallowed up by the forces of nature in a work by the
Danish art collective Superflex Flooded McDonald’s (2009). In this video the
Philip Brophy’s Northern Void (2007) (in collaboration with sound work by
ubiquitous fast-food outlet McDonald’s is inundated by water so that trays
Philip Samartzis) takes this critique a step further in his video of a drab
of shakes, burgers and fries float and then sink, and even the customer’s
Melbourne suburb, Preston, which was also inspired by real conditions
friend Ronald McDonald floats off across the shop to meet his end in the
in America where the artist witnessed people who needed a hospital
deluge. As one of many works in 2112 that speculate on the ways in the
staggering around the streets of San Francisco in their pyjamas. This was
brophy [pp22–23] superflex [pp56–57] future we may be required to adapt to climate change, Flooded McDonalds
during the Reagan years of the early eighties, when California, one of the
is as much about the unintended consequences of choices and practices
wealthiest regions on the planet, had such an inadequate public health
of consumption that we engage in right now, rather than more distant
system that when the poor became ill they had nowhere to go other than
outcomes. The notion that the ways we think about water in a global context
the street. Of all the works in this exhibition, Brophy’s video deliberately
may be one of the most salient questions we might raise over the next
refutes the seamless, hi-tech aesthetic common to sci-fi cinema with a
century is implicit in how Superflex speculate on connections between the
low key, grim sense of humour about the slow atrophy of the suburbs of
inchoate environmental problems of industrialised and delocalised food
his childhood which held the potential for a future more banal than we
production and the rise in sea levels.
could ever imagine. Preston High Street, it should be noted, was for Brophy
already something a cultural vacuum before its decline was exacerbated by In Australia, as in many other places, water is a contested resource and
WARDLE [pp62–63] the opening of a vast American style shopping mall Northlands in 1970. So yonetani [pp60–61] the Sydney-based artists Ken and Julia Yonetani draw attention to threats
Brophy’s focus on the slow death of ‘the high street’ in 2013 is not nostalgic to the viability of the Murray-Darling River system in the semi-arid region
since very little appears to have preceded the sense that the buildings look of the Mallee through drought, inefficient agricultural practices, and
like tombstones bereft of people or social life. In 2085 not much else has salinity. Despite the aridity of the region, the Mallee and the Murray-Darling
changed in ghost town Preston other than the appearance of the ailing, Basin are still among the most significant agricultural regions in Australia
medicated zombies of a vaguely Western underclass waiting for trams and its main ‘food basket’. While a huge amount of water is still lost through
that will never arrive, or simply staring vacantly into space. By 3079AD, inefficient methods of irrigation, some food products require a significantly
however, time has eroded the forlorn shopfronts and the inhabitants have more intensive use of water than others. Beef and livestock, for example,
quite literally become ghosts, the spectral shadows of whatever could be are financially highly profitable products that nonetheless require massive
described as life forms from 2013. Thus from prosaic beginnings, ever more amounts of water for the least efficient yields, while vegetables and fruit
signer [pp54–55]
banal things may flourish. deliver the most efficient return for the use of water. It is these last that
Ken and Julia Yonetani array in their large scale sculpture Still Life—The
Like Brophy, Melbourne-based painter Darren Wardle also has aspects of
Food Bowl (2011) as a still life cornucopia of fruit, wine, vegetables—and
the suburban dreams of modernity in his sights with Faultline (2008). Like
a dead fish—all made entirely of salt. While traditional still life painting
the special effects in Roland Emmerich’s recent film 2012 when the entire
often aimed to seduce the viewer with sensuous surfaces, the surface of
San-Andreas faultline breaks open and the freeways, suburbs and shopping
this work (though technically impressive) works counter-intuitively so that
malls of California sink so spectacularly into the Pacific Ocean, the sleek
by making grapes or peaches from brittle salt the artists render them too
modern building in Wardle’s painting appears to be pulled apart from
fragile to touch and subvert the anticipation of eating them. It is as if we
some unseen force. The building could be one of many in LA, with its bland
have moved forward in time so the gradual processes of salinification in
corporate façade, advertising signage and street-level graffiti. It appears
the region have now become so complete that food is transformed into
to be a building made of signs almost entirely empty of meaning other
salt, and hence though water is not visible in this work, it is essentially its
than the concept of money as an idealised abstraction. And similarly, in
main focus. Water is also the subject of Wasserstiefel (1986) by the Swiss
Stephen Haley’s video GameOverGame (2004) we enter a virtual future city
artist Roman Signer, an imaginary ‘action-sculpture’ captured in a surreal
comprised entirely of signs. This is a truly repellent, claustrophobic world
digital photographic image of a man disappearing in an explosion of water.
and in many ways like a hyper-idealised, futuristic version of a shopping
Consered in the context of the work in salt by the Yonetanis, Signer’s
mall where escape from one level merely leads into ever more complicated
artwork conveys an imagery of the uncanny similar to the imagery of sci-fi
mazes of more signs, and more advertising. In Wardle and Haley’s work, we
film, whilst attesting to the more mundane fact that over 60% of the weight
see the increasing globalization of corporate governance exaggerated and
of a human body is made up of water in one form or another.
expanded as a way of seeing one possible conduit into the future.

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 The Sydney-based artist Stephanie Valentin also explores the future of emphasised the massive scale of the glacier by including the diminutive
water as a precious resource in the arid regions of Australia in a series of figure of a man almost indiscernible in the middle right foreground. The
photographs called Earthbound. In Cornucopia (2009) Valentine assembled mighty glacier makes its way down the mountain by degrees, yet as we
a still life of glass bowls and vases placed outdoors on the typically infertile, know, glaciers are also retreating in response to variation by degrees in
sandy soils of a field in the Mallee. Mysteriously illuminated, these cut global warming. Hence this image of a glacier caught in a movement so slow
glass objects are usually used to display flowers, or as vessels containing that it appears to be inactive, becomes a metaphor for a largely invisible
an abundance of fruit, water or wine—hence the title Cornucopia. Like the momentum towards an environmental tipping point.
Yonetanis’ still life, these objects also suggest fragility, yet Valentin has
Another work focusing on ice and climate change is the video and sound
valentin [pp60–61] managed to convey a sense of suspense in response to an unknown future, SAMARTZIS [pp52–53]
installation Isolation (2011) by Philip Samartzis. This work combines the
or the tentative hope that the empty vessels could eventually catch the
terrestrial sounds and images of equipment at the Davis Station in Eastern
rain, even if it arrives so rarely in this region. In Terrarium (2009) the artist
Antarctica with sounds from a high altitude from the station’s radar system
again placed glass objects: a tube and bell jar, in an arid field. The tube
through coded tone pulses that measure upper atmospheric turbulence.
is subtly illuminated to reveal a fragile plant, while the bell jar contains
The slow video footage of empty rooms emphasises the banalities of
both a butterfly and a bee (both pollinators) on an illuminated glass Petri
everyday life at the station and the range of technological infrastructure
dish. Valentin is interested in the future impact of climate change on
needed to maintain life on the frozen continent. It also registers the signs of
biodiversity, and particularly on how more extreme weather events change
stress and fatigue on the antennae and machinery at the station produced
the onset of the seasons and then impact on phenological cycles.9 Shot in
by intense cold, and in this way draws attention to human vulnerability
weak moonlight, these small life forms seem fragile indeed, though their
OSBORNE [pp48–49] HALEY [pp34–35] to extreme climatic conditions. Conversely, the impact of humans on a
preciousness is emphasised by the visual references to scientific study that
vulnerable environment is also suggested by how the video does not present
nonetheless suggest tentative grounds for optimism.
Antarctica as a pristine white wilderness, but rather highlights areas of a
This restrained optimism is also evinced in the imaginary seed bank barren rocky landscape along with the general human detritus around the
contained in a series of bell jars in ab ovo (2008), an installation by the station. By combining the daily hum of machines with the coded sounds
Canadian artist Lyndal Osborne. Inspired by the Millennium Seed Bank from the stratosphere Samartzis also seeks to further dramatize reciprocal
near London10 Osborne’s colourful seeds are enlarged three-dimensional influences between the human and non-human worlds.
versions of the complex seed structures made visible by the electron
If icebergs are fitting images for thinking about time as a slow and continual
microscope, and are presented as fecund time capsules for possible
process, Melbourne artist Stephen Haley deftly compresses time by
futures. Almost every country has established seed banks, though they
DOYLE [pp28–29] conveying the rapid global changes that can occur in one second. In his
can be vulnerable to the effects of war as in recent examples in Iraq and
digital art series One Second More Haley represents a selection of either
Afghanistan, or by earthquakes and extreme climatic events such as those
commodities or processes of expenditure produced globally in a single
occurring recently in The Philippines, Honduras and Nicaragua.
second (at the production rates of 2010). These include 1146 barrels of oil,
If Osborne and Valentin’s works suggest some grounds for environmental 31,168 plastic bags, 43,259 energy intensive internet searches, $46,392
optimism, others such as those by Australian artist Lesley Duxbury or in US military spending, 2963 kilos of wild fish, 961 toilet rolls, and 5982
the American artist Thomas Doyle, convey a heightened sense of an plastic water bottles. In One Second (Plastic Water Bottles 5982) (2010) the
environmental tipping point. In Doyle’s Well Enough Alone (2005), the artist eponymous waste is dropped into an imaginary ocean. On first impression
depicts the small figure of a man before a wall of water which is held in an this image recalls the ‘great Pacific garbage patch’—a vast floating island
odd moment of suspended animation. Time seems to stand still as the tiny of plastic in the North Pacific gyre, but it is also a work with considerable
DUXBURY [pp30–31]
figure gingerly approaches the suspended wall of water, and is a moment potential to engage the viewer in thinking about the future since if in one
of risk made palpable by the quirkiness of a clearly nonsensical, surrealist second we produce this amount of plastic, it’s not hard to see the massive
scenario. In By Degrees (2010) on the other hand, Duxbury conveys an scale of the problem. In One Second (All Together) (2010) Haley brings all
uncompromising image of a massive melting glacier on Baffin Island in this global production together as a dark swarm of objects hovering over
Nunuvut in the Canadian Arctic as a kind of tipping point in slow motion. a digitally constructed landscape. Inside the dark cloud, oil barrels float
Glaciers are powerful icons of gradual change insofar as they resemble alongside thousands of plastic bags, water bottles and masses of black
ice cores, tree rings or geological strata as three-dimensional maps of dots representing internet searches or military dollars. The world is a big
time, and Duxbury emphasises the slow passage of time by staggering the place, and the future is an open blue sky of unknown possibilities, but this
three images in a gradual descent. Glaciers are also remarkable for their work effectively invites us to imagine how this sky might look like filled with
translucent blue-green colours, though in this instance Duxbury has stained the detritus of only 10 minutes of global production. What it might imply for
the glacier with a pink glow as a harbinger of global warming. She has also the world in 2112 requires more thought, since in Haley’s terms we would

14 15
 be looking at a surface saturated in black ink. So perhaps the unintended Leach is also interested in Bruno Latour’s notion that science itself cannot
consequences of such production in the present is easier to grasp, and claim completely impartial objectivity since he argues that there are still
not least for such questions as how so much slowly eroding plastic in the remnants of mysticism and animism at its core. This is the subject of Leach’s
oceans might impact on biodiversity and the food chain. work We Have Never Been Modern (2011) that makes a direct reference to
Latour’s work in the history and philosophy of science.13 In this painting
Like Haley, another Melbourne artist Debbie Symons presents numerical
scientists cluster round a satellite in a clean room, while a huge griffin vulture
facts and data about escalating environmental change in ways that engage
perches above. The vulture is one of those Leach witnessed devouring human
the imagination. In her digital video still Arrivals/Departures (2011), Symons
flesh in a Tibetan sky burial where material human remains are redistributed
presents an airport Arrivals and Departures screen as an effective device
SYMONS [pp58–59] LEACH [pp38–39] into the ecosystem. The satellite is also a device that distributes human
for listing species introduced into Australia as “Arrivals—International” and
energy as images and texts are relayed across the world, and by bringing
endangered indigenous species as “Departures—Domestic”. As the IUCN
these objects together in a strange form of visual poetry, Leach seeks to
list of endangered species attests,11 we are witnessing a massive global loss
suggest the notion that energy may be dispersed in the future in ways that do
in biodiversity, and the simple numerical tallies in Symons’ work tell their
not conceal human materiality.
own story with great clarity whilst leaving enough space for us to connect
the flourishing numbers of arrivals with the impact on the dwindling In Clade Pruning (2011) an imaginary biologist sits at a desk patiently
numbers of those departing. engaged in the process of sorting through the fewest possible branches of
shared phylogenetic origins between humans and seals in preparation for a
Justine Cooper’s photographic series Saved By Science also conveys ideas
biogenetic experiment. In his white coat the scientist looks quite the picture
about species extinction with her poignant images of stuffed or preserved
COOPER [pp24–25] COTTINGHAM [pp26–27] of professional enquiry yet the seal in the shadows of the work serves as a
animals stored in cabinets and museum corridors, pictures of cupboards
reminder of the connections between the man and his own animal origins.
full of leopard pelts or rectilinear grids of Luna Moths. In particular, her
For Leach, this is a more modern retelling of ancient myths, such as the Celtic
photo of museum Accession Books (2004) tells the story of a non-human
legend of the selkies for example, which suggested that our ancestors were
world conceived primarily as an abstracted Linnaean taxonomy rather
seal-like creatures from the oceans, which in a way they were.
than as a global ecological system that includes the human. In some ways
Cooper’s works are about the past and some of the traditional ontological The question of how biogenetic engineering might affect the future is also
models that informed earlier science, but they also refer to the futures of raised in the work of American photographer Keith Cottingham in Triplets
species that are currentky endangered and represented here as pathetic (1993). In this digitally constructed image three adolescent boys at first
museum specimens. It was through science that we came to understand appear to be triplets, but are in fact perfect digital copies, their gazes all
the flaws in the kind of pre-modern theocentric logic that claimed human PICCININI [pp50–51] the more difficult to differentiate as they are gathered together in the one
beings alone have supernatural qualities, and thus make us different in image. The adolescent twin boys in Patricia Piccinini’s sculpture Game Boys
kind from animals, rather than by degrees of difference. And since many of Advanced (2002) are also clones, yet despite their adolescence their wrinkled
Cooper’s specimens such as leopard skins and elephant feet were in fact skin suggests they have begun to age prematurely. As the brief life of Dolly
quite literally saved by science rather than being sold on the black market, the sheep (the first cloned mammal) indicated, premature ageing appears to
her title is not as ironically critical of science at it first appears. be one of the limitations of cloning—a point emphasised by the title of the
work. If these clones are a kind of advanced version of normal boys, they are
The finely detailed paintings by Sam Leach reflect on some of the future
also already advanced in years.
possibilities of science, yet also encompass the ways science is grounded
in the past and hence cannot be divorced from the animal origins of human Kellyann Geurts provides other angles on bioengineering, though her focus
enterprise. In The Paradox of Prediction (2009) for example,12 a hairless GeuRTS [pp32–33] is on experiments to improve the capacity of the mind. In her digital inkjet
ape looks out towards the viewer. This particular ape Cinder, died recently print Oscillogram (2011) for example, Geurts evokes the effects of the early
after living for some time in an American zoo. She had a disease (alopecia 20th century experimental technology that aimed to make thoughts tangible
universalis) that also occurs in humans and leads to hairlessness, though through photographic processes, colours, shapes and recording devices.
what interests Leach in this instance is the way the apes’ appearance made In the rather more sinister imagery of Vague Intellectual Pleasure (2009)
her look at once more vulnerable, and more human. If some of the findings however, a man is wired up to a machine and appears to smile in response
of science such as evolutionary theory are often understood as theoretical to what the machine has to offer. This work conveys dystopian nuances
abstraction rather than the material foundation of our everyday sense of of a social regime dedicated purely to the experience of pleasure similar
time, Leach’s works suggest that the processes of science may take many to those explored by the early 20th century science fiction writer Aldous
years to filter through to common understanding. Huxley. Huxley’s Brave New World (1931) speculated on how humans may
have progressed by year 2540. He imagined an entirely hedonistic society
where promiscuous sex combined with heightened cultural experiences

16 17
 (the ‘feelies’) and the distribution of a narcotic called soma keeps everyone Conversely, the protection of our dependence on the earth is based on more
in their places in a rigidly hierarchical social system. And while the man in recent events in the Japanese artist Kenji Yanobe’s Antennae of the Earth
Geurts’s work at least seems like he could be having a good time, there is (2001) where he takes the dystopian scenarios of nuclear disaster, and
something about the way his head is locked in isolation within a machine that converts them into a utopian vision in which the artist becomes something
renders this kind of induced pleasure, like Huxley’s future world, as the kind of a shaman of the future. Whilst the March 2011 tsunami and its impact
of dubious utopia we might do well to avoid. on the nuclear facility at Fukushima left the Japanese people in a state of
considerable uncertainty about the risks that come with the benefits of
If most of the artists in 2112 see the next 100 years as a period unlikely
nuclear power, the wounds of nuclear war were also felt more acutely in
to produce a future utopia, the 17 architectural teams which explore the
now and when [pp68–70] YANOBE [pp64–65] Japan than anywhere else in the world after the bombing of Hiroshima and
future urban condition (along with a few of the artists) envisage more
Nagasaki in World War II. And it was, perhaps, this particularly Japanese
optimistic scenarios. Their approaches range from the poetic to the highly
mistrust of nuclear technology that in 1997 led Yanobe to visit the Belarus/
subversive, and they are the result of a national competition set by the
Ukrainian exclusion zone created a decade earlier in 1986 when the Soviet
Australian Institute of Architects. From an image of Brisbane reconfigured
towns of Chernobyl and Pripyat were cordoned off after a severe nuclear
to accommodate floods, or new cities branching out across littoral zones
accident at the local power plant.
and images of organic urbanism to submerged oceanic cities, Australian
architects see cities as the resilient structures of the future. The creative The Chernobyl exclusion zone has proven fertile territory for imagining
directors of ‘Now and When: Australian Urbanism’, John Gollings and Ivan the future, most presciently in the work of the Soviet writers Arkady and
Rijavec, present these explorations in Australian urbanism (both ‘Now’ and Boris Strugatsky in their science fiction novella Roadside Picnic (1971).
MORI [pp44–45] in the future ‘When’) using 3D stereoscopic photography and computer This is a powerful fusion of socialist vision and uncanny prophesy of the
generated simulations, thus giving the viewer an entirely new angle on the zone that was to appear over fifteen years later at Chernobyl and Pripyat.
possibilities inherent in our cities. The zone imagined by the Strugatsky brothers was also the inspiration for
Andrei Tarkovsky’s brilliant film Stalker (1979). And Tarkovsky’s film was, in
The Japanese artist, Mariko Mori also presents an optimistic vision of the
turn, the source of a number of contemporary video games, most notably
future in Miko No Inori (1996) where she appears in a shiny, high-tech world
S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl (2007) S.T.A.L.K.E.R Call of Pripyat
with futuristic platinum blond hair and white clothing, her silver eyes gazing
(2009) which both clearly acknowledge the uncannily prophetic connection
into a crystal ball. To her, the ball seems to hold great promise for us all. Her
between Roadside Picnic, Stalker and the exclusion zone at Chernobyl/
more recent video Primal Rhythm (2010) is a draft for an ambitious solar
Pripyat. A further strange confluence of art and life in Russia is also
monument to be built on Mikayo Island in Seven Light Bay, 180 kilometres off
suggested by the activity known as “Chernobyl stalking,”15 when aficionados
JOHANNSEN [pp36–37] the coast of Okinawa. The future is illuminated by a Pillar of Light and a Moon
of the Stalker legacy travel to the Ukraine, put on combat gear, and take the
Stone, which for Mori are symbolic representations of human reunification
risk of reenacting the science fiction vision within the radioactive exclusion
with the natural world. On the annual Winter solstice the ‘solar pillar of light’
zone.16 Though still regarded as a site unfit for humans, and dangerous for
standing in the water will cast a shadow over the ‘moon stone’ on a large rock.
animals17 the exclusion zone has nonetheless become a green zone where
On other days the moon stone will change colour according to the movement
various wild creatures, including bears and wolves, now live in a locale
of local tides—in this way Mori encourages her audience to reconnect with
where the human presence remains only in ruins.
the earth. Mori made her optimistic aspiration clear in a recent statement
to the media: I believe that people will reconnect with the rhythm of the sun, When Kenji Yanobe visited the Chernobyl exclusion zone in 1997, he wore
the moon, and the sea while experiencing this work, and become one with the a special ‘Atom Suit’ which further to its contamination was later sealed
universe of the mind that exists inside every human being.14 in a lead and glass case as an artwork. In 2112: Imagining the Future a
life-size representation of Yanobe in another ‘Atom Suit’ equipped with
In The Nomadic Nature Kit (2010) the German artist Kirsten Johannsen also
Geiger counters appears in Antennae of the Earth (2001). The figure stands
suggests the future may have its utopian elements. Johannsen’s travel kit
authoritively in the guise of the traditional statue of the 10th century
contains a fragment of the ecosphere in the form of a precious miniature
Buddhist monk Kuuya Shounin, with Buddhist sutras emerging from his
garden designed for the astronauts of the future. A lab table is set up
mouth and a sacred staff in hand. This central figure of the artist as a
onboard so that terrestrial cycles in temperature and humidity are retained
revered monk is surrounded and protected by a field of miniature figures in
inside a contained sphere to maintain the garden designed to comfort deep
tiny atom suits standing like soldiers in formation on a field of salt. In effect,
space travelers and remind them of their earthly roots.
Yanobe presents himself as a shaman of survival in a post-Chernobyl world,
and he becomes a cultural antenna for the protection of the environment
through art.

18 19
 The artists in 2112 present a number of ways of looking at the future, and the
strongest of these images suggest that the real strength of science fiction
lies in its understanding of the present. Space Age visions notwithstanding,
the artists’ consistent concern with environmental degradation as the most
significant future scenario pertinent to the year 2112, also remains very much
a question of our own time.

1—As the American political philosopher Marshall Berman argued convincingly in: All That is Solid Melts Into Air:
The Experience of Modernity (1982).
2—This well know line first came from L.P Hartley’s novel The Go Between (1953).
3—There is a good review of their approach in André Burguière The Annales School: An Intellectual History.
Translated by Jane Marie Todd. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 2009.
4—Neil Schubin’s Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion Year History of the Human Body (Random House,
New York, 2008) is a good place to begin a consideration of deep history.
5—Curt Stager’s Deep Future The Next 100,000 Years of Life on Earth Thomas Dunn Books, New York extends
the limited time frame of the next 100 years, significant though they will be, into the distant future of glacial and
inter-glacial cycles.
6—See http://www.aftertherapturepets.com/ for a canny business set up by atheists for post rapture pet care.
7—Timothy Morton Ecology Without Nature. Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics Harvard University Press, 2007.
8—http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/02/detroit-homes-mortgage-foreclosures-80
9—Phenology is the study of life cycle events in plants and animals, and how variations in the climate might
impact on such things as when trees come into blossom, when birds lay their eggs or begin to migrate, or when
other animals begin to hibernate.
10—To date the Millennium Seed Bank has collected and classified over 3000 seed varieties from 48 different
countries. By 2011 the bank had conserved over 10% of the 242,000 species of world seeds. These seeds have
already been used as start-up stock in countries where their own stocks have been destroyed.
11—http://www.iucnredlist.org/
12—“The paradox of prediction makes two claims. The first is that, though we tend to think prediction makes
a statement about the future, it’s just a representation of our present understanding. Through recognition of
emerging patterns in the present, prediction describes our understanding evolving. To the extent that it becomes
fixed, it cannot evolve, and therefore will not predict. A second aspect of the paradox: prediction is not necessarily
passive. It may actively influence realization of the possibility it predicts. So there’s a double reflection. Prediction
both reflects and creates understanding. And to the extent that it “reflects” the future, it may also play a part
in creating it”. —Zann Gill Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, issue on “Art and
Science” vol. 115. Number 3, summer 1986.
13—Bruno Latour We Have Never Been Modern (Harvard University press, Massachusetts, 1993).
14—http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/34286/mariko-mori-plans-a-futuristic-island-earthwork/
15—http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_stalking
16—http://chornobyl.in.ua/en/real-stalker.html
17—http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/03/18/us-chernobyl-radiation-idUSTRE52H09020090318

20 21
philip brophy Northern Void 2007 — both images Catalogue No 1

22 23
justine cooper Leopards, Congo, 1911 (Panthera pardus) 2004 — Catalogue No 3 Accession Books 2004 — Catalogue No 5

24 25
 Keith Cottingham
Triplets from the series Fictitious Portraits: Constructed Photographic Images 1993 — Catalogue No 6

26 27
thomas doyle Well Enough Alone 2005 — Catalogue No 7

28 29
 lesley duxbury By Degrees 2010 — Catalogue No 8

30 31
32
kellyann geurts
Vague Intellectual Pleasure 2009 — Catalogue No 10 / Oscillogram 2011 — Catalogue No 9

33
 stephen haley One Second (All Together) 2010 — Catalogue No 12

Photo: margund sallowsky

34 35
kirsten johannsen Nomadic Nature Kit, artwork for astronauts, earthbound set up 2010 — Catalogue No 14 Nomadic Nature Kit, artwork for astronauts, object (assembled) 2010 — Catalogue No 14

Photo: ©kirsten johannsen Photo: ©heinrich hermes

36 37
sam leach
below: We Have Never Been Modern 2011 — Catalogue No 15
right: The Paradox of Prediction 2009 — Catalogue No 17

38 39
40
tony lloyd
above: Why Do We Remember the Past and Not the Future? 2010 — Catalogue No 21
below: Sometimes You Have to Leave Without Saying Goodbye 2010 — Catalogue No 18

41
Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre Fisher Body 21 Plant, Detroit 2008 — Catalogue No 26 New Glacier Missionary Baptist Church, Detroit 2007 — Catalogue No 25

42 43
mariko mori Miko No Inori 1996 — Catalogue No 28 Primal Rhythm 2011 — Catalogue No 29 mariko mori

44 45
46
hisaharu motoda
above: Indication–Shibuya Center Town 2005 — Catalogue No 32
below: Indication–Opera House (Sydney) 2010 — Catalogue No 31

47
lyndal osborne ab ovo 2008 — Catalogue No 33 Photos: mark freeman

48 49
patricia piccinini Game Boys Advanced 2002 — Catalogue No 34 Photos: graham baring, courtesy of the artist and tolarno galleries, melbourne.

50 51
philip samartzis Isolation 2011 — Catalogue No 35

52 53
54
Roman signer Wasserstiefel 1986 — Catalogue No 36
Photo: Marek Rogowiec

55
56
superflex Flooded McDonalds 2009 — Catalogue No 37

57
Photo: superflex 2008
58
debbie symons Arrivals/Departures 2011 — Catalogue No 38

59
stephanie valentin Cornucopia from the series Earthbound 2009 — Catalogue No 39 Terrarium from the series Earthbound 2009 — Catalogue No 40

60 61
DARREN WARDLE Faultline 2008 — Catalogue No 41

image courtesy of the artist and Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne

62 63
Kenji Yanobe Atom Suit Project: Antenna of the Earth 2001 — Catalogue No 42 Photo: greg weit

64 65
ken + Julia yonetani Still Life — The Food Bowl 2011 — Catalogue No 43

66 67
now and when: australian urbanism

now: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Photographer: John Gollings. WHEN: Fear Free City. Concept and image: Justyna Karakiewicz, Tom Kvan and Steve Hatzellis, Melbourne School of Design (The University of Melbourne).
Now: Mount Whaleback mine, Newman, Western Australia. Photographer: John Gollings. WHEN: The Oceanic City. ARUP: Alanna Howe and Alexander Hespe. Image: FloodSlicer.

68 69
now and when: australian urbanism

exhibition in the australian Pavilion 12th International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia 2010.
Images: Courtesy of Gollings Studio.

70 71
 Philip Brophy Kellyann Geurts Tony Lloyd Mariko Mori

list of works
1 Northern Void, 2007 9 Oscillogram, 2011 18 Sometimes You Have to Leave 28 Miko No Inori, 1996
Digital video with quadraphonic audio Digital Inkjet Print, Without Saying Goodbye, 2010 Video
Dimensions variable Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Pearl [paper] Oil on linen 720 x 480 pixels
Private collection 150 x 100 cm 30 x 40 cm 29 frames per second
Private collection Courtesy of Mariko Mori Studio Inc.,
10 Vague Intellectual Pleasure, 2009
Justine Cooper New York
Digital inkjet print, 19 The Shape of Eternal Vigilance, 2009
2 Luna Moths (Actias luna), 2004 Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Pearl [paper] Oil on linen 29 Primal Rhythm, 2011
Chromogenic print 105 x 100 cm 23 x 30 cm Video
75 x 97.5 cm Both works private collection Courtesy of the artist 720 x 480 pixels
Courtesy of the artist and 29 frames per second
Jan Manton Art, QLD 20 All That is Solid Melts into Air, 2011
Stephen Haley Courtesy of Mariko Mori Studio Inc.,
Oil on linen
3 Leopards, Congo, 1911 11 One Second New York
120 x 213 cm
(Panthera pardus), 2004 (Plastic Water Bottles 5982), 2010 Courtesy of the artist
Chromogenic print Lightjet photograph edition 2/5 Hisaharu Motoda
75 x 97.5 cm 120 x 120 cm 21 Why Do We Remember the Past 30 Indication–MCG (Melbourne), 2010
Courtesy of the artist and Courtesy of the artist and and Not the Future? 2010 Lithograph
Jan Manton Art, QLD Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne Oil on linen 20.2 x 55.5 cm
150 x 280 cm Courtesy of the artist
4 Waiting Room, 2004 12 One Second (All Together), 2010 Courtesy of Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide
Chromogenic print Lightjet photograph edition 1/5 31 Indication–Opera House (Sydney), 2010
75 x 97.5 cm 300 x 120 cm Yves Marchand & Lithograph
Courtesy of the artist and RMIT University Collection Romain Meffre 54.2 x 80 cm
Jan Manton Art, QLD Courtesy of the artist
13 GameOverGame, 2004 22 Adams Theater, Detroit, 2007
5 Accession Books, 2004 Projected QuickTime movie: colour, Chromogenic print 32 Indication–Shibuya Center Town, 2005
Chromogenic print 1 minute 47 seconds 95 x 120 cm Lithograph
75 x 97.5 cm Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artists 64 x 115.5 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Courtesy of the artist and Courtesy of the artist
23 Postal Printing Office,
Jan Manton Art, QLD Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne
Broderick Tower, Detroit, 2008
Lyndal Osborne
Chromogenic print
Keith Cottingham Kirsten Johannsen 33 ab ovo, 2008
95 x 120 cm
6 Triplets from Fictitious Portraits – 14 Nomadic Nature Kit, artwork for Courtesy of the artists Mixed media installation
Constructed Photographic Images, 1993 astronauts 2010, earthbound 183 x 792 x 457 cm
Archival Fuji colour coupler prints set up and object (assembled) 24 Biology Classroom, Cass Technical Courtesy of the artist
116.8 x 96.5 cm edition 12 Mixed media installation High School, Detroit, 2008
Courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Dimensions variable, Chromogenic print Patricia Piccinini
New York / www.feldmangallery.com approx 210 x 50 x 350 cm 95 x 120 cm
34 Game Boys Advanced
Courtesy of the artist Courtesy of the artists
from the series We Are Family, 2002
Thomas Doyle 25 New Glacier Missionary Baptist Silicone, polyurethane, fibreglass,
7 Well Enough Alone, 2005 Sam Leach Church, Detroit, 2007 clothing, human hair, video game
Mixed media 15 We Have Never Been Modern, 2011 Chromogenic print 131 x 69 x 35 cm
36.2 x 41.9 x 48.3 cm Oil and resin on wood 95 x 120 cm Michael Buxton Collection
Courtesy of the artist 45 x 35 cm Courtesy of the artists
Private collection Philip Samartzis
26 Fisher Body 21 Plant, Detroit, 2008
Lesley Duxbury 16 Clade Pruning, 2011 35 Isolation, 2011
Chromogenic print
8 By Degrees, 2010 Oil and resin on wood Multi-screen video and
95 x 120 cm
Inkjet print on paper 35 x 27 cm multi-channel sound installation
Courtesy of the artists
50 x 120 x 3.5 cm Private collection, Hong Kong Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist 27 Packard Motors Plant, Detroit, 2006 Courtesy of the artist
17 The Paradox of Prediction, 2009 Chromogenic print
Oil and resin on wood 95 x 120 cm
30 x 20 cm Courtesy of the artists
Courtesy of the artist and
Sullivan+Strumpf Fine Art, NSW

72 73
 Roman Signer Ken + Julia Yonetani Sedimentary City A Tale of Two Cities
Brit Andresen and Mara Francis Billard Leece Partnership Pty Ltd
36 Wasserstiefel, 1986 43 Still Life – The Food Bowl, 2011
(The University of Queensland) (Grace Chung, Alan Hunt, Georgie
Photograph Murray River salt installation
Kearney, David Leece, Grant Roberts,
50 x 40 cm Dimensions variable Aquatown
Ardhene Sembrano, Rajith Senanayake,
Courtesy of the artist Courtesy of the artists and ARTEREAL NH Architecture with Andrew Mackenzie
Guy Sendy-Smithers, Suffian
Gallery, NSW / www.artereal.com.au
Multiplicity Shahabuddin, Bob Sinclair, Stuart
SUPERFLEX
John Wardle Architects & Webber)
37 Flooded McDonalds, 2009 —
Stefano Boscutti +
RED video installation: colour, sound, Soundscape
20 minutes, 16:9 edition 3/5 now and when: Ocean City Nick Murray and Carl Anderson
400 x 700 cm australian urbanism Arup (Alanna Howe, Alexander Hespe)
Collection of Queensland Art Gallery. —
42 Exhibition conceived and developed +41-41
Purchased 2010 with funds from
by Creative Directors John Gollings Peck Dunin Simpson Architects
Tim Fairfax, AM through the
and Ivan Rijavec and courtesy of the (Fiona Dunin, Alex Peck, Andrew
Queensland Art Gallery Foundation
Australian Institute of Architects. Simpson in association with Martina
Creative Team includes ‘Design Johnson, Third Skin, Eckersley Garden
Debbie Symons by Pidgeon’ (all design elements), Architecture, Angus McIntyre, Tim
38 Arrivals/Departures, 2011 FloodSlicer (3D architectural Kreger)
Digital video visualisations), Nick Murray and Carl
Courtesy of the artist Anderson (Sound designers). Survival vs Resilience
The collaborative team of BKK
Stephanie Valentin NOW / john gollings Architects, Village Well, Charter Keck
Photography by John Gollings Cramer and Daniel Piker (Tim Black,
39 Cornucopia
Melbourne, Sydney, Surfers Paradise, Julian Kosloff, Simon Knott, George
from the series Earthbound, 2009 Super Pit gold mine (Kalgoorlie, Western Huon, Julian Faelli, Madeleine Beech,
Pigment print Australia), Mount Whaleback mine Jane Caught and Steffan Heath
70 x 86 cm (Newman, Western Australia).
Courtesy of the artist and All aerial stereoscopic photography Terra Form Australis
Stills Gallery, NSW by John Gollings. HASSELL, Holopoint & The Environment
Institute (Tim Horton, Tony Grist, Prof
40 Terrarium
WHEN / floodslicer Mike Young, Ben Kilsby, Sharon Mackay,
from the series Earthbound, 2009 3D animation produced by FloodSlicer. Susie Nicolai, Mike Mouritz)
Pigment print The content for the segment comes from
70 x 86 cm 17 architectural teams, each presenting Island Proposition 2100 (IP2100)
Courtesy of the artist and separate concepts. These are: Scott Lloyd, Aaron Roberts (room11)
Stills Gallery, NSW and Katrina Stoll
Sydney 2050: Fraying Ground
Darren Wardle RAG URBANISM (Richard Goodwin, Implementing the Rhetoric
Andrew Benjamin, Gerard Reinmuth) Harrison and White with Nano
41 Faultline, 2008
Langenheim (Marcus White, Stuart
Oil and acrylic on canvas Symbiotic City Harrison and Nano Langenheim)
152.5 x 274 cm Steve Whitford (University of Melbourne)
Private Collection and James Brearley (BAU Brearley How Does it Make You Feel (HDIMYF)
Image courtesy of the artist and Architects and Urbanists) Ben Statkus (Statkus Architecture),
Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne Daniel Agdag, Melanie Etchell, William
The Fear Free City Golding, Anna Nguyen, Joel Ng
Kenji Yanobe Justyna Karakiewicz, Tom Kvan and
Steve Hatzellis Saturation City
42 Atom Suit Project: McGauran Giannini Soon (MGS),
Antenna of the Earth, 2001 A City of Hope Bild + Dyskors, Material Thinking
Geiger counter, plastic, photo, others Edmond & Corrigan (Eli Giannini, Jocelyn Chiew, Catherine
Installation approx 180 x 420 x 148 cm Ranger, Ben Milbourne, Edmund Carter,
Collection of the artist and courtesy of Mould City
Paul Carter)
Yamamoto Gendai Gallery, Tokyo Colony Collective, Melbourne School
of Design (University of Melbourne)
(Madeleine Beech, Jono Brener, Nicola
Dovey, Peter Raisbeck and Simon Wollan)

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 Philip Brophy made his feature directorial debut with Body Melt (1993), following a Lesley Duxbury was born in Lancashire, U.K., arrived in Australia in 1983, and now

biographies
series of experimental shorts like Salt Saliva Sperm & Sweat (1988). His recent shorts lives in Melbourne. She uses printmedia, both analogue and digital, to address issues
include the Words In My Mouth - Voices In My Head (2004) series and The Sound Of concerning the natural environment, in particular the atmosphere and its phenomena,
Milk (Prologue) (2004). His most recent video is the featurette Northern Void (2007) which she explores through work that emulates and recreates our experiences and
which features a live score composed and performed by Ph2 (Philip Brophy and Philip perceptions of it. The phenomenological experiences of extended walks in remote
Samartzis). His current features in development as writer/director/co-producer are Grey landscapes, during which she takes photographs and makes extensive notes, are the
Metal & The Sound Of Milk. Concurrent with his film projects, Philip produces Dolby 5.1 impetus for her investigations. Most recent walks in the Canadian Arctic and Iceland
audiovisual works for galleries: the 4-screen digital animations 10 Transforming Youths have invigorated her concerns about the possible effects of Climate Change. Duxbury
(200 9) and 10 Flaming Youths (2010), the 2-screen digital animation Vox (2007) and is currently the Deputy Head, Research and Innovation in the School of Art at RMIT
the -3-screen installation Fluorescent (2004). His major interactive work is The Body University. She has exhibited for over twenty five years in Australia and internationally
Malleable (2002-2004). Complete information is available at www.philipbrophy.com with solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Perth, Christchurch and Sydney and more than
fifty selected group exhibitions in Australia, including National Gallery of Australia and
Justine Cooper finds inspiration in the questions that puzzle her. Why would a
National Gallery of Victoria, Seoul, Vienna; and Hong Kong. She is the recipient of the
pro-life man approve of stem cell research if it could provide a cure for his baldness?
Australia Council Visual Arts Board New Work Grant and VACB studio residency in Paris.
Why would you choose to take a sleep medication with side effects that include waking
Other than exhibiting in galleries, Lesley has completed a public art commission for Edith
up without knowing you were awake, and doing things you didn’t know you were doing?
Cowan University and the AMP Building in Perth and coordinated the 100 X 100 Print
What motivates our scientific institutions to collect and arrange the natural world into a
project for the Print Council of Australia. Her work is held in all major public collections
vast repository of objects and artefacts, yet exclude samples from western civilizations?
in Australia.
Cooper uses a variety of imaging methods, including MRIs, large format photography,
video, animation, and online media to explore the frictions found in the public and Kellyann Geurts was born in Melbourne. She is currently undertaking a PhD at the
private ways the disciplines of science and medicine are a part of us, as individuals Faculty of Art and Design at Monash University, and lectures in Fine Art Photography
and as a culture. Past projects include inventing new drugs (HAVIDOL) and playing at the School of Art, RMIT University. Her current work The Digital Thought Photography
with dolls (Living in Sim). Exhibitions and screenings include The International Center Project, located in a sci-fi genre, examines mental landscapes through digital imaging.
of Photography, New York; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; The NTT The interpretation of thought processes continues to hold strong interest amongst
InterCommunication Center, Tokyo; Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland; The Singapore scientists and artists and for centuries has been interpreted with the latest scientific
Museum of Art; The Netherlands Institute for Media Art, and The George Pompidou and experimental technologies of the time. The Digital Thought Photography Project re-
Centre, Paris. She was born in Sydney, Australia and now lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. contextualizes processes from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that aimed to make
thoughts tangible through photographic processes, colour, shapes; actual and fictional
Keith Cottingham, based in San Francisco, has been working with computer
recording devices. These works portray modern brain-computer interfaces and futuristic
technology since 1988. He has studied at San Francisco State University, at the San
thought-recording devices. Geurts’ practice has long explored mind patterns and brain
Francisco Center for Computer Art, and at the San Luis Obispo Polytechnic. Cottingham
imaging through photographic and digital media. In the past five years her works have
simulates the material world, but does not represent it. He establishes a tension
been shown at: Dianne Tanzer Gallery; St Vincent’s Hospital; Red Gallery; Project Space;
between the ‘look’ of reality, derived from the authority of the photographic image, and
RMIT School of Art Gallery; Spare Room (Project Space); Federation Square Public
the animations’ content, which are invented morphologies. Stylised and deconstructe d,
Screen and National Neurosciences Facility, Melbourne and she has presented papers at
the subjects are composites based on cultural, philosophical, architectural, and natural
Goldsmiths College London and University of Amsterdam. She has published two Artist
sources. He identifies his animations as ‘constructive imaginings,’ which provide the
Books that are part of the collection at the State Library of Victoria (General Collection &
freedom to enter, even create new symbolic worlds. His animations depict the natural
Rare Book Collection).
process of movement between opposing forces as, for example, the outward current
that carries under its surface a counter-current. In the cultural, technological, and Stephen Haley was born in Melbourne in 1961. He is a painter and digital media
personal spheres, these interactions have the potential to result in violent collision and artist. He is also a writer and has lectured in Art History at various institutions. He
destruction or mutual evolution and infusion. Cottingham’s work has been reproduced currently holds the position of Graduate Research Coordinator (MFA) at the Art Faculty
and exhibited in major exhibitions throughout Europe and the United States, including of the Victorian College of the Arts/ University of Melbourne. His works investigate
the List Visual Arts Center, MIT, Cambridge, MA; Fundación Telefónica, Madrid, Spain; contemporary actual and virtual space and often employ the use of 3D modelling
Hayward Gallery, London, England; Stadtische Museen, Heilbronn, Germany, and Neue software to construct fantastic simulations premised on repetition and difference. More
Galerie Graz, Austria. recent work has turned to broader environmental considerations but still build upon his
PhD thesis completed in 2005 that considered the mirror as the defining metaphor for
Thomas Doyle was born in Michigan, USA in 1976 and now lives and works in New
contemporary Western culture and space. Haley has won a number of prestigious art
York. Doyle’s work combines his formal training as a painter and printmaker with a
awards and residencies including the Deacons, Graham James/Arts21 Award (1998, the
fascination with scale models that began at an early age. His sculptures, rendered in
ANZ Visual Art Fellowship (2004), the R&M McGivern Prize for Painting (2006), Australia
1:100 to 1:43 scale, often depict human figures beset by quiet calamities, often of the
Council Visual Arts Board studio residency in Los Angeles (2006) and a Australia Council
natural kind. Doyle’s work has been shown at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York
Visual Arts Board New Work Grant (2009). He has exhibited widely in Australia and
(2011), LeBasse Projects gallery, Culver City, California (2010, 2011), Ridgefield Guild
internationally for the past 18 years including at the National Gallery of Victoria; Bendigo
of Arts, Ridgefield, Connecticut (2010), Grand Central Art Center, Santa Ana, California
Art Gallery; 18th Street Arts Centre, Los Angeles; Director’s Lounge Contemporary Art and
(2011), Yoo Art Space Gallery, Seoul (2009), Mixed Greens gallery, New York (2008, 2009),
Media Festival, Berlin; ArtCore Brewery Annex, Los Angeles; Glendale Art College, Los
among others. He is a recipient of the 2009 West Collection purchase prize and is a
Angeles; and with Lumas Gallery in Berlin, Paris, New York, Zurich and London.
MacDowell Colony fellow.

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 Kirsten Johannsen was born 1957 in Bremen, Germany and is based in Berlin. Mariko Mori combines manga-like pop art, self-portraits, feminine cyborgs, and
In her studio practice, Johannsen creates interactive environments and sculptures Buddhist ideologies with advanced technology to produce life-size digitally edited
that delve into the complexities of nature—its time and its passages. Her interest is photographs, two and three dimensional video installations and most recently,
concentrated on the way ‘home’ will be defined in the future. In her current study and architectural landscapes. Born in 1967 in Tokyo, Japan, she graduated from the Bunka
work Johannsen explores psychological and perceptive transformations astronauts Fashion College (Tokyo) in 1988 where she spent her teenage years working as a fashion
detect during extended crewed mission into outer space. Her objects and installations model. Later, feeling restrained by the Japanese ethic of uniformity, she moved to London
have been exhibited at HEAD Geneve Switzerland; Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund; attending the Byam Shaw School of Art (1988–89), and Chelsea College of Art, London
Bundesgartenschau Schwerin; Transmediale 07, Berlin, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende (1989-92). Since embarking on an Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum
Kunst, NGBK Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Kunstverein Ulm, K&S Galerie Berlin; of American Art in 1992–93, she continues to live and work in New York. Recent solo
Museum of Contemporary Art, Raleigh, USA; Zeche Zollern, Dortmund, Germany; exhibitions include: Oneness (Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brazilia, Rio de Janeiro and
Regional Gallery, Noosa Australia; Edison Höfe, Berlin; ZKM Zentrum für Kunst & Sao Paulo, 2011; Pinchuk Arts Centre, Kiev, Ukraine, 2008; Groninger Museum, Groningen,
Medientechnologie, Medienmuseum Karlsruhe, Germany 1997. Johannsen has lectured Holland, 2007; Aros Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark, 2007); Mariko Mori: Kumano
at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, at the Bauhaus University in Weimar and at the (Asia Society, New York, 2010); Flat Stone (SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, Tokyo, 2009); and White
Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in Switzerland. Hole (Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, 2009). Mori has exhibited widely in international
group exhibitions and biennale’s. Her work is held in galleries worldwide and she
Sam Leach was born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1973. His work draws on the
continues to foster an international reputation.
tradition of history painting and its recent developments to create contemporary
paintings that deal with the impact of science on the relationship between humans and Hisaharu Motoda was born in Kumamoto, Japan in 1973. He holds a Bachelor of
the non-human world. Leach’s typically intimate scale detailed oil paintings take their Fine Arts from Kyushu Sangyo University (1999) and Master of Fine Arts from Tokyo
cues from new scientific discoveries and technologies which change our understanding National University of Fine Arts and Music (2001). In 2009-2010, Motoda participated in
of the world and what it means to be human. Leach’s work has been exhibited in several a Japanese Government Overseas Study Fellowship, in Australia and USA. Selected solo
museum shows including Optimism at the Queensland Art Gallery and Neo Goth at the exhibitions include: Murata & Friends “Neo-Ruin” (Berlin, Germany, 2011); C・SQUARE,
University of Queensland Art Museum in 2008, in 2009 the Shilo Project at the Ian Potter Art Gallery of Chukyo University (Nagoya, Japan, 2011); Victorian College of the Arts,
Museum of Art and Horror Come Darkness at the Macquarie University Art Gallery and University of Melbourne (Melbourne, Australia, 2010); hpgrp GALLERY TOKYO (Tokyo,
Still at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery in 2010. His work is held in public collections of Japan, 2009); Gallery iii, Contemporary Art Museum of Kumamoto (Japan, 2007). Selected
regional galleries of Geelong, Gold Coast, Coffs Harbour, Newcastle and Gippsland and group exhibitions include: JAPANCONGO: Carsten Hollers double-take on Jean Pigozzis
the collections of the Latrobe University and University of Queensland. collection (Le Magasin–Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble, France and
Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow, Russia, 2011); IMMANENT LANDSCAPE
Tony Lloyd was born in Melbourne in 1970. Since gaining his Masters degree at RMIT
(Oyama City Kurumaya Museum of Art, Tochigi, Japan, 2011); Color of Printmaking:
University in 2000, Lloyd has shown widely in Australia and internationally. Lloyd has
Lithography (Bumpodo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2010); IMMANENT LANDSCAPE (West Space,
had twenty solo and numerous group exhibitions in Australia, Europe and Asia. Recent
Melbourne, Australia, 2010); Collections #034 –Imaginarium– (Tokyo Opera City Art
showings have been at the Cat Street Gallery in Hong Kong and Xin Dong Cheng Space
Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2010); The View of Contemporary Paintings (Tokyo Station Gallery,
For Contemporary Art, Beijing. In 2009, Gippsland Art Gallery presented Lost Highways
Japan, 2009); VOCA 2008 (The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, JAPAN, 2009); SORA-WA-
a major survey of his work from 1999–2009. Public collections include, State Library of
HARETEIRUKEDO (Musee Hamaguchi Yozo, Yamasa Collection, Tokyo, Japan, 2008).
Victoria, Gippsland Art Gallery, Artbank and the City of Whitehorse. Lloyd has received
Development Grants from Australia Council for the Arts and has been short listed for Lyndal Osborne was born in Newcastle, Australia. She studied at the National
numerous art prizes. He has twice held residencies at The British School, Rome, Italy; and Art School in Sydney and received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison,
at Canvas International Art in the Netherlands. USA. Since 1971, Osborne has been based in Edmonton, and is a Professor Emeritus
in Department of Art and Design, University of Alberta. Osborne has been exhibiting in
Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre (born in 1981 and 1987) grew up near Paris
Canada and internationally since the early 1970s and has shown in over 360 exhibitions.
and shared an interest in photographing ruins. After meeting in 2002, they began creating
Her installation work speaks of the forces of transformation within nature, as well
a systematic record of ruins and the changing urban landscape around Paris, then
as commenting upon pressing issues relating to the environment. In her recent work
further afield in France, Belgium, England, Spain and Italy. Visiting these places made
Osborne has focused on an examination of the issues of genetically modified organisms
them more sensitive to the uniqueness of historic buildings, especially those built in the
and agricultural sustainability for subject matter. Her work is represented in numerous
19th and 20th Centuries which were often neglected. They see ruins as visible symbols
Canadian collections, including the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of
of societal change. The state of ruin is temporary, the result of changing eras and the fall
Alberta. Recent exhibitions include Museum London (2011), Deschambault, Quebec
of empires; their photography is a modest attempt to preserve this ephemeral state. In
(2011), University of Lethbridge Art Gallery (2011), Art Gallery of Alberta (2010), Dunlop
2005 they travelled to Detroit: a city where vast modern ruins are simply a logical part
Gallery, Regina (2010), Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa (2008) and Canadian Clay and
of the landscape. At the beginning of the 20th Century with the invention of assembly
Glass Museum, Kitchener (2008), Doland Museum, Shanghai, China (2003).
line, Detroit rose as the car capital of the world. ‘Motor City’ produced what became the
economic, industrial and urban model of modern society. From the 50s however, de- Patricia Piccinini was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1965 and moved to Australia
industrialisation, segregation, social tension and disinvestment has turned Motor City with her family in 1972. In 1988 she gained a Bachelor of Arts (Economic History) from
into ruin. The population fell from 2 million to 900,000 inhabitants. Within fifty years, a Australian National University. From 1989 to 1991 she studied painting at Victoria
once prosperous city fell from grace to become the most ruined city in the western world. College of the Arts in Melbourne. Soon after completing her art degree, she initiated the
Marchand and Meffre presented their first exhibition Les fabuleuses ruines de Detroit in Basement Project Gallery, Melbourne, which she coordinated from 1994–1996. She was
June 2006. They have revisited Detroit several times since to complete their work on the an Australia Council New Media Fellow from 2000–2001 and in 2006 she was awarded
city. Their first book, The Ruins of Detroit, was released in 2010 by Steidl. the Australia Council Residency, ISCP New York. She represented Australia at the Venice

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 Biennale in 2003. Selected solo exhibitions include: Hold me Close to your Heart, Arter in collaboration with Rirkrit Tiravanija (GFZK, Leipzig, Germany), Open market (Schirn
Space for Art (Istanbul, Turkey, 2011); Once Apon a Time, Art Gallery of South Australia Kunsthalle, Frankfurt am Main), Guarana Power (REDCAT Gallery, Los Angeles); Mori
(Adelaide, Australia, 2011); Not as We Know It, Haunch of Venison (New York, USA, 2010); Museum, Tokyo; Gallery 1301PE, Los Angeles; Arken Museum of Modern Art, Denmark;
Relativity, Art Gallery of Western Australia (Perth, Australia, 2010); Evolution, Tasmanian and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Superflex has participated in many
Museum and Art Gallery (Hobart, Australia, 2009); (tiernas) Criaturas/(tender) Creatures, international arts biennials such as the Gwangju biennial in Korea, Istanbul Biennial,
Artium, Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain, 2007); Hug: Recent Works by Patricia Piccinini, Des Moines Sao Paulo Biennial, Shanghai Biennial and in the Utopia Station exhibition at the Venice
Art Centre (Des Moines, USA. Toured to: Frye Museum, Seattle. 2007); We are Family, Biennale. They contributed to the exhibition Rethink Kakotopia shown at the Nikolaj
Australian Pavilion, 50th Venice Biennale (Venice, Italy Toured to: Hara Museum Tokyo, Centre of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen 2009 and at Tensta Konsthall 2010.
Japan, 2003); Call of the Wild, Museum of Contemporary Art, (Sydney, Australia, 2002);
Debbie Symons was born in 1970 in Melbourne, Australia. Symons’ formative training
Retrospectology, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, (Melbourne, Australia, 2002).
was at Victoria College Prahran (VCA) in the fields of painting and printmaking. She
Philip Samartzis is a Melbourne based sound artist who has performed and is currently completing a PhD on Anthropocentrism and the Environmental Dilemma
exhibited widely including presentations at The Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art, at Monash University with the assistance of an Australian Postgraduate Scholarship.
Paris (2001); The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh (2002); The Mori Arts Centre, Tokyo Her work utilises environmental data to investigate and interrogate the inextricable
(2003); The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung (2007); The National Center links between environmental degradation and free market capitalism; exploring
for Contemporary Art, Moscow (2009); and The South African National Museum, Cape mankind’s ecological conundrum. She has worked with scientific organisation such as
Town (2010). He has curated five Immersion festivals focusing on the theory and practice the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species
of sound spatialisation, as well as Variable Resistance, a series of international sound to facilitate the statistical information basis pertaining to her works. Symons’ works
art presentations for the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2001/2), have been shown internationally through the International Urban Screen Association
the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2002) and the Podewil Art Center, Berlin and nationally; Urban Screens, Federation Square, Albury Digital Outdoor Gallery, Craft
(2003). Philip has released five solo compact discs, Residue (1998), Windmills Bordered Victoria, Trocadero Art Space, Lorne Sculpture 2011, Shifted Gallery, c3 Contemporary
By Nothingness (1999), Mort aux Vaches (2003), Soft and Loud (2004) and Unheard Spaces Art Space, Monash University Faculty Gallery, Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, The
(2006). In 2010 the Australia Council for the Arts, and the Australian Antarctic Division Substation and 69 Smith St Gallery. Symons’ was awarded the Emerging Artist New Work
awarded Philip fellowships to document the effects of extreme climate and weather grant from the Australia Council for the Arts in 2009.
events on the human condition at Davis Station in Eastern Antarctica, and Macquarie
Stephanie Valentin’s work is motivated by the shifting relationship between
Island. The outcomes have been presented in the National Archives of Australia’s
the forces of nature, technology and culture. Throughout her career she has shown a
Traversing Antarctica (2011) centenary exhibition; Polar South: Art in Antarctica, Muntref
fascination for the interconnectedness of biological life and the intricacy and complexity
Museum, the National University of Tres de Febrero, Buenos Aires (2011); and the 11th
of the natural world. Previously her work has investigated the sub-visible realm through
International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences, Edinburgh (2011).
photogram magnifications and microscopy. In particular she has utilised experimental
Roman Signer was born in Appenzell. He works and lives in St.Gallen, Switzerland. electron microscopy techniques to produce micro-sculptural interventions on non-living
Signer’s works have acquired the label ‘time-sculpture’. They share traditional sculpture’s biological forms. Valentin was born in 1962 and lives and works in Sydney. She holds a
concern with the crafting of physical materials in three dimensions, but they extend Master of Fine Art, Photomedia, from the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW (2001)
that concern into what may or may not be characterised as the fourth dimension: the and is a PHD Candidate at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW. Selected solo exhibitions
dimension of time. Variously combining three-dimensional objects, live action, still include: unseasonal, Stills Gallery, Sydney, 2011; earthbound, Stills Gallery, Sydney,
photography and moving-image documentation, Signer’s time-sculptures frame episodes 2009; Chemie des Kleinsten, Galerie f5.6, Munich, Germany, 2003; Black and White
of the containment and release of energy—always with ingenuity, often with captivating, Photographs: Stephanie Valentin & Judith Ahern, Australian Centre For Photography,
epigrammatic swiftness and irresistible humour. —Rachel Withers, Roman Signer, 2007. Sydney, 1986. Selected group exhibitions include:  Stormy Weather, National Gallery of
Solo exhibitions include: Acht Stühle, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros (SAPS), Mexico Victoria, Melbourne, 2010; The Challenged Landscape, UTS Gallery, Sydney, 2010; Signs
City/MEX (2011); Swiss Institute, New York (2010), Helmhaus, Zürich (2008), Hamburger of Truth. Photography and Science, Altana Gallery, University of Technology Dresden,
Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin (2007), Sammlung Hauser und Wirth, St. Gallen/ Germany, 2006–2007; firstimpressions—Contemporary Australian Photograms, The Ian
CH (2003), Shiseido Galleries, Tokyo (2003), Wiener Secession, Wien (1999), 48. Biennale Potter Centre, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2003 and Stranger Than Fiction,
di Venezia, Swiss Pavillion, Venice (1999). Selected group exhibitions include: MONA— Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1991.
Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Australia (2011), The New Décor, The Hayward
Darren Wardle was born in Melbourne in 1969 and works between Melbourne and
Gallery, London (2010), Estuaire, Nantes-Saint-Nazaire (2009), Gakona, Palais de Tokyo,
New York. His lurid paintings use Modernist architecture to explore spatial illusion as
Paris (2009), Skulptur.Projekte, Münster (1997), Documenta 8, Kassel (1987). Roman
well as to elaborate a vision of contemporary consciousness. Amplified by his digitally
Signer is represented by the Galeries Hauser&Wirth, Zurich, Martin Janda, Vienna, Art:
inflected toxic colour and painted with a flat glow that resembles electronic monitors,
Concept, Paris, Barbara Weiss, Berlin, Häusler Contemporary, Munich and Stampa, Basel.
Wardle’s work embodies the anxiety of architecture under threat from unpredictable
SUPERFLEX is a Danish artists’ group founded in 1993 by Jakob Fenger, Rasmus Nielsen forces. His work has been shown at Artists Space, New York; Chelsea Art Museum,
and Bjørnstjerne Christiansen. Their projects often relate to economic forces, democratic New York; The New York Armory Show, Stux Gallery, New York; Nellie Castan Gallery,
production conditions and self-organisation. Superflex describe their projects as Melbourne; Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles; Art 2102, LA; Glendale College Art
tools; as proposals that invite people to actively participate in and communicate Gallery, LA; Stephan Stoyanov Gallery, New York; Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney; Bendigo
the development of experimental models that alter prevailing economic production Art Gallery, Bendigo; Geelong Gallery, Geelong; RMIT Gallery, Melbourne; National
conditions. Their projects are often assisted by experts who contribute special interests; Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra. In 2011
the tools can then be further utilised and modified by users. Selected solo exhibitions Wardle held a solo show at Sullivan + Strumpf Fine Art, Sydney and was included in
include: Supershow—more than a show (Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland), Social Pudding curated shows at The University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, Praxis Art Space

80 81
 Singapore and KIAF, Seoul with Nellie Castan Gallery. The National Gallery of Victoria, Institute of Architects. Freed from the restrictions of planning and design constraints
Latrobe University Museum Collection, RMIT University Collection, Lyon House Museum architects entered an imaginative realm offering new ways to approach design. While the
and Heide Museum of Modern Art have collected his work. problems in these fantastic environments are often apparent, the projects range from
the poetic and optimistic to the highly subversive. By animating the future in super-real
Kenji Yanobe was born in 1965 in Osaka, Japan. He attended Kyoto City University
stereoscopic images ‘When’ exploits architecture’s capacity to become a performing
of Arts and received a Master of Arts degree in 1991. Since the early 1990s, Yanobe has
urban art. John Gollings is one of Australia’s premier architectural photographers,
been incorporating the theme of survival in present-day society into his work, creating
heading up Gollings Studio, and Ivan Rijavec leads an award-winning practice Rijavec
numerous large-scale mechanical sculptural works that may be attached to one’s body
Architects—both are based in Melbourne. The Creative team (Design by Pidgeon,
or ridden and controlled. With the dawning of the 21st century, Yanobe shifted to the
FloodSlicer, and Sound Design two4k) are all Melbourne based.
theme of revival, and in 2003, he held the exhibition Megalomania, the culmination of his
work up to that time, at The National Museum of Art, Osaka (on the site of Osaka Expo ‘70 —
world’s fair). In 2004, he created The City of Children Project during a six-month residency
at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. Yanobe is continuing to
develop creative activities that transcend established artistic forms, with such projects
as Kindergarten, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi (2005), The World of Torayan,
Kirishima Open-Air Museum, Kagoshima (2007), ULTRA, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art,
Aichi (2009), Mythos, Nizayama Forest Art Museum, Toyama (2010). His works has also
been shown at Neo Tokyo, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2001), SENTATSUMIRAI
Futuro Anteriore – Arte Attuale Dal Giappone, Centro Per L’Arte Contemporanea Luigi
Pecci, Prato (2001), Manga! Japanese Pictures, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (2008),
Busan Biennale ‘Living in Evolution’, Busan, Korea (2010).

Ken + Julia Yonetani have been working collaboratively since 2009. Their latest
series of works Still Life: The Food Bowl, was recently exhibited at Artereal Gallery,
Sydney; Palimpsest #8: Collaborators and Sabateurs, Mildura and at GV Art, London.
Ken Yonetani was born in 1971 in Tokyo, Japan. He lives and works in Katoomba NSW,
Australia. He received a Bachelor of Economics in Japan and worked in the Foreign
Exchange Market in Tokyo for three years. Following this, he was an assistant for
pottery master, Toshio Kinjo, oldest son of Jiro Kinjo a National Living Treasure of Japan.
He completed his MA at The Australian National University School of Art in 2005. He
has held numerous solo and group exhibitions, including the 2008 Adelaide Biennial
of Australian Art. He was selected for the Australian contingent at The 53rd Venice
Biennale in 2009. Julia Yonetani is an artist, writer, and researcher. She holds a PhD from
the Australian National University, and has held positions lecturing and researching in
History, Cultural Studies, and Art Theory at the University of New South Wales, Western
Sydney University and the University of the Ryukyus, Japan. She has exhibited with Ken
Yonetani at galleries such as the La Trobe Museum of Art, Melbourne, Jan Manton Art,
Brisbane, Artereal Gallery, Sydney and Campbelltown Arts Centre, and has published in
publications such as Cultural Studies Review, Artlink, Art and Perception, Asian Studies
Review, Japanese Studies, and Critical Asian Studies. In February 2010 she staged a
bed-in with Ken at Federation Square, Melbourne. She has been involved in various
environmental movements and represented Okinawan environmental groups at the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature in Amman, Jordan in 2000.

NOW AND WHEN: Australian Urbanism

JOHN GOLLINGS AND IVAN RIJAVEC were Creative Directors for Australia’s exhibition
in the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale, and a major project of the Australian Institute
of Architects. The exhibition ‘NOW and WHEN’ offers a rich exploration of issues facing
Australia’s highly urbanised population that include sustainability, urban sprawl, climate
and immigration. The 2-part film is accompanied by an evocative soundscape and
was created using 3D stereoscopic photography and computer generated simulations.
NOW is a 3D photo study of aerial images taken from a helicopter of East coast cities
Melbourne, Sydney and Surfers Paradise, in counterpoint with the mining holes of the
Western Australian outback. WHEN presents 17 speculative approaches to the urban
condition in the future, and is the result of a national competition set by the Australian

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 2112: Imagining the Future
Exhibition dates: 2 December 2011— 28 January 2012
Curator: Linda Williams
Acknowledgements: Appreciative thanks to Gallery, Melbourne; Kenji Yanobe: Yamamoto
the participants and their representatives: Gendai Gallery, Tokyo; Ken + Julia Yonetani;
Philip Brophy; Justine Cooper: Jan Manton Artereal NSW. NOW and WHEN: Australian
Art, QLD; Keith Cottingham: Ronald Feldman Urbanism, courtesy of the Australian
Fine Arts, New York; Thomas Doyle; Lesley Institute of Architects, featured in the
Duxbury; Kellyann Geurts; Stephen Haley: Australian Pavilion at the 12th International
Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne; Kirsten Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di
Johannsen; Sam Leach: Sullivan+Strumpf Venezia 2010; NOW and WHEN Creative
Fine Art, NSW; Tony Lloyd: Hill Smith Gallery, Directors: John Gollings and Ivan Rijavec.
SA; David Feighan; Yves Marchand and
We also thank the following most warmly
Romain Meffre; Mariko Mori: Mariko Mori
for their support: The Japan Foundation,
Studio, Inc., New York; Hisaharu Motoda;
Sydney; JICC, Consulate-General of Japan; Dr
Lyndal Osborne; Patricia Piccinini: Roslyn
Anne Marie Freybourg, Kunstpraxis, Berlin;
Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney; Tolarno Galleries,
Dr Andrew Milner, Professor of Comparative
Melbourne; Michael Buxton Collection; Philip
Literature and Cultural Studies, Monash
Samartzis; Roman Signer: Barbara Signer;
University; Dr Jane Mullett, Research Fellow
Superflex: 1301PE, Los Angeles; Director
in the Climate Change Adaptation Program,
Tony Ellwood and Queensland Art Gallery;
Global Cities Research Institute at RMIT
Debbie Symons; Stephanie Valentin: Stills
University; Jen Rae.
Gallery, NSW; Darren Wardle: Nellie Castan

RMIT Gallery
Director: Suzanne Davies RMIT Gallery / RMIT University
Exhibitions Coordinator: Vanessa Gerrans 344 Swanston Street Melbourne
Installation Manager: Peter Wilson GPO Box 2476 Melbourne
­­— Installation: Malcolm Lloyd, James Lynch, Victoria Australia 3001
David Mutch Tel: +613 9925 1717
Media: Evelyn Tsitas Fax: +613 9925 1738
Administration: Megha Balakrishnan E: rmit.gallery@rmit.edu.au
­­— Administration Assistants: Pooja Dubey, W: www.rmit.edu.au/rmitgallery
Julia Lang, Danielle Measday, Maria Stolnik Become a Fan of RMIT Gallery on Facebook
RMIT Gallery Volunteers: Eloise Barbagallo, Follow RMIT Gallery on Twitter
Anna Du, Isabela Rojas, Mary-Ann Spiers,
Umran Ustalar, Amelia Winata.

Catalogue published by RMIT Gallery / December 2011 / Limited Edition 1000

Editor: Suzanne Davies / Production Coordinator: Vanessa Gerrans
Photography: Courtesy of the artists and their representatives
Graphic Design: Ian Robertson / Printing: Bambra Press, Melbourne

Cover and inside covers: Mariko Mori, video still (detail)

Miko No Inori, 1996, Catalogue No 28
Courtesy of Mariko Mori Studio Inc., New York

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Author: Williams, Linda, 1946– / Title: 2112 imagining the future
Linda Williams, Andrew Milner, Jane Mullett. Editor Suzanne Davies.
ISBN: 9780980771022 (pbk.)
Subjects: Art, Modern–Victoria–Melbourne –21st century–Exhibitions.
Climatic changes–Effect of human beings on–Exhibitions.
Environmental protection in art—Exhibitions; Forecasting–Exhibitions.
Other Authors/Contributors: Davies, Suzanne. Milner, Andrew. Mullett, Jane.
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Gallery.
Dewey Number: 704.9495516

Printed on Mega Recycled FSC / 250 + 150gsm

Typeface: Akkurat / Designed by Laurenz Brunner 2003

84 85
 Philip Brophy
Justine Cooper
Keith Cottingham
Thomas Doyle
Lesley Duxbury
Kellyann Geurts
Stephen Haley
Kirsten Johannsen
Sam Leach
Tony Lloyd
Yves Marchand
& Romain Meffre
Mariko Mori
Hisaharu Motoda
Lyndal Osborne
Patricia Piccinini
Philip Samartzis
Roman Signer
Superflex
Debbie Symons
Stephanie Valentin
Darren Wardle
Kenji Yanobe
Ken + Julia Yonetani
+
NOW and WHEN:
Australian Urbanism

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