Oceanic Thinking

Superflex installation seen at night — Superflex, "Dive-In", 2019. Installation view, "Oceanic Thinking", The University of Queensland Art Museum, 2022. Photo: Josef Ruckli

19 February–25 June 2022

Selected artworks will remain on display throughout July. Please contact us if you need assistance planning your visit. Oceanic Thinking will continue from 19 July with new artists. Learn more.

Artists: Sancintya Mohini Simpson, Isha Ram Das, Elise Rasmussen, Izabela Pluta, Monira Al Qadiri, Tabita Rezaire, Stephanie Comilang, Alicia Mersy, Birrmuyingathi Maali Netta Loogatha, Kuruwarriyingathi Bijarrb Paula Paul, Salote Tawale, Benjamin Armstrong, Charles Callins, Andreas Angelidakis and SUPERFLEX.

Oceanic Thinking presents new ways of understanding the ocean and the adjacent blue spaces of our planet. It invites you to consider how we may be able to think together with these liquid, vast, biodiverse and non-binary spaces to speculate on our collective future.

Artworks reveal cutting-edge perspectives and research, and stimulate discussions about race, the ongoing extractive colonial project, climate crises, decolonisation, languages, industries, sci-fi, diasporas, interspecies relations and kinship.

The exhibition’s title is a play on the psychoanalytic phrase “oceanic feeling”: the sensation of a boundless, everlasting bond with the world as a whole.

Oceanic Thinking is the inaugural exhibition of the multi-year project Blue Assembly. In collaboration with campus partners including UQ’s Centre for Marine Science, the project coincides with the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).

Oceanic Thinking is a Climate Active carbon neutral certified event.