Cross Pose – Body language against the grain
15 May – 9 August 2015
Marrkidj Wurd-ko (Cross Pose) Group 2011
From the series ‘Dalabon Dalok (Dalabon Woman)’
Giclee print on pearl paper, edition 5/10
Collection of The University of Queensland, purchased 2011
Reproduced courtesy of the artist and GAGPROJECTS/Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide
Cross Pose – Body language against the grain brings together Australian artworks from The University of Queensland Art Collection that draw on the human body as expressions of cross-cultural subjectivities and visual politics. The visual languages of the body in these artworks ‘pose’ questions, challenges, and interventions into normative thinking. We confront bodies generating ideas and emotions that are beyond the scope of words, and respond to sensory triggers aimed at realigning social attitudes and political thinking.
The exhibition takes the measure of how artists map the social and political regulation of the body, and how individuals push back against this control. The selected artworks are predominantly by Indigenous Australians who draw on a life-long expertise in negotiating different cultures and languages to both declare and contest the status of subjectivity and identity.
Cross Pose thus presents a rare occasion where non-Indigenous perspectives adopt the role of counterpoint in narratives about Australian cultures. Artists include Dave Hullfish Bailey + Sam Watson, Gordon Bennett, Michael Cook, Debbie Coombes, Ray Crooke, Robert Dowling, Mabel Edmunds, Samantha Hobson, Christopher Pease, Luke Roberts, and Darren Siwes.
Curator: Dr Sally Butler
Online catalogue
Public Programs
Panel discussion: Body language in Politics and the Arts
Monday 3 August 3.00pm–4.30pm
Please join Professor Roland Bleiker, Dr Sally Butler, and other invited speakers in a conversation about art and global politics.
Curator Talk: Dr Sally Butler
Friday 29 May 1.00pm – 2.00pm
Please join curator Dr Sally Butler on a tour of the exhibition.
Artist talk: Darren Siwes
Friday 15 May 11.00am–12.00pm
Please join us for an informal opening event with talks by curator Dr Sally Butler and artist Darren Siwes.