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, and issue challenges to 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 Gordon Bennett, Michael Cook, Debbie Coombes, Ray Crooke, Robert Dowling, Mabel Edmunds, Samantha Hobson, Christopher Pease, Luke Roberts, Darren Siwes, and Sam Watson.
Opening Event and Public Program
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.
RSVP by Monday 11 May here
Image: Darren Siwes
Marrkidj Wurd-ko (Cross Pose) Group 2011
Giclee print on pearl paper, edition 5/10
120.0 x 90.0cm
