GOMA AT NIGHT: How the Role of Art Museums has the Potential to Transform Third Space for Our Collective Dreaming

GOMA AT NIGHT: How the Role of Art Museums has the Potential to Transform Third Space for Our Collective Dreaming

What occurs when Brisbane’s most prestigious art gallery opens its doors after hours – and what does it reveal about how spaces could create a better world?   The museum becomes a dream machine. An experimental playground formed through the ultimate shared participation of art – the public unconsciousness dares to imagine living in a better world. GOMA has invited us for a Friday night out – a hybrid event with vinyl-listening rooms, DJs, live experimental performance, bar and speakeasy – taking place during ‘Olafur Eliasson: Presence’, a multi-sensory immersion experimenting with light, colour, perception and humanism. I attended GOMA’s second ever night out on May 8th, and was delightfully surprised by the transformational sense of community being built within the space; with multimodal activities taking over the entire ground level, and was reminded of how essential pushing the boundaries of Space is. Eliasson’s Presence already is extremely immersive, interactive installation on the shared human experience — GOMA’s activation of the space through DJ’s, food and drink, performance and a nightlife setting created a space genuinely dynamic and hopeful – decoupling art participation from hostile architecture – inviting bodies to move, freedom to talk, play, imagine. A staff member at QAGOMA put it to me simply: “GOMA at night, people are more engaged in the art and in interacting with each other. Everyone’s much more friendly, and people are excited to experience it. People are more intentional – when they come tonight they are intentionally coming to see art.”  “Third Spaces” describes the informal public realm that exists between the first space of home and the second space of work or school – the cafe, the park, the library – where class hierarchies are dissolved through accessibility and temporary communities are formed in fluid social life. Most Australian formal museums are…
Remix. Post. Connect

Remix. Post. Connect

This year marked the fourth incantation of the UQ Art Museum’s ‘National Artists’ Self-Portrait Prize,’ inviting artists to explore modes of self-expression and to reflect on the individual in society. Self portraiture has undergone many changes over…
Queensland Small Towns: Photo-documentary Project

Queensland Small Towns: Photo-documentary Project

  Often forgotten Queenslanders – both people and places – brought into focus last month, with the exhibition of more than 100 photographs, stories and video portraits at the Brisbane Powerhouse. The Queensland Small Towns:…
Simon Starling In Speculum

Simon Starling In Speculum

The Simon Starling exhibition showing at the Institute of Modern Art from October 5th to November 30th 2013 presents a series of visual puzzles using an extensive array of materials. From sculpture and installation to…
Vernon Ah Kee: Invasion Paintings at Milani Gallery

Vernon Ah Kee: Invasion Paintings at Milani Gallery

    An exhibition of new works by Vernon Ah Kee, titled Invasion Paintings, is currently on display at Milani Gallery. Ah Kee is a contemporary Aboriginal artist based in Brisbane and his oeuvre, which…