Compositional Utterances is a site-responsive, collaborative exhibition by three artists whose material-led practices share feminist and ecological concerns. The exhibition is the product of deep conversation and collaboration between Brisbane-based artists Mandy Quadrio, Susan Hawkins and Jan Oliver.
All three artists have practices centred on the formal and narrative potential of their chosen materials: Quadrio works with sea grass, bull kelp and ochres important to her as a Trawlwoolway woman, alongside steel wool; Hawkins works with reclaimed domestic and industrial objects drawing out their potential to make sound and movement; and Oliver uses force and delicacy to alter the surfaces of her materials while considering the co-existence of animate and inanimate entities in the spaces they inhabit.
Working together as friends, collaborators and peers, Quadrio, Hawkins and Oliver will bring together their chosen materials as an immersive installation.
Image: LEFT Installation view of From Diffractional Conversations: Susan Hawkins and Jan Oliver at Carpark, Brisbane 3—24 September 2022. Photo: Carl Warner. RIGHT Mandy Quadrio Here lies lies 2019. Steel wool, bronze and resin text, dimensions variable. Photo: Louis Lim.
