In 2019 our international exchange MIAMI/MIAMI entered its fourth year with artist Jordan Azcune travelling to Miami in Florida to undertake research and to develop new work for an exhibition at The Walls. Through a comparative study between Florida and the Gold Coast, Jordan has used his Miami residency to explore post-Christian-campiness with wax, glass and gold.
Raised Jehovah’s Witness, Azcune uses his fluency in biblical theology to map sediment and examine spirituality. Wax, glass and gold are used as vocabulary within his interventions that take on design and architectural features that speak to a post Christian-campiness. The exhibition MIAMI/MIAMI (Hot Stuff) is the result of Jordan Azcune’s first international artist exchange program born out of a comparative study between Florida and the Gold Coast. Azcune interrogates Art Deco’s likeness to religious symbolism and the adoption of its ‘glamourous’ aesthetic by coastal communities. In these works, the ecclesiastical style is stretched to forms that reveal the sexuality and surface of Art Deco in both Miami’s.
Essay by Lisa Bryan-Brown
Completing Bachelor of Fine Art, (Hons) at Queensland University of Technology in 2016, Azcune has completed a mentorship in Public Art with artist Lincoln Austin and Urban Art Projects (UAP) to present as part of the Asia Pacific Architecture Forum in 2019. Azcune has been included as a finalist several emerging art prizes exhibiting in the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA), and currently at the Institute of Modern Art (IMA). He continues to apprentice with Theologian, Ikonographer, and Senior Australian Artist, Leonard Brown.
Jordan’s exhibition is supported by The Regional Arts Development Fund. The Regional Arts Development Fund is a partnership between the Queensland Government and the City of Gold Coast Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.
Exhibition Event Sunday 10 November
2 – 3pm Artist talk with Jordan Azcune and past Miami exchange artists Byron Coathup, Rebecca Ross and Barron Sherer (via Skype from Miami FL)
3 – 6pm Miami sunset cocktails
