Buxton to see the light once again

By Jack Alfonso

Buxton Contemporary will reopen its doors on March 12 for its new exhibition This brittle light: Light Source commissions 2020-2021.

Displaying six works created by leading artists in the past year and featuring perform-in-your-home mail art, AI-powered digital media, video and installation, the exhibition will run all the way through to June 20 this year and will be free to the public.

The works are a result of Buxton Contemporary’s commissioning of leading Australian artists during the past 12 months to develop a series of new projects under the Light Source title.

Due to the epoch that these projects were developed in, themes such as human fragility, resilience and imagination mesh with each of the participants’ individual artistic pursuits.

All of these projects have already been presented either digitally, online or remotely, but have been given a new lease of life as a series presented together within the walls of Buxton Contemporary.

The projects themselves engage and explore both local and global concepts, including humour, ritual and the role of art in society.

The series further deconstructs corporate duplicity, neoliberalism, the climate crisis, humanity’s fraught relationship with nature, the opportunity to learn from diverse cultures, systems of knowledge, the continuing impacts of colonialism, and the complex and evolving dynamics of the global political economy.

The featured Australian artists include Taloi Havini, Laresa Kosloff, Nicholas Mangan, Stuart Ringholt, Grant Stevens and Hossein/Nassiem Valamanesh, and will be curated by Melissa Keys.

A seventh commission planned by Destiny Deacon and her long-time collaborator Virginia Fraser, however could not be fulfilled due to Fraser’s passing. In its place, an existing collaboration between Deacon and Fraser will be included as an acknowledgement of their involvement with the series, and to honour their previous collaborations and timeless contributions to art, culture and social change.

Buxton Contemporary will be open to the public from Wednesday through to Sunday, 11am to 5pm from March 12 •