A project by the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane and the University Art Gallery, The University of Sydney, in association with the Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide.

An education resource developed by John Neylon accompanies this exhibition.

Image: Mikala Dwyer, I.O.U., 2007. Courtesy of Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

 

Past exhibitions

Mirror Mirror: Then and Now
14 May – 16 July 2010
Gallery 1 & Bestec Gallery 2

In the 1960s, mirrors began to be used by artists across a spectrum of international movements including pop, kinetic, minimal and conceptual art. Mirror surfaces reflect both the environment and the viewer, 'like a visual pun on representation', as Ian Burn observed. Not just a looking glass, mirrors index the instability of perception, while inviting a viewer to participate in the purported endgame of late modernism.

Mirror Mirror, curated by Dr Ann Stephen, presents classic mirror pieces from the 1960s and early 1970s by major artists Robert Smithson, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Art & Language, Ian Burn, Joan Jonas, Robert Rauschenberg, Yoko Ono, Meret Oppenheim, Richard Hamilton and Shusaku Arakawa. Alongside them are works by contemporary Australian artists – Robyn Backen, Christian Capurro, Peter Cripps, Mikala Dwyer, Alex Gawronski, Callum Morton, Eugenia Raskopoulos, Jacky Redgate and Robert Pulie – that make all kinds of interconnections and reverberations with the art of the 1960s.

Exhibition YouTube video

Curator of Mirror Mirror, Dr Ann Stephen talks about the exhibition on Radio Adelaide, 22 May (mp3 file, 5mb)

A mirror shines at Samstag media release – Read (PDF file, 205kb)

Mirror Mirror education resource (PDF file, 1.9mb)

Exhibition catalogue with essays by Ann Stephen, Andrew McNamara, Keith Broadfoot accompanies Mirror Mirror and is available through the Samstag Museum. Catalogue is available for $20 plus postage.