Art Wrap: Six Exhibitions to See in Brisbane This Year

Justine Youssef: Somewhat Eternal

This exhibition is now finished. This Sydney-based artist examines her Lebanese heritage in a sensory mixed-media exhibition at the Institute of Modern Art. Youssef’s work covers a complex history of occupation, famine and oppression via video and scent. Her centrepiece is a video shot in Lebanon that examines the influence of colonialism on traditional culture. It features Youssef’s aunt performing a traditional alchemic practice to ward off the effects of the evil eye – a practice often performed using lead from Israeli bullets. Youssef also exhibits scented textiles and uses the aromas of plants such as damask rose and Lebanese cedar to highlight the relationship between occupation and the land.
Somewhat Eternal runs until Sunday April 7 at the Institute of Modern Art.

Kim Gordon: Object of Projection

Known around the world as a member of the groundbreaking and experimental band Sonic Youth, Kim Gordon has spent decades channelling her endless creativity into various artforms. This exhibition – curated by renowned Australian curator and composer Lawrence English – pulls together Gordon’s photography, video and mixed-media creations for a comprehensive survey of the musician’s contributions to the art world. Object of Projection examines themes of performance and surveillance in urban life and offers insight into the mind of one of the music and art world’s most significant experimenters.
Object of Projection runs until Sunday April 21 at the Brisbane Powerhouse.

Fairy Tales

It's your last chance to catch Goma's enchanting and exclusive multi-gallery exhibition, which explores centuries of beloved folk stories through art, design and film. Exclusive to Brisbane, Fairy Tales unpacks how those longtold stories have both captured and influenced various cultures through the work of artists such as Abdul Abdullah, Anish Kapoor, Yayoi Kusama, Ron Mueck, Tracey Moffatt, Henrique Oliveira, Patricia Piccinini, and many others. Among opulent carriages, sumptuous gowns, twisted woodlands and mystical mirrors are original papercuts by Hans Christian Andersen, a nineteenth-century photograph by Lewis Carroll and a costume designed by Henri Matisse for the Ballets Russes adaptation of The Nightingale. Also featured are film costumes and props from Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, and more.
Fairy Tales runs until April 28 at GOMA.

Artists in Residence Christine Ko and Louis Lim

In the latest instalment of their ongoing Departure project, Australian visual artists Christine Ko and Louis Lim (who are in-residence at the Museum of Brisbane as part of BrisAsia Stories) use kites to represent stories from Brisbane’s migrant communities. The pair has chosen kites because they symbolise “flights of joyous and naive childlike wonder and optimism that is simultaneously at the whim of external circumstances, constantly buffeted by the surrounding environment that can sometimes lead to deep disappointment (crash landing).” The exhibition is constantly evolving; overtime more kites and the transcribed recollections of migrants will be added.
This Departure installation runs until Sunday June 9 at the Museum of Brisbane.

Hiromi Tango Residency: Hanabira

Hiromi Tango’s vibrant work is designed to provoke expression and healing through sensory experiences. (In the past Tango has collaborated with neuroscientists.) She creates participatory workshops, and her current exhibition, Hanabira (Gentle Petal), brings a community workshop to Adelaide Street. Working with upcycled textiles and other materials, visitors can explore the exhibition’s themes and craft handmade flowers, which will be added to a communal healing garden.
Hanabira runs until Sunday August 11 at the Museum of Brisbane.

Seeds and Sovereignty

For millennia before British colonisation Indigenous people were guardians of an ecosystem vastly different to the one we know now. Invasive foreign flora and fauna and European land cultivation practices disrupted the delicate balance Indigenous people protected for centuries. Thanks to the scholarship of writers such as Bruce Pascoe and Zena Cumpston, Australians are beginning to understand that modern phenomena such as regular and more intense bushfires are one of the results of this disruption. Qagoma’s free exhibition Seeds and Sovereignty explores cultural knowledge and ceremony through selected works from the gallery’s Indigenous art collection. The range of works shows the long-standing interconnection of people, plants and Country.
Seeds and Sovereignty runs until Sunday August 18 at the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art.