A dead horse hangs from the ceiling at the Museum of
Contemporary Art. A roomful of angry people vent their frustrations
at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. And, in Cockatoo Island's
abandoned industrial workshops, experimental films flicker across
the walls.
Tourists wandering through Sydney's streets today might
wonder if the city has gone slightly mad. In fact these works are
part of the 16th Biennale of Sydney, which has filled seven venues
with art from more than 180 contemporary artists from around the
world.
If viewers are confused, the Biennale's artistic director,
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, will have succeeded. "I was looking for
artworks I don't fully understand, art that raises more questions
than it answers," she said. "It is when we are confused that our
minds start to work."
This year's theme, Revolutions - Forms That Turn, urges artists
to rebel. The stuffed horse is a 1999 work by the Italian artist
Maurizio Cattelan. Christov-Bakargiev sees the stiff horse as a
metaphor for thwarted revolution.
"At certain historical periods there is always a moment of
social despair where people are no longer able to tolerate the pain
and hardship of their times," she said. "I think we are at a stage
where the world has to invent new political systems to protect the
weak in society due to the great inequalities that globalisation
has caused."
Downstairs at the Museum of Contemporary Art is another
political work, Sharmila Samant's Against The Grain. This
field of a thousand cobras, woven from grain and bamboo, explores
the impact of genetically modified grain on Indian farmers.
"When a cobra bites a mammal, the mammal's biological systems
fail," Samant said. "Likewise, genetically modified seeds are
supposed to be good for us but in India they are destroying the
traditional role of the farmer."
The warehouse at Pier 2/3, Walsh Bay, also hosts several unusual
works. Lying on the wooden floorboards is the largest painting of
the Aboriginal artist Doreen Reid Nakamarra. With its contour-like
curves it looks like an aerial photograph. "I wanted to reconnect
Aboriginal work with its landscape roots," Christov-Bakargiev
said.
Further along the wharf, there are 98 speakers piping out
orchestral music and bizarre sound effects. The work, from the
Canadian artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, uses sound
to paint a dreamlike landscape in the listener's mind.
A ferry trip across the harbour leads to the 35 sculptures,
installations, films and performance works at Cockatoo Island, a
new venue. Among the artists with with works here is Sydney's young
art star Shaun Gladwell.
Gladwell, who mesmerised the critics at the 2007 Venice Biennale
and will represent Australia at the 2009 event, has created a video
work of his mountain-biking escapades and a sculpture of his
mountain bikes. Gladwell first visited the Biennale as an art
student and the art he saw influenced him.
"As a student, most of the time you're looking at pictures in
textbooks and magazines. The Biennale was a chance to see this
stuff in front of my face for real."
Gladwell said there was something special about exhibiting in
his home town. "I'm a Sydney boy through and through," he said.
"It's always great to exhibit overseas but it's a real thrill to
come home and show work to people who understand where you've come
from."
- By Louise Schwartzkoff for SMH.