The Medium is Public

Consider, for a moment, the concept of public space. Initially, places of openness and transparency may come to mind, perhaps a site of collective assembly – such as the public square, the local park, library or river. You may also think about the local pool, gallery or stadium.

With deeper contemplation, however, we might recognise that zones of public space are complex systems of cultural, social, political and economic coding. Their organisation, structure and accessibility are reflective of heteronormative and Eurocentric influences, histories and values. Entry and participation in these spaces may be conditional on an economic transaction or subscription to a group like a sporting team, or a performative expression of perceived values or beliefs.

The idea for this exhibition grew out of a perceived urgency to publicly gather in response to shifts in local and global politics. This urgency to participate and assemble is not new, however is currently representative of political, economic and social precarity felt by many and expressed in public gatherings and demonstrations such as Women’s March 2017 (Washington D.C.), Invasion Day Rally 2019 (Australia-wide) and Evacuate Manus and Nauru Protest 2018 (Sydney)

The medium is public examines these complexities, while contemplating the participation of the individual passively or actively navigating, performing, defending and subverting ideas and values within these sites of public space.

The exhibition’s title is reflective of two key approaches within the show, using public space as a frame of reference and the co-opting of materials and strategies associated with ‘publicness’. Paula Hunt’s In the stadium, 2019 draws on the artist’s interest in the modern stadium for its contradictory and ambiguous qualities, where rebellion and conformity come together. This most recent edition builds on Hunt’s approach of recounting an event, of local or international significance, which took place within the boundaries of the stadium such as the Unification Church Blessing Ceremony at Jamsil Olympic Stadium, Seoul 1992 or Nelson Mandela’s Memorial Service at FNB Stadium (Soccer City), Johannesburg 2013.

Also working within the urban landscape, Georgia Robenstone’s Agora, 2019 explores the fraught history of the public square in Melbourne and identifies the unknown future for Federation Square with an Apple store slated to be built there. While questioning the ongoing future of the public square, Robenstone examines of the role and capacity of the individual in supporting and shaping public spaces as a site of collective assembly.

Fresh and Fruity question the premise of public spaces and resources in their work It’s Birrarung-ga not Naarm: I wanted to write about the Yarra river, but it seems wrong to write about someone else’s river 2019. Focusing on rivers and waterways, this piece examines how resources are used by colonial governments who cannot understand a guardian relationship to land and water and the way in which water is connective.

Drawing directly from materials found in public areas like shopping centres or highways, Steven Rhall’s You make this. You make me. 2019 incorporates the familiar form of an LED sign, its presence in the gallery directly addressing the audience with phrases like “In my space. You’re in my space”. Rhall’s urgent and direct approach collapses any notion of the art world as ‘different’ from the political, social, economic and cultural imbalances embedded in places like the public square or the stadium.

Suggestive of the voyeuristic surveillance strategies of CCTV and drones, Ella Sowinska’s film Tropical Islands, 2016 embodies the artist’s interest in observational film-making, documenting an artificial tropical island built in an aircraft hangar outside Berlin. With a viewpoint from an indoor hot air balloon, this film offers a visual narrative of the way bodies move and behave within this constructed environment.

The artistic approaches in The medium is public present diverse, complex and fraught histories and values embedded within public space and are suggestive of the intangible, subtle, and transgressive potential of the individual to express, challenge and defend values and ideas in this public realm.

Birrarung-ga not Naarm: I wanted to write about the Yarra river, but it seems wrong to write about someone else’s river, 2019, a commissioned text by Fresh and Fruity.