Two new exhibitions at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery explore artists' relationship to a decade in time and responses to a multitude of beginnings and endings.
THE END OF HISTORY probes how the subconscious reacts to a tumultuous decade in art and life and at its centre is a group of works from The University of Western Australia Art Collection created between 1985 and 1995 and united by mood and motif.
It was a decade of transformational change locally, nationally and globally, in which political philosopher Francis Fukuyama famously declared humanity had reached the "end of history" — and was when LWAG first opened its doors.
The selection suggests shared reoccurring artistic and societal concerns among artists working around Australia. It probes the subconscious of an era shaped by WA Inc, the recession we had to have, Australia's Bicentennial, the fall of the Berlin Wall, connection to the Internet and concerns about parochialism.
The works are juxtaposed with several newly acquired works made by artists born during and after that decade who self-consciously probe their relationship to history. They describe generational connections or divides and offer a challenge to linear narratives that tend towards endings.
Curator of the exhibition and the UWA Art Collection, Gemma Weston said it felt timely to examine the history of the collection and the LWAG and to showcase several major new acquisitions – in particular an important work by Gordon Bennett exhibited for the first time.
"The exhibition is an opportunity to examine how artists, and how art collections, shape the historical record, or how an artwork contains the context in which it's made," she said.
The exhibition Origins is a response to THE END OF HISTORY, considering the physical reality of humans. It is an exploration of beginnings and endings – of family mythologies, births, deaths and cosmic cycles. The exhibition features works of art from the Cruthers Collection of Women's Art.
Curator Lee Kinsella said the paintings and photographs in this exhibition charted the human passions and drivers that fuelled our lives while we existed within these fallible and fleshy forms.
"As humans, our understanding of the world are not fixed," she said. "The concepts of truth and reality are contingent and constantly shifting."
The exhibitions open on Friday 17 May from 5.30 to 8pm and run until August 17. The gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday from midday to 5pm and admission is free. For more information see the LWAG website.
