For Immediate Release 26 April 1995
ALTERNATIVE REALITIES EXHIBIT AT HKUST SHOWCASES
AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS WORKING WITH TECHNOLOGY
Five Australian artists use digital technology as their canvas, exploring the impact of technology on our life in the exhibit Alternative Realities, which opens at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on Wednesday, 3 May 1995.
Patricia Piccinini explores the dark side of technological progress in her humorously sinister work, The Mutant Genome Project -- GMS Genetic Manipulation Simulator. The young Melbourne artist has conceived a fictitious, superhuman laboratory creation. According to their budget, prospective consumers can select the enhanced features of their child via computer. “Give your children more than just a chance in life. Don’t leave it up to Nature,” reads the project blurb.
The technology of travel, or “landscapes in motion” is explored in Ross Harley’s DRIVE: Motion Landscapes video series. The Sydney artist says transport systems “orchestrate the landscape into something akin to cinema, television or video.”
Sydney artist Peter Callas examines the role of the mass media in the construction of historical narrative in his video, Ernst Will’s Picture Book: A Euro Rebus. Callas uses the images of a traditional children’s picture scrapbook, or rebus, to explore the private history of Europe.
Moira Corby and Rosemary Laing examine the aesthetic realm of technology failure. Melbourne-based Corby has created a series of nine images, entitled Crash -- Suburban Night, by crashing the computer.
In her photographs, Laing proposes a different way of seeing. Due to a technical incompatibility between the photographic and digitising processes the Sydney artists uses, the colours of her photos are wildly distorted.
Alternative Realities was organised by the curator of the University of Melbourne Museum of Art, Rachel Kent. She will introduce the exhibit at a seminar on Sunday, 7 May 1995, at 2:30 p.m. at the HKUST Expo Hall. All are invited.
Exhibit sponsors are the HKUST Arts Endowment Committee and Office of Public Affairs, the Australian Consulate General, Asialink Centre and the University of Melbourne Museum of Art.
Alternative Realities will run 3 - 21 May at the University Expo Hall. Exhibit times are: Tuesday - Friday, l-5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
The Acting Australian Consul General, John Langtry, will attend the exhibit opening on 3 May at 4 p.m.
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