Australasia’s international art fair, Sydney Contemporary has launched its new digital initiative Sydney Contemporary presents 2020, showcasing more than 450 new artworks by over 380 leading Australian and international artists. Running until 31 October 2020, the month-long project, designed to support the arts community, takes visitors on a distinctly different, artist-led journey of discovery where the user is encouraged to create a pathway to find the perfect artwork for them, from hundreds of newly created works.
Sydney Contemporary has also announced it will present two new artist commissions, supported by Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and created in response to the events of 2020, as part of Sydney Contemporary presents 2020. The commissioned artists are New York based artists duo Jess Johnson and Simon Ward and, in partnership with Performance Space, Sydney-based Koori artist SJ Norman together with New York-based Cherokee writer Joseph M Pierce.
Koori artist SJ Norman and Cherokee writer Joseph M Pierce will present a series of live performance rituals centring around a daily exchange of love letters, exploring the current disruption of transnational relationships and cultural ties as a consequence of the COVID19 pandemic.
Writing from their respective quarantines in Sydney and New York, each artist will read the other’s love letter direct-to-camera as the sun sets over their city. Presented in partnership with Performance Space as part of Liveworks, the performance series titled (XXX) proposes a queered, decolonial inhabitation of the epistolary form—an artefact of the Western literary canon—as a space through which to trace the remote entanglement of two Indigenous people in creative, intimate, and embodied kinship. Invoking the violence of separation and the erotic poiesis of distance,
Norman and Pierce consider what it means to express Indigenous love in the colonisers’ language. The performance is a continuation of SJ Norman’s body of work – recently presented in the 22nd Biennale of Sydney – that maps a vast network of queer, First Nations inter-connectedness spanning continents and cultures.
New Zealand artist duo Jess Johnson and Simon Ward have created an immersive 360 video adaptation of their work Fleshold Crossing, the first chapter of TERMINUS, a virtual reality artwork in five parts. The original work which was previously presented in VR at leading international museums and galleries including Heide Museum of Contemporary Art (Melbourne), Jack Hanley Gallery (New York), and Nanzuka Gallery (Tokyo), was in the midst of a world tour earlier this year as part of the artists’ solo exhibition. In the wake of global COVID-19 lockdowns, several exhibitions were cancelled and as part of their response, the artists created this 360 video to enable audiences worldwide to experience TERMINUS at home on a standard desktop.
Barry Keldoulis, Fair Director of Sydney Contemporary, said: “Our mission has always been to support artists and we’re excited to present these works for Sydney Contemporary presents 2020. At a time when physical exhibitions, events and performances are still limited, we’ve worked to create a space for our audience to view new and re-imagined innovative works by local and international artists, with the opportunity to experience the works from their own homes, and watch a live performance by artists based half-way around the world from each other.”
The new commissions are presented alongside more than 450 new artworks created by over 380 artists during 2020, some of which respond to the events of the year. Sydney Contemporary presents 2020 takes visitors on a distinctly different, artist-led journey of discovery where the user is encouraged to create a pathway to find the perfect artwork for them with new artworks to be added each week throughout its month-long presentation in October.
The presentation is available via a new website www.sydneycontemporarypresents.com.au. To view the whole site and for a complete experience, it is recommended to use a desktop. Sydney Contemporary presents 2020 runs from 1 until 31 October 2020.