Artists engage with conflict at UQ Art Museum

One hundred years since the beginning of World War I and twelve-and-a-half years since September 11, the battles waged between nations and within them remind us that war is a constant companion.

An exhibition that looks at war in a post-9/11 context opens at The University of Queensland Art Museum on Saturday 10 May 2014.

UQ Art Museum Director Dr Campbell Gray said Conflict: Contemporary responses to war examined conflict in terms of current experiences.

“The attack on the Twin Towers had global impact; the civil war in Syria continues; tensions between Russia and Ukraine are mounting,” he said.

“Art considers the ongoing effects of such conflicts.”

UQ Art Museum exhibition curator Samantha Littley said Conflict explored work by artists who have in personal responses, or through official art schemes, engaged with war and its aftermath.

“The exhibition is significant in that it examines conflicts that have been officially acknowledged, and those not necessarily afforded such status,” she said.

“Australia’s colonial conflicts, for example, have been largely neglected as wars between its First Nations people and the British who claimed sovereignty over their land.”

Aspects of the contemporary moment are considered through the themes ‘9/11 and war art in the new millennium’, ‘Memorials and remembrance, ‘Colonisation’ and ‘The machinery and technology of war’.

Artists include Khadim Ali, Gordon Bennett, Daniel Boyd, Jon Cattapan, Dadang Christanto, Fiona Foley, George Gittoes, Shaun Gladwell, Lyndell Brown & Charles Green, Fiona Hall, Wangechi Mutu, Tom Nicholson, Raquel Ormella, Ben Quilty, Joan Ross, Caroline Rothwell, Khaled Sabsabi, Santiago Sierra, Judy Watson, Jemima Wyman and John Young, among others.

Conflict: Contemporary responses to war will be on display at the UQ Art Museum, St Lucia campus, from Saturday 10 May to Sunday 7 September 2014.

Public Program: Friday 9 May 5 – 6pm

Artists eX de Medici, Gordon Hookey, Fatima Killeen and Baden Pailthorpe in conversation with the exhibition curator Samantha Littley.

Media opportunities for interviews and photographs with artists eX de Medici, Gorgon Hookey and Baden Pailthorpe:

Where: UQ Art Museum, University Drive, The University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus

When: Friday 9 May, 11.00 am – 12.00 pm.

View and download images for news and review here.

Media Enquiries: UQ Art Museum Curator Samantha Littley (Tuesday to Friday), 07 3346 8782, 0416 198 632, s.littley@uq.edu.au. UQ Art Museum Digital Communications Officer Sebastian Moody (Monday to Thursday), 07 3346 8761, 0419 789 006, s.moody@uq.edu.au.