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For a city as creatively charged as Sydney, the last few months of being strictly homebound have been especially challenging. But cultural institutions around the city are more than ready to make up for lost time. The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) will showcase American artist Doug Aitken’s first major solo exhibition in the southern hemisphere titled Doug Aitken: New Era tomorrow onwards.
Doug Aitken: New Era
As part of the 2021-22 Sydney International Art Series, the survey exhibition was supposed to open last year in October but will now grace our shores a whole year later.
Aitken’s mammoth body of work includes photography, sculpture, print and vast multi-screen installations that allow the viewer an all-encompassing experience surrounded by moving imagery and sound.
Based in Los Angeles, he is highly regarded for his many art projects around the world and collaborations with live performers and musicians. This particular exhibition spans over two decades of the artists’ practice and will transform the MCA’s level-3 galleries in an immersive space for the audience.
Speaking about the exhibition, Doug Aitken said, “New Era is an exhibition that spans many different mediums, places, locations and ideas. We spent three years designing this exhibition for the MCA, Sydney and I wanted to activate the architecture in a different way, to turn the museum inside-out for the viewer. I see the experience of the exhibition as being authored by the viewer – what they see, how they see it, and how they piece together their own story and their own narrative within the space is up to them.”
Doug Aitken: New Era highlights
Highlight of the exhibition include Sonic Fountain II (2013/2015), a large sound installation built into a rocky landscape in the gallery.
Underwater Pavilions (2017) features a series of sculptures or pavilions that reflect and refract light.
Other highlights include Untitled (sleeping body) (2020) and 100 YRS (neon) (2014) apart from a series of talks and film screenings along with a virtual conversation with Doug Aitken, in Los Angeles,
and Rachel Kent, in Sydney, on Saturday 30 October, 11am – 12 noon.
Find more information about the exhibition click here.
MORE INFO
What: Doug Aitken: New Era
Where: Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, 140 George St, The Rocks NSW 2000
When: Opens October 20, 2021