The curator of a new exhibition at Platform Arts hopes to inspire people to consider the way they imagine and create the world they live in.
Worlding, based on the research behind curator Dr Amber Smith’s 2022 doctoral thesis, explores the broad concept of world-building, the way in which we build, design and organise our real or imagined worlds.
Running from June 8 to July 19, Worlding features the works of national and international artists Brook Andrew, Madison Bycroft, Katthy Cavaliere, Lisa Couzens, Dr Vicki Couzens, Daniel Crooks, Julie Davies, Stano Filko, Tarryn Love, Patrick Pound, Alex Rizkalla, Si Yi Shen, Kieren Seymour and Batia Suter.
The exhibition includes video and digital media, installation and sculptural works and traditional 2D art, as well as events such as film screenings, Q&A panels and role-playing game sessions for people curious about games such as Dungeons and Dragons.
Dr Smith said while Worlding included works focused on the highly speculative, esoteric, or societal aspects of world-building, it was also intended to connect with the way each person constructed their own pocket of the world.
“When you’re in the arts or in certain fields you’re always overthinking and conceptualising,” they said.
“But hopefully the everyday person might go away with a more conscious understanding of how they can play a really active role in creating the kind of world that they want to live in.
“Or at least thinking more consciously or specifically about what all of that means. What is the world like? What does it mean, ‘to world’? Who gets to do that?
“Worlding is proposed as a life-long project where one is always thinking about and acting on what they desire their world to entail. By confronting our own attempts to world-build, we gain insight into… our identity and essentials like security and self-actualisation.”
Visit platformarts.org.au/events/worlding for more information.
