Opening Reception
Thursday, January 29
5:30pm members preview
6:30-9pm free public reception
Shifting our gaze from the walls to the floor, Substrate makes
visible the surfaces and systems that guide how we interact with our
surroundings. The seven site-responsive installations facilitate
conversation about roles of the artist, museum, visitor, art, and
architecture.
Encouraged to physically challenge the structure of the museum, the Substrate artists
have created works that conceptually subvert the institutional
framework as well. Taking different approaches, the artists have cut,
covered, scraped, scratched, pushed, pulled, and transformed the floors.
Their installations penetrate the museum’s surface, summon ghosts of
our past, and peel back layers of history.
The
marks, holes, and scratches on the surface of BMoCA’s floors tell
stories collected over time. Confessions of years of wear and tear
provide clues to the physical and institutional memories of past
exhibitions, installations, and even former functions of the building.
Adding to what is already written, the artists will leave their own
layer on the history of the museum. Substrate alters the spatial
hierarchy away from the walls to the floor, drawing attention to
routines of the museum environment and how we experience art and
architecture.
Image: Robbie Rowlands, If this light could hold, Museum floor & wall cut, window reveal, Boulder museum of Contemporary Art, 2015
www.robbierowlands.com.au
