News & events > Light from Light | Australia-China art exhibition
01 Oct 2010 - 31 Jan 2011

Light from Light | Australia-China art exhibition

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[caption id="attachment_6790" align="alignright" width="480" caption="Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, 'Light from Light' 2010, State Library of Queensland. Photo courtesy of the artists"][/caption] A site-specific exhibition of artworks exploring the properties and metaphors of light, developed with artists from Australia and China, shown at the State Library in Queensland and the Shanghai Library. From October 2010, visitors will see the State Library of Queensland in a new light when they come face to face with artworks embedded in collections spaces and public areas. Artists from Australia and China have been developing site-specific art works for Light from Light, an exhibition that will be mirrored simultaneously at the Shanghai Library in China. Via web cam, audiences in Brisbane and Shanghai will be able to experience the same artworks in each other’s location over 7000km away. Light from Light explores the properties and metaphors of light, and the notion of ‘the library’ as a site of enlightenment. Twenty light-inspired and light-generating artworks will include neon art objects, light-sculptures, sounds generated by the sun and illuminated texts. In this exhibition artists treat light as a medium, an energy source and a metaphor for illumination and knowledge. A major outdoor photovoltaic geodesic dome brings function into a luminous sculptural form that references various histories in art and architecture. An unprecedented exhibition, Light from Light explores the library as a unique site for art. Exhibiting artists will travel to both Brisbane and Shanghai to thoughtfully place their work in library collections, in reading and public spaces and other spaces not usually used for exhibitions. By doing so, they will address the way art can intersect with other spaces of knowledge, bringing visual language to the written form. Themed around art, technology and sustainability, the exhibition will be complemented by artists’ talks, public lectures and forums, and will feature a bilingual catalogue, online content and a DVD presentation. Artists participating in Light from Light are Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, Eugene Carchesio, David Haines & Joyce Hinterding, Lin Tianmiao, Archie Moore, Pak Sheung Chuen, Josef Strau, Wang Gong Xin, and Zhang Peili. Artworks have been developed specially for the exhibition during residencies and site visits. Light from Light is an initiative of MAAP – Multimedia Art Asia Pacific that has worked with contemporary media art in Australia and the Asia Pacific regions since 1998. Light from Light runs in Brisbane from 1 October - 31 January and in Shanghai from 3 November - 31 January.