Missile Park
17 July – 18 September 2021
Institute of Modern Art, Fortitude Valley
Open Tuesday – Saturday, 10am–5pm
Developed by the Institute of Modern Art in partnership with the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) Melbourne, Missile Park is a major new exhibition of work by Yhonnie Scarce.
First shown in Melbourne, the exhibition includes a series of new commissions plus a comprehensive survey of the past 15 years of work from this leading Australian contemporary artist.
Yhonnie Scarce is known for sculptural installations, from architecturally scaled public art projects to intimately scaled assemblages replete with personal and cultural histories. Yhonnie Scarce was born in Woomera, South Australia in 1973, and belongs to the Kokatha and Nukunu peoples. Her work often references the ongoing effects of colonisation on Aboriginal people.
Scarce is a master glassblower, which she puts to the service of installations full of aesthetic, cultural and political significance. Her work also engages the photographic archive and found objects to explore the impact and legacies of colonial and family histories and memory.
Her research explores the impact of the removal and relocation of Aboriginal people from their homelands and the forcible removal of Aboriginal children from their families. Family history is central to Scarce’s work, drawing on the experience and strength of her ancestors, and sharing their significant stories. Her work also engages with the disciplinary forms of colonial institutions and representation — religion, ethnography, medical science, museology, taxonomy — as well as monumental and memorial forms of public art and remembrance.
“Yhonnie is Australia’s pre-eminent contemporary glass artist. The Institute of Modern Art is honoured to be presenting Missile Park, the most in-depth exhibition of her career to date,” said co-curator and IMA Director Liz Nowell. “While Yhonnie has exhibited to audiences all over the world, from the National Gallery of Australia to the Venice Biennale, this is the first time her work has been shown in Queensland for almost 10 years. Missile Park will offer local audiences world class contemporary art on their back doorstep.”
For further information, visit the IMA website
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