Exhibition opening: She Speaks in Sculpture
Event description
Join us for the opening of She Speaks in Sculpture, a new exhibition by Diana Baker Smith. The exhibition will be launched by Julie Ewington.
She Speaks in Sculpture is an exhibition by Diana Baker Smith exploring the histories of Sydney’s built environment through the work of Australian-American sculptor Margel Hinder (1906-1995). The project maps the extraordinary journey of Hinder’s sculpture Growth Forms, held in the UTS Art Collection, through a series of new works that explore the tension between public art and urban development in Sydney.
The exhibition includes a new video installation developed with cinematographer Gotaro Uematsu, choreographer Brooke Stamp, dancer Ivey Wawn, costume designer Leah Giblin, and musician Bree van Reyk, as well as a display of archival material related to Hinder’s work, supported through loans from the Art Gallery of NSW.
About the artist:
Diana Baker Smith is an artist who works across moving image, performance, and text. Her practice combines archival research, collective memory, and fiction to explore the politics of art history. Her most recent works, examining the archive of the Australian artist and dancer Philippa Cullen (1950-75), have been presented at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Artspace in Sydney, and Contemporary Art Tasmania in Hobart. Diana is a founding member of the art collective Barbara Cleveland, and has worked collaboratively with artists Frances Barrett, Kate Blackmore, and Kelly Doley since 2007. Their series of video and performance works about the fictional feminist artist Barbara Cleveland have been presented at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney, Hayward Gallery in London, and Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea in Milan. Diana holds a PhD from the University of NSW, where she is Lecturer in Fine Arts in the School of Art & Design.
This project has been supported by the City of Sydney’s Cultural and Creative Grants.
Header image: Diana Baker Smith, She Speaks in Sculpture, 2022, production still. Photo: Lucy Parakhina.