newy.com.au – Four moving image works from the national collection will be projected onto The Lock-Up’s sandstone façade at night, bringing an outdoor art display to Newcastle’s Hunter Street.
The National Gallery of Australia loan, announced by Arts Minister Tony Burke and Newcastle MP Sharon Claydon, is part of the federal Sharing the National Collection program. The selection features works by Australian, Singaporean, American and French artists.
The Lock-Up director Alexandra Pedley said the works would launch The Lock-Up Projection Platform, “transforming our Hunter Street façade and heritage precinct into an outdoor cultural space and bringing contemporary art into the life of the city after dark.”
The selection includes Joan Jonas’s Disturbances, from 1974, and Sophie Calle’s L’homme profonde / deep man, from 2011. The other works are Charles Lim’s SEA STATE 5: drift (rope sketch), from 2012, and Club Ate’s Ex Nilalang (Lolo Ex Machina), from 2015.
National Gallery director Nick Mitzevich said the contemporary video works would be projected onto the historic building at night. Using the gallery’s exterior will allow audiences to experience the works outdoors rather than inside an exhibition space.
Burke said more than two million people had been given the chance to engage with works loaned through the program.
“At any point 98 per cent of our national collection is held in storage, including audiovisual works. The national collection belongs to the whole nation and should be shared.”
Exhibition dates and viewing times were not included in the announcement.
