Duty of Care

15 August – 9 November 2024

In the art world, there’s a new emphasis on care, with a focus on gentle attentiveness and good works, and a fear of triggering hurt. Care has become a buzzword and is being used to reset policy and practice. However, too often, the complexity and troublesomeness of care are smoothed over by liberal good intentions.

Care is a murky notion. It is entangled with ugly feelings of obligation and burden, exhaustion and sacrifice. It is sometimes a mask for coercion and control. It is also co-opted by commerce as a marketing tool, rebranded and repackaged as ‘wellness’ and ‘self care’.

In this discussion, the ‘uncaring’ positions—libertarians and litterers, meat eaters and gas guzzlers—are regularly overlooked. How will they be framed by—and frame—the practice of care?

An international group show, Duty of Care explores familial, institutional, and professional care; care and gender; care and race; care and medicine; artists as healers; extreme care; and more.

Duty of Care is a partnership between the Institute of Modern Art and Griffith University Art Museum, encompassing two concurrent exhibitions and a symposium.

Curators: Stephanie Berlangieri, Angela Goddard, and Robert Leonard

Part One | Institute of Modern Art

29 June - 22 September 2024

Kathy Barry, Benetton/Oliviero Toscani, Joshua Citarella, Martin Creed, Julian Dashper, Florian Habicht, HOSSEI, Mike Kelley, R.D. Laing, Leigh Ledare, Teresa Margolles, Dani Marti, Dane Mitchell, Betty Muffler, Michael Parekōwhai, Tabita Rezaire/Amakaba, Michael Stevenson, The Hologram/Cassie Thornton, and Artur Żmijewski

Part Two | Griffith University Art Museum

15 August - 9 November 2024

Cem A., Jeamin Cha, Margaret Dawson, D Harding, Sally Mann, Lauren Lee McCarthy and David Leonard, Chia Moan, Tracey Moffatt, Michael Parekōwhai, Sam Petersen, David Shrigley, Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, and Johan Joseph Zoffany

Download the exhibition labels

^{Image: Lauren Lee McCarthy and David Leonard ‘I.A. Suzie’ 2019, video installation (screen), sound, 9.04 minutes, orthopaedic chair. Courtesy of the artists}