Sonia Leber and David Chesworth, from the project Universal Power House, 2017. Research image. Photo courtesy the artists. Commissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney.
Architecture Makes Us: Cinematic Visions of Sonia Leber & David Chesworth
7 March – 27 April 2019
Architecture Makes Us brings together several key works across a ten year period by Melbourne-based Australian artists Sonia Leber (b.1959) and David Chesworth (b.1958), exploring craggy geographies, territorialisation, surveillance, exhausted systems and future philosophies.
Known for their distinctive, highly-detailed video works that emerge from real sites and spaces but exist significantly in the realm of the imaginary, Leber and Chesworth develop works through expansive research in places undergoing social change.
In this mid-career survey commissioned by the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Leber and Chesworth offer a rich exploration of the way society is impacted by the geographical and technological influences that surround us. Examining structures both physical and invisible, these works point towards the complex architecture of our world.
These works are speculative and archaeological, responding to architectural, social, and technological settings. Sound is always a central component in their video works, reinforcing the dimensionality and architecture of site through orienting the role of the viewer.
Leber and Chesworth have been collaborating since 1996 and have been shown in key international exhibitions including the 56th Biennale of Venice (2015), the 19th Biennale of Sydney (2014); and a parallel exhibition as part of the 5th Moscow Biennale (2013).
A Centre for Contemporary Photography touring exhibition. Curators: Naomi Cass, Pippa Milne and Madé Spencer-Castle. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body. The publication Architecture Makes Us has been supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation.
For Architecture Makes Us, CCP has commissioned Geography Becomes Territory Becomes, 2018; an 8-channel video installation exploring the island fortress of Suomenlinna, Finland. Architecture Makes Us includes an accompanying publication featuring texts by Naomi Cass, Giles Fielke, Fiona Gruber, Pippa Milne, Nikos Papastergiadis, Amelia Winata and Kate Warren. Designed by Joseph Johnson. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. Griffith University Art Museum acknowledges the generosity of Exhibition Partners Lock, Stock and Barrel, Shut the Gate Wines and Solver Paints.
7 March — 27 April 2019, Tuesday to Saturday 11 am – 4 pm, or by appointment.
installation images
Image: Sonia Leber & David Chesworth, Universal Power House: In the Near Future, 2017, Single channel HD video, 12:30min. Video still. Courtesy the artists. Commissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney.
