KYNAN TAN and JULIAN DAY ‘Monster Theatres’ reopens at AGSA

June 12, 2020

The Art Gallery of South Australia has reopened its doors and the 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art ‘Monster Theatres’, which features works by Kynan Tan and Julian Day. Curated by Leigh Robb, ‘Monster Theatres’ invites artists to make visible the monsters of our time. Curator Leigh Robb says ‘Monsters ask us to interrogate our relationships with each other, the environment and technology. They force us to question our empathy towards difference across race, gender, sexuality and spirituality’.

KYNAN TAN’S Computer Learns Automation (Ride Share, Drone Strike and Robot Arm), 2020, “exorcises the spectres of computational technology. Three artificial intelligence agents learn to accomplish tasks in real time throughout the duration of the exhibition: a car learns to navigate pick-up and drop-off zones, a drone observes and fires at targets from above, and a robot arm learns to move boxes in a factory.”

JULIAN DAY uses air as “both a deeply felt and heard medium within his synthesizer and organ project ‘An Infinity Room’ (AIR) and has regularly collaborated with artists Luke Jaaniste and Janet McKay. Day also works with local participants within his site-responsive performance project Super Critical Mass.”

The term ‘monster’ comes from Latin monere, to warn, and monstrare, to show or make visible. The exhibition title hints at a double narrative which also resonates through the multiple meanings of ‘theatre’. Read more about ‘Monster Theatres’ HERE, which has been extended until 2 August 2020.

Installation views: 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art ‘Monster Theatres’, Kynan Tan (left) ‘Computer Learns Automation (Ride Share, Drone Strike and Robot Arm)’ photograph by Saul Steed; and Julian Day, ‘Transmission’