Sighting References: Ciphers, Systems and Codes in Recent Australian Visual Art

About the exhibition
Sighting References explored the concept of appropriation—one of the most debated issues in the visual arts during the 1980s. This group exhibition aimed to distinguish between the various strategies, including reference, interpretation and theft, often grouped under this term, and showcased how they were employed by six contemporary Australian artists.

In a world increasingly saturated with visual information, the question of ‘originality’ and ‘creative inspiration’ takes on new urgency. The exhibition highlighted how artists respond to the challenge of immediate, often unsolicited access to an ever-expanding reservoir of visual material. Since as early as 1981, Peter Tyndall’s work has examined the act of looking and the relationship between the art object and its viewer. Tim Johnson’s practice seeks to establish a legible space within contemporary art for ancient symbols. While Julie Brown-Rrap critiques the sexual politics of Western image-making, reimagining canonical depictions of the female form by inserting her own image into them.

In place of a traditional exhibition catalogue, the exhibition was accompanied by an illustrated document featuring new writing by contemporary theorists and critics Michael Carter, Ross Gibson, Elizabeth Grosz and Meaghan Morris.

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^{Image: Richard Dunn, Typewriter and X with House and Gun}