Multiplication: the Multiple Object in Art
Dates:
4 September – 11 October 1997
Artists:
Richard Artschwager, Claire Barclay, Joseph Beuys, John Bleaney, Barbara Bloom, Marta Boto, Darren Bryant, John Cage, Sophie Calle, Eugene Carchesio, Jason Coburn, Susan Cohn, Bill Culbert, Sarah Curtis, Mario Dalpra, Aleks Danko, John Nixon, Hugo De Marco, Colin Duncan, Vince Dziekan, Peter Ellis, Katharina Fritsch, Mark Galea, Fiona Hall, Jenny Holzer, Maria Kozic, Christopher Langton, Nigel Lendon, Julio Le Parc, Les Levine, Sherrie Levine, Yasumasa Morimura, Matt Mullican, Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Michael Parekowhai, Debra Phillips, Rosslynd Piggott, George Popperwell, Neil Roberts, Lynne Roberts-Goodwin, Shiralee Saul, Janet Shanks, Lorna Simpson, Christopher Snee, Mike Stevenson, Joe Tilson, Richard Tipping, Tony Trembath, Jane Trengrove, Rosemary Trockel, Victor Vasarely, Toni Warburton, David Watt, Louise Weaver, Lawrence Weiner, Jean Pierre Yvaral, Lansheng Zhang
Curator:
Zara Stanhope
Opened by:
Stephen Feneley
(Presenter of Express, ABC TV)
Location:
Monash University Gallery
Monash University, Clayton Campus
About the exhibition
This group exhibition presented a wide-ranging collection of three-dimensional editions produced over the past three decades by Australian and international artists. It highlighted the diverse potential of the edition—or ‘multiple’—from handmade to mass-produced, from the precious to the everyday.
Having first gained prominence in the 1960s and experiencing a resurgence in the late ’80s, multiples have often been regarded as secondary to the unique artworks. This exhibition reconsidered the multiple’s currency and versatility as a form of artistic production.
The exhibition featured some of the earliest multiples by Marta Boto and Hugo Demarco, political works by Joseph Beuys, Claes Oldenburg’s soft sculptures, sound works by John Cage and one of Yoko Ono’s mirror boxes. Works ranged from the surreal—Katharina Fritsch’s editioned brain and Lorna Simpson’s ceramic wishbones—to the personal and intimate, for example Sophie Calle’s necktie, children’s shoes by Sherrie Levine and Colin Duncan’s wax chromosomes.
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Image: Back cover of exhibition catalogue, showing Claes Oldenburg, 5 Identical Images of Geometric Mouse 1971, black anodised aluminium. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra