It’s always an eye opener to visit the Art Gallery when in Adelaide and there are plenty of interesting exhibitions to see, most of which are free to view. As with all art there is something for every taste and of course, controversial pieces that range from the sublime to the ridiculous and have people loving, hating or just scratching their heads about.

From sculptures and indigenous art, to the miniscule or grand scale pieces, provocative and classical it’s all there and makes for an interesting day out.

A few eye catching displays that I noticed on our last visit include ones by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, another Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, and Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn.

The Yayoi Kusama exhibit is called ‘The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended into the Heavens’ and in this display she uses dots, mirrors and pumpkin shapes to draw the viewer into a sensory experience where you are invited to step up and peep into a cut out section to view an infinite space and scene.

Walking into the room doesn’t really hint at what you will experience until you take a couple of steps up to view into the mirrored box that sits in the centre of the room, and then an imaginative infinite world expands inside. This exhibition is only in Adelaide until 13 March 2023.

Absence Embodied is a sculpture created by Chiharu Shiota and is another room filling display of wool, with bronze and plaster hands. The piece was created after the artist’s diagnosis with cancer and represents the feeling of absence from her own existence and fragmentation felt from the experience. The blood red wool sculpture was created from 1800 balls of wool which put in a line would extend to 200 kilometres.

Twin-subjecter is the name of the literally unmissable sculpture by Thomas Hirschhorn with models embedded with nails and screws. The imposing sculpture fills a doorway making it impossible to pass by without taking time to stop and notice.

The Art Gallery of South Australia is always a fascinating venue to visit with interesting spaces and displays and more than 47,000 works of art to discover. The gallery is on North Terrace in Adelaide and is open daily from 10am-5pm.

Enjoy

Glenys