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Details
- Date
- 2017
- Media categories
- Installation , Sculpture , Time-based art
- Materials used
- copper, steel, elastic rubber, glass, acrylic, unfired clay, coins, glazed ceramic, ceramic, wood, canvas, synthetic polymer paint, rubber mallet, mosaic, plastic, paper, x-ray radiography paper, rocks, crystals, beads, textile, string, synthetic rope, rope, sound, dolly, plants and soil, plastic doll, concrete, wires, rubber tyres, PET plastic, wax candle, plywood, synthetic clay, pencil, black fibre-tipped pen
- Dimensions
- dimensions variable
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased with funds provided by the Contemporary Collection Benefactors 2018
- Location
- North Building, lower level 1
- Accession number
- 2.2018.a-y
- Copyright
- © Mikala Dwyer. Courtesy Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.
- Artist information
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Mikala Dwyer
Works in the collection
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About
'The divisions and subtractions' belongs to an ongoing series in which Mikala Dwyer gathers together found and made objects and places them in a large open circle. Dwyer has said that her circle works are ‘a tight form of geometry, a completely closed system - a psychic fortress that can hold together disparate thoughts and objects’.
In this spirit, the circle magically unifies elements that might otherwise be difficult to associate, while highlighting sculptural qualities including scale, mass, density, transparency, colour and balance. Dwyer is interested in the occult and supernatural and there is also a sense of ritualistic purpose in the circular gathering, which suggests an aberrant sacred space. Finally, the circular arrangement establishes a threshold, which tests the viewer’s resolve to either remain an outside observer or become the focus of the sculpture’s attention by passing into the centre.
A community of artists worked with Dwyer on specific elements within this piece, including Stevie Fieldsend, Adriane Boag, Hany Armanious, Nick Dorey, Andre Bremer, and Matthys Gerber.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 2 exhibitions
Mikala Dwyer: A shape of thought, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 26 Aug 2017–04 Feb 2018
Making Worlds, Art Gallery of New South Wales, North Building, Sydney, 03 Dec 2022–2023
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Bibliography
Referenced in 1 publication
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Wayne Tunnicliffe, Susan Best and Helen Hughes, Mikala Dwyer: a shape of thought, Sydney, 2018, 17, 100, 102, 125-129 (colour illus., details).
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