With a focus on environmental sustainability, the exhibition presents a diverse body of work including works by Melbourne-based artists Ash Keating and Keith Deverell, Sydney-based artists Joyce Hinterding and David Haines, and Paris-based collective HeHe (Helen Evans and Heiko Hansen) and includes an interactive, ‘in residence’ program by Carbon Arts.

Spanning industry-funded public art celebrating technological progress to activist art performances questioning the status quo, the artist voice seeks to shift our perspective, enhance our powers of perception and provoke action. But how do these different relationships between the artist and the subject affect the power of these works to bring about change? At what point does an artwork become a work of design shaped by a particular agenda and how much does this distinction actually matter?

Perceptive Power articulates the unique ability of video and sound art to combine data representation and narrative to offer new ways of seeing and questioning our relationship with the invisible forces that power our economy. The artists ‘perform’ the industrial infrastructure of the past and the present, challenging our perceptions of what constitutes beauty, horror, despair and hope.

Acknowledgements:

Curated by Jodi Newcombe of Carbon Arts with CAST (RMIT University Centre for Art, Society and Transformation).
Co-curated for RMIT Design Hub by Kate Rhodes and Fleur Watson.
Part of the art+climate=change arts festival.
Graphic Design by Tin & Ed.

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