As the longest running and most pre-eminent survey of contemporary Australian art, the Adelaide Biennial has always attempted to showcase the most interesting work of a particular moment, with a themed approach giving the event a loose-knit narrative that goes beyond individual artists. By naming this eighteenth edition of the Biennial as Inner Sanctum, curator JoséDa Silva is suggesting a meditation of sorts on where we are now.
“Inner Sanctum came from a simple proposition of wanting to think about what the human condition might be like in 2023 and 2024,’ Da Silva says. “How might we think about the human condition after having lived through three or four years of COVID and all of the experiences of lockdown, and how that might have affected the way we think about our lives, our homes, and our communities.
“It became clear to me very early in the thinking about this show, that there was a way of grouping certain ideas and certain artists together in distinct ways, and that you might invite an audience to take a particular journey. That might be akin to reading a great novel, or thinking about the exhibition experience, not simply as things in different rooms, but as a kind of guided journey through the museum.’
To this end, Inner Sanctum features twenty-four artists spread out over five specific sections. This begins with the paintings of George Cooley that make up the opening section, The Inland Sea. This leads on to the next parts; A Clearing, a Periphery; The River Path; and A Quiet Spot, before ending with the evocatively titled The Writing of Love and Finding it.
“The five parts play out physically in the way that you move through the space,’ says Da Silva, “so whilst they're not linked in with cliff-hangers, there is a sense that you're experiencing certain ideas in a concentrated way as you move through the space.’
Around seventy per cent of the Biennial is made up of new commissions, with poetry at its heart. This includes ‘Faith’, a major new work by Kate Llewellyn, presented in a choral setting by Adelaide Chamber Singers.
“I knew from the onset that poetry had something to offer in this context,’ Da Silva says. “I want the Biennial to have a diversity of art forms in it, so you're pulling together this constellation to try and find who are the right people to be together in this moment.’
Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Inner Sanctum, The Art Gallery of South Australia, 1 March – 2 June.
The List Adelaide Summer Festivals Guide, January 2024
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