Evangelism & Clay The 21st Biennale of Sydney
JON BYWATER
When Mami Kataoka—chief curator at the Mori Art Museum Tokyo since 2003—awarded Kate Newby the 2012 Walters Prize, her judge’s statement concluded: ‘This decision is derived from my attempt to evoke a state of equilibrium in our ever competitive and hierarchical society.’ So saying, she weighted her decision towards valuing the ‘reserved’ means with which Newby’s piece drew attention to ‘both void and silence’, embracing ‘personal gestures and subtle actionsʼ.
As Artistic Director of this year’s 21st Biennale of Sydney, the same, key term appears in her title: Superposition: Equilibrium & Engagement. Simultaneous distinct states of ‘equilibrium’ and ‘engagement’ might be implied if they exist in ‘superposition’—a concept she adopts from quantum theory (the analogy: quantic entities as waves and particles)—yet equilibrium dominates in Kataoka’s distinctly polite, restrained biennale.
The previous edition (for which, incidentally, Kataoka was one of a group of international advisors) offers some indicative contrasts. There are fewer artists, fewer venues, and little in the way of performance or live events that were a theme last time. The only work in public space is a billboard project translated from the last Istanbul
