Light From Light

光源自光 Light From Light

Library-goers will see the library in a whole new light when they bump into artworks placed in around the collections and public spaces of the State Library of Queensland this year. Artists from Australia and China have been developing site-specific art works for Light from Light, an exhibition that will be duplicated and displayed simultaneously at the Shanghai Library in China. Via webcam, audiences in Brisbane and Shanghai will be able to see the artworks experienced in another site, 7331 kilometers away.

For Light from Light, artists respond to ideas of light. Twenty light-inspired and light-generating artworks will include neon art objects, light-sculptures, images generated by solar telescopes and illuminated texts. In this exhibition, artists treat light as a medium, an energy source and a metaphor for illumination and knowledge. A major outdoor self-powering photovoltaic structure contemplates the poetics of energy harnessed from the sun.

An unprecedented exhibition, Light from Light explores the library as a unique site for art. The exhibiting artists will travel to both Brisbane and Shanghai to thoughtfully situate their work in library collection and reading spaces; spaces not normally used for exhibitions. In doing so, artists will address the way art can intersect with other spaces of knowledge, bringing visual language to the written form. Themed around art, technology and sustainability, the exhibition will be complemented by artists talks, public lectures & forums, and feature bilingual catalogue, online content & DVD presentation.

The artists

This project involves artists who are internationally recognised through their inclusion in significant exhibitions and major museum collections.

Zhang Peili (China)

Wang Gong Xin (China)

Lin Tianmiao (China)

Pak Sheung Chuen (Hong Kong)

Josef Strau (Austria)

Eugene Carchesio (Australia)

Archie Moore (Australia)

Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley (Australia)

David Haines & Joyce Hinterding (Australia)

Melbourne based artists Janet Burchill and Jennifer McCamley were engaged in a MAAP residency to produce a central work for the exhibition. They are researching new solar technologies to create a renewable energy structure.