Theme We are looking for five artists to join our pavilion, a doughnut stand, what else?!
We are looking for work that experiments with absence, that endeavours to fill the hole in the doughnut or perhaps argues that the hole in the doughnut is what makes the doughnut, well, whole.
We are interested in how absence shapes our experiences. How ‘lack’ creates meaning. Whether wholes need holes. If your work experiments with these ideas, if absence is present in your practice, please read on!
The search for what is missing, for what has been lost, has long captured the attention of artists. How do you capture the presence of an absence? How do you contend with the holes? Sometimes the artistic solution is fairly straightforward. The Family of King Henry VIII (artist unknown), for example, is a dynastic painting which sought to reunite Prince Edward with his mother, Jane Seymour, who died when Edward was two weeks old. Sometimes the work is more abstract, such as Rothko’s large canvas invitations to be enveloped by the void, to almost feel it on your skin.
Psychologists believe that confronting what is lost or what is missing is driven by one surprising emotion – hope. The hope that something will be found, illuminated, resolved, healed.
It’s your hope-filled journey that we are interested in.