A man kicks a flaming soccer ball through Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, tracing a pathway through the dark city. A large piece of engraved concrete is fragmented into hundreds of pieces, laying in wait for the audience to take a piece away as a trace of the work. The trace of the sun in the sky causes fluctuating shadows and ephemeral visual effects upon five large, floor to ceiling panels.
Showing from 8 June – 1 September 2019, the TarraWarra International 2019 exhibition, The Tangible Trace, explores the notion of a trace as a residue or marker of a place, situation or body of knowledge.
The exhibition includes the works of Francis Alÿs (Belgium/Mexico), Carlos Capelán (Uruguay/Sweden), Simryn Gill (Singapore/Malaysia/Australia), Shilpa Gupta (India), Hiwa K (Iraq/Germany) and Sangeeta Sandrasegar (Australia), including newly commissioned works by Capelán, Gupta and Sandrasegar.
Curator Victoria Lynn said, ‘The artists in this exhibition explore the concept of trace through tangible fragments – natural materials, pressings, mappings, markings, journeys and gestures. The artworks in The Tangible Trace are about sensations that exist in the world: they can be seen, felt and experienced in our real environments. They are not imagined. They are material, situated and responsive.’