6 May - 4 June, West Space, Melbourne.
Opening night, 6pm Thursday 5 May.
The Fraud Complex, curated by collaborative duo Johnson+Thwaites (Peter H. Johnson and Denise Thwaites), is an interdisciplinary project comprising a group exhibition, publication, digital archive and associated live events.
Including performance, experimental writing, painting, photography, video, sculpture and installation, The Fraud Complex invites audiences into a system of suspended categories. Objects of uncertain provenance co-mingle with artworks to incite feelings of doubt, raising questions such as: What constitutes a fraud? And are we all just ‘faking it’ in different ways?
The project explores contemporary art’s complicated relationship with fakes, facsimiles and impersonations, while highlighting the relevance of these concepts beyond the white cube, as notions of authenticity penetrate everyday debate around gender, ethnicity, culture and morality.
The Fraud Complex website acts not only a reference for the exhibition, publication and events, but as a dynamic digital archive for further interrogations, presentations and questions into the concepts of authenticity and fraudulence.
This project is presented as part of the Next Wave Festival, and was made possible by their Emerging Curators Program in association with West Space, Melbourne.
Featuring: Abdul Abdullah (NSW), Abdul-Rahman Abdullah (WA), Hany Armanious (NSW), Tully Arnot (NSW), Bindi Cole (VIC), Megan Cope (Quandamooka/VIC), Beth Dillon (NSW), Sara Morawetz (NSW/USA), Técha Noble (NSW/GER), Yoshua Okón (MEX) and Tyza Stewart (QLD).
Links
Download the PDF exhibition catalogue
Next Wave Festival 2016
West Space
Peter H. Johnson
Denise Thwaites
Acknowledgements
Website and catalogue design by Jerome Lousick.
The Fraud Complex was developed through Next Wave’s Emerging Curators Program with West Space for Next Wave Festival 2016.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, City of Melbourne and the NSW Government through Arts NSW.
