EXHIBITION

The Last Supper

Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre, 03/22/2014 - 05/18/2014

ABOUT

 Ken + Julia Yonetani will be exhibiting a new installation,The Last Supper, at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre. Developed during a four month residency at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, the installation references and recreates art historical imagery of The Last Supper via the creation of a nine metre long banquet table, heavily laden with a feast sculpted entirely from Murray River salt.


In The Last Supper the artists extend their prominent 2011 work Still Life: The Food Bowl in scale and concept. The Last Supper points to concerns arising from increasing salinity levels in Australia and unsustainable agricultural practices. In the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster,  the massive banquet of luxurious foodstuffs also becomes a larger visualisation of the problems of food security and safety in an increasingly toxic world. In the words of the artists: “Here salt is a metaphor for the death of the land, sacrificed in the production and consumption of what has become The Last Supper.” The religious and historical associations of salt, as a sacred substance that sustains life yet also can invite death, are infused within a powerful work about what is placed on our dinner table in the twenty first century.
 

Ken + Julia Yonetani’s work explores the interaction between humans, nature, science and the spiritual realm in the contemporary age, unearthing and visualising hidden connections between people and their environment. Their installations work within an interdisciplinary field, inspiring responses through all five senses – sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch. They incorporate performance and prompt the viewer through immersive interaction at the most basic of levels. The connection between audience and environment is undeviating within a powerful aesthetic. Their work is highly accessible, attracting international acclaim and widespread attention for its combination of aesthetics and nuanced expression of contemporary issues.
 

Ken + Julia Yonetani exhibited in such venues as the Venice Biennale 2009, National Museum of Singapore (Singapore Biennale 2013), Art Gallery of NSW, GV Art London, NKV Wiesbaden, Kone Foundation in Finland, 4a Centre for Contemporary Asian Art in Sydney, and Gallery of South Australia. In 2009 they represented Australia at the Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art. One recent hightlight was the exhibition ofCrystal Palace: the great exhibition of the works of industry of all nuclear nations as part of the Singapore Biennale in 2013.
 

Ken + Julia Yonetani are also included in the following current and upcoming exhibitions: Desire  at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre (until 11 May 2014) and The Lorne Sculpture Biennale   (8-30 March, 2014) where they have been commissioned to create a performance piece on 29 March.


The exhibition opening for The Last Supper will be held on Friday 21 March from 6pm. Ken + Julia Yonetani will also be participating in a panel discussion, The Last Supper: A Sustainability Talk, at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery on 12 April at 2pm. 

For More Information

APT ARTISTS ON VIEW

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