OUT OF THE MATRIX (Curator of Exhibition)

BACKGROUND Out of the Matrix presents artworks from a diverse group of 16 practitioners who employ the various histories and methods of print production. The intention of this exhibition is to evoke an extended sense of history printmaking generates as much as evidence its present agency within the wider art community. Using the premise of the matrix, that from what all prints emanate, this group of artists activate an expanded understanding of print imaging. CONTRIBUTION The curatorial premise for Out of the Matrix was to evoke printmaking's 'mother' matrix through reproducibility. The exhibition reflects into printmaking's multiple pasts to extend and project out to imagine futures. Enhancing this premise is the direct popular cultural connection of the 1999 Wachowskis' cinematic hit The Matrix. This science fiction cross-reference initiates Jean Bauldrillard's Simulation and Simulacra by means of repetition, the multiple, overlay and moving elements within various dimensions. The exhibition has allowed these artists based within print practice the fluidity of numerous positions and mediums from which to reflect, make and perform. Out of the Matrix engages in a discursive dialogue that reactivates print-informed practice and places this practice as a key element of contemporary art practice. Oscillating between analogue, digital and spatial positions this exhibition privileges and extends print practice highlighting the universal nature of printmaking today. SIGNIFICANCE RMIT Gallery is one of the leading University Galleries in Australia that is recognised globally as a gallery of substance. All artists selected are key Melbourne practitioners and educators in Printmaking (Monash University, RMIT and VCA) and have international exhibition status. As curator, RMIT Gallery and I have documented Out of the Matrix through a catalogue of in situ installation images of artworks with an academic essay.