Overview

Let's start over, at the point where something begins or arises, its origin. (Imagine) the moment, somewhere, someone, sometime between the past and the future (that) marked a point of origin, of something. Let's start over in this historical moment. It's as simple in art as it is in life. The pre-modern, modern, postmodern, and the present, are the ground zero constituents of points of origin in contemporary art, as complex in art as in life. Point of Origin positioned art at a place to start over, ground zero. The exhibition featured new and recent work by Canadian artists Kelly Wood, Jack Jeffrey and Taras Polataiko; Berlin-based artist Ceal Floyer; Dora Economou from Athens; and Sydney artists Huseyin Sami and Rolande Souliere.

By conventional descriptions these artists are interdisciplinary and post-conceptual. Their art practices, which range across genre-defying and hybrid approaches to sculpture, photography, painting, text, video, and performance, are redefining art idioms in the wake of the legacies of aesthetic and anti-aesthetic traditions. The debates surrounding aesthetics, anti-aesthetics, non-aesthetics and new aesthetics are evidence of the uncertain critical climate in contemporary art today. This territory of uncertainty was a cornerstone of the exhibition Point of Origin, which featured work by artists who, in their individual practices and their points of connection, pose new challenges and insights toward confronting this current and vexing condition. Let's start over again.

Point of Origin is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, British Columbia Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Consulate General (Sydney), Catriona Jeffries Gallery (Vancouver), Consulate General of Greece (Sydney), Lisson Gallery (London) and UBC Okanagan.