THE BARBED MAZE

DENISE HIGGINS
GARY SMITH

Exhibition Dates: 16 October - 21 November 2015

While Denise Higgins and Gary Smith have established personal practices in installation and painting they occasionally work in collaboration, producing massive projects that are technically and conceptually ambitious in the extreme. The barbed maze is a site-specific installation that consists of panels of barbed wire suspended in a gallery of mirrors. 140 square meters of gallery is transformed into a “maze-scape” that is perceptually 4,000 square meters. The maze is a mixed metaphor that explores the darker labyrinthine recesses of the human mind. It opens a puzzling path upon which the individual might reckon with belief systems, conscience and consider alternative answers to life’s big questions. Along with many Australians, Higgins and Smith have witnessed year after year of passionate debate in which notions of national identity are periodically derailed by outbursts of racism, sexism and homophobia. A period of divisive government obsessed with stopping refugee boats, death cults, climate change denial and challenged by family violence, has left the country somewhat bruised. Together, these issues create a rich conceptual backdrop against which the barbed maze operates.

Image: Denise Higgins and Gary Smith The Barbed Maze 2015