Velocity

It is possible to trace a history of modern art, from JMW Turner to Gerhard Richter and beyond, in terms of successive generations of artists’ responses to the effects of speed. The acceleration of modern life has been a function of technological development, as the urbanist Paul Virilio pointed out, with social, cultural, political and ecological consequences which tend to pass largely unexamined and unchallenged. This exhibition curated by Terence Maloon brings together paintings by Robert Boynes, Jon Cattapan and Derek O’Connor, video installations by Merilyn Fairskye and the British duo Semiconductor, and photographs by Gilbert Bel-Bachir, which prompt reflection on technology and the phenomena of speed. The exhibition coincides with an international physics conference being held at the ANU. The Australian Institute of Physics Congress has partly sponsored the exhibition