In 2020’s lockdown, I worked on a catalogue essay for Stuart Smith’s ultimately postponed group exhibition at Grace Cossington Smith Gallery, (re)arrangements. Like many 2020/21 shows, this one has been the victim of a double-whammy, finally installed prior to Sydney’s long lockdown in 2021 but unable to open to the public. Read the catalogue here and see installation images below.

The investigations undertaken by the artists in (re)arrangements result in new logics, new orders. These artists rearrange form or idea, seeking new intent by repurposing an existing one. A car part found by the roadside turned 3D glyph; a repainted detail from an early 20th century naturist magazine; an abstracted fragment of a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. (re)
arrangements explores how strategies of redeployment and recontextualization can generate new ways of seeing and understanding. Coordinated by Stuart Smith, the exhibition brings together the work of ten artists with transformative approaches to a diverse range of media and subject matter. By fragmenting and transforming existing artworks, objects and found images, the works in (re)arrangements enable new ideas and forms to take shape.