Calm like a bomb

4 October — 30 October 2021

Curated by Georgia Hayward

Calm like a bomb 2021 is a multimedia installation comprising a video display augmented by tools of destruction and revolution. Sargeant’s work responds to what she views as the need for urgent radical action in the face of rising reported violence and discrimination towards queer, trans and gender diverse people in Australia. Through the contrasting of imagery and appropriation of radical symbolism (the Anarchist flag for example), the artist calls on the audience to rethink their mode of allyship, suggesting queer allies must be active (radical) rather than passive actors in the fight for queer liberation.

Sargeant’s appropriation and subversion of materials, symbolism and imagery in Calm like a bomb 2021 is informed by the subversive work of European Situationists. In Sargeant's practice, appropriated elements are contorted and contrasted to produce motifs evocative of the devolving chaos and rising authoritarianism of Australia’s politics. In this work, the effects of this state of disarray on trans and queer individuals are laid bare.

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As We Stand is a capsule exhibition curated by Georgia Hayward and installed in the Outer Space Window Gallery, showcasing six local early-career artists; Kyra Mancktelow, Paula de la Rua Cordoba, Dylan Mooney, Ruaa Al-Rikabi, Amy Sargeant and Lucy Nguyễn-Hunt who each use their practice to take a stand on current socio-cultural issues through prophesying courses of action. Responding to a diverse array of contemporary issues, the artists challenge cultural hegemony and socio-political dysfunctionality to establish and celebrate narratives of intersectionality, cultural expression, queer liberation and decolonisation.

Exhibition Text

Outer Space Window Gallery
2R-C, 420 Brunswick Street
Fortitude Valley Q 4006
(map here)

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Amy Sargeant is a Meanjin (Brisbane) based visual artist, musician and activist. Through installations of sculpture, audio and video Amy’s work responds to her disillusionment with the dysfunctions of the Australian political establishment by reframing the elements of political spectacle. Amy deploys the Situationist method of détournement to de-stabilise motifs from mainstream politics, activist iconography, symbols and visual cultures.

www.amysargeant.art | @amy_sargeant_