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emily Floyd
Steiner rainbow
2006
Unlike the natural phenomenon it recalls,
Steiner rainbow
— a gift of the artist
through the Queensland art gallery
Foundation, donated through the australian
government’s cultural gifts program —
possesses considerable physical presence.
rainbows are cultural symbols often
associated with utopian ideals, alternative
social and political movements, and the
desire to do things differently. with this in
mind, emily Floyd took a humble object —
a popular, wooden children’s toy — and
scaled it to adult height. the original toy
was inspired by the educational ideas
of austrian philosopher rudolf steiner,
which were designed to encourage open-
ended play: a child can use the coloured
components of the wooden toy as basic
building blocks or to model whole worlds.
like the toy, this sculpture’s coloured
arches can be rearranged; Floyd suggests
this flexibility is similar to the way artists
work to imaginatively envision the world —
a place of potential, as well as continual,
transformation.
Emily Floyd
/ Australia b.1972 /
Steiner rainbow
2006 / Two-part epoxy paint on MDF / Gift of
the artist through the Queensland Art Gallery
Foundation 2011. Donated through the Australian
Government’s Cultural Gifts Program
Luke roberts
AlphaStation/Alphaville
2009
AlphaStation/Alphaville
— a gift of James
c sourris,
am
, through the Queensland
art gallery Foundation — represents a
major recent project by brisbane-based
artist luke roberts. the title of the series
is a conflation of the name of the artist’s
hometown of alpha in rural central
Queensland, and French director Jean luc-
godard’s classic sci-fi film
Alphaville
1965.
in these performance photographs, roberts
appears with his own family and friends.
dressed both as symbolic characters
of his own creation and as recognisable
historical figures, roberts roams freely
across time, geography and culture. his
contemporary myth-making is therapeutic
and emancipating, addressing issues of
spirituality, religious doctrine, fame and
celebrity, human rights and colonialism.
Luke Roberts
/ Australia b.1952 /
Andy
2008 / Camera: John Elliott /
Giclée print on paper, ed. 1/5 / 150 x 100cm / The James C Sourris,
am
,
Collection / Gift of James C Sourris,
am
, through the Queensland
Art Gallery Foundation 2011. Donated through the Australian
Government's Cultural Gifts Program
