It’s part of the economic structure of the Sydney art scene that artist-run spaces specialise in group shows. True, the occasional foolhardy individual will put up some cash for a grab at the glory of a one-person show, but since rents are high and costs are much more affordable when shared with 5 to 20 other people, group shows are the rule. Ranging from thematic shows to grab bag exhibitions of like-minded practitioners to perhaps just a few people who are showing together in the same space, the quality of group shows veers wildly from the inspired to the insipid.
There has been an emerging trend over the last five years for much more tightly curated exhibitions by people who are no doubt hoping for a shot at a job at the MCA, the Art Gallery of NSW or on the front desk at Oxley’s. In fact, they may already have a job there and want to go out into the world to prove their bona fides, but either way, tightly curated shows can also have a wildly variable quality as well as having themes that are either replays of well-worn ideas or are just thrown together excuses for a piss up at the opening.
Right now, there are at least half a dozen group shows on simultaneously that feature six or more artists and we began to wonder if it wouldn’t be a great idea to have a group show at the end of 2005 that is a summation of the year’s group shows. Each work would represent one group show – in fact they could be group shows in themselves – an ever receding infinitude of group show activity that would illustrate the tightly woven, quantum nature of group show activity. Some mathematicians’ claim we live in a 10 dimensional universe built entirely of group shows. Although it seems we are living our lives outside an actual gallery space, this is the gallery space. Freaking out yet? We are.
