Unlearning

Overview

For 31 days between Friday, July 26 and Saturday, August 31, the same wall at the UQ Art Museum will receive a fresh lick of paint. Two students will be responsible for splashing a different colour across it each day, and they can choose whichever hue they like. While they're painting, visitors to the gallery can watch. At the end of each session, a black-and-white framed photo of the pyramids will be hung over newly coated wall. As conceived by American conceptual artist John Baldessari, the aim of Wall Painting is simultaneously simple and complex, inviting both participants and audiences to reflect upon time, labour and decision-making.

Wall Painting forms part of the St Lucia site's latest exhibition, Unlearning, which ponders the whole process of shedding old notions and discovering new things — whether about art, culture, memory, bodies or social interaction. There's a joy in not knowing something, allowing you to contemplate a subject or issue with a fresh mind, pick up new skills and see the world from a different perspective.

The entire showcase runs from Friday, July 26 to Saturday, December 21, kicking off with a party from 6–9pm on opening night. Also on display is Elizabeth Willing's large-scale window installation, ahead of her exhibition Through the Mother from Tuesday, September 10; Jacobus Capone's seven-channel film installation Dark Learning, which focuses on extreme locations; Lara Merrett's High Stakes, where you're able to touch her paintings; and Weaving the Way, a curated range of fibre works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists.

Image: John Baldessari, Wall Painting, initially curated by Tara McDowell at MADA Gallery, Monash University in October–November 2017. Photo: Melissa Vallence.