Future Primitive

Overview

People do crazy things in summer. With a head full of new year's resolutions, and a body full of unspent Christmas carbohydrates, we feel the need to explore new horizons. We want to discover things; hike through rainforests; go to the zoo more often. All of this can be pretty exhausting though. Maybe a trip out to see Heide's new exhibition will be enough to quell this strange urge of ours.

Future Primitive is a collection of works from Australia and New Zealand that explores our modern fascination with primitivism. Totems, tribal motifs, and an intrigue with the ancient — the art on show creates a surreal trans-continental world of eschewed cultural history. Influences stem all the way from the European Dadaists to individual tribal cultures of the Pacific, and the result is intriguing enough to warrant the trip out of the city.

With the work of 19 artists on show, there are a broad range of fascinations and interpretations on show. However, the main thread of stifling colonialism is hard to shake. With historical context, the work can easily become dark or menacing — an eerie trip into a land forgotten by time.