Joeseph Beuys and the Energy Plan

Overview

So Joseph Bueys and the Energy Plan is a pretty little exhibition. Make that: this is a little exhibition. But this array of photos and sculpture from Sydney Uni's permanent collection, tucked away atop a spiral staircase in the upper reaches of the historic quadrangle, is a little gem.

Some of the pieces said nothing to me. But there was one piece that really sang out. It’s a sculpture with a difference. Okay that makes it sound like a new kind of shampoo but trust me it’s very cool (and, no, I’m not going to say which one because I know your sleuthing ways and a google image search just doesn’t do it justice).

Beuys’ Weltanschauung (world view) was conceived in terms of energies and alchemical polarities - cold and warm, soft and hard, life and death, past and present - and the ways in which energies are transferred through natural materials, plants and animals. He did things like melt chocolate easter bunnies with light bulbs and present the semi-fleshy skeleton of a herring in a margarine packing crate hermetically sealed in perspex. In art speak, gross is generally shorthand for interesting.

For anyone camping out in the library slaving over a hot desk, head to the gallery for your smoko (you’re not allowed to smoke at Syd Uni anymore and next best way to clear your head is getting some art into you). And if you’re not a sydney uni homeboy/girl, it's worth the visit for the May 5 Symposium “A Battery of Ideas: Reading Beuys Today.”

The University of Sydney Art Gallery is open Monday-Friday 10-4.30, first Saturday of the month 12-4. Image Joseph Beuys; Filzanzug from JW Power Collection, The University of Sydney