EXHIBITION
The Age
Saturday February 6, 2010
WHAT My Hell's Gate and MahoganyWHERE GCAS, 200 Gertrude Street, FitzroyWHEN Today, 11am-4.30pm Until February 27COST FreeGERTRUDE Contemporary Art Spaces opens for 2010 with a bang, quite literally. Don't let that pathetic pun detract from the brilliance of Peter Hennessey's My Hell's Gate, in which he will restage the 1861 blast that introduced the era of explosives (in Hell's Gate, NYC). Hennessey says his project "deals with the strangely hidden place occupied by explosives in contemporary life", as he produces the blast under a tonne of water in the front gallery. "This essentially peaceful explosion underscores the fact that as many explosives are used in mining and civil engineering as war, reminding us that we live in a world pushed along by countless detonations," he explains. In the main gallery at the same time, Jesse Jones - one of Ireland's most accomplished young artists - exhibits her critically acclaimed film, Mahogany, which was filmed in Coober Pedy and premiered at the 2009 Istanbul Biennial.
© 2010 The Age
