Post-haste, now at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, showcases the past decade of works by locally based artist-duo Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro.
It explores themes of obsolescence, collective endeavour and the place of the individual within complex systems, and includes a variety of mediums, including site-specific interventions, photography, sculpture, video and sound.
Paul Virilio's concept of 'dromology' is a theme throughout the exhibition - investigating how the speed at which something happens may change its essential nature. In an epoch where speed means everything, what happens when nature pulls the handbrake?
A timely topic considering the forced stasis of the world due to COVID-19, the artists question whether this may be some kind of payment that has been long overdue. Many of the works suggest future scenarios and project outcomes if we are to continue on the path we are on.
A new work, Mayday, is a large-scale Piper aircraft wing adorned with stickers. "Mayday uses the pathos of a discarded wing as a canvas to announce a cry for help," Healy and Cordeiro said.
"The scale and materiality of the work makes the work fall somewhere between an aviation accident and an act of vandalism. It is a cry for help to a disinterested audience."
Alongside this significant body of work, local high school students are exhibiting works made in collaborative workshops held by the artists.
This project, Epicormic Growth, engaged senior art students from five Blue Mountains schools in two different projects responding to Healy and Cordeiro's practice.
The first was a major Lego piece devised by the artists so that each student was able to contribute to the final result. The second element, speaking directly to the artists' interest in obsolescence and speed, particularly in relation to new and superseded technologies, is a project using dead smart phones as the canvas.
Exhibition curator, Rilka Oakley, said: "The brilliance of Healy and Cordeiro is their unique ability to re-imagine everyday objects into playful critiques of serious issues. Their works speak to the audience on multiple levels."
