ACCA unveils latest exhibition supporting emerging artists

The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) presents Future Remains: The 2024 Macfarlane Commissions from June 29 to September – the fourth instalment of a multi-year initiative supporting innovative artworks by emerging and mid-career artists.

Showcasing seven unique commissions from artists across Australia, Future Remains explores and reinterprets various cultural, material, and ideological legacies, aiming to illuminate the past, present, and future through the works.

The exhibition will feature works by Kim Ah Sam, Andy Butler, Teelah George, Alexandra Peters (pictured below), Joel Sherwood Spring, Nicholas Smith and Salote Tawale.

“Spanning the playful and poetic to the bitingly satirical, Future Remains is underpinned by a keen focus on ‘the stuff of the world’, unpacking complex relationships between materiality and regimes of value, cultural narratives and time,” exhibition curator Shelley McSpedden told Southbank News.

The exhibition encompasses a wide spectrum of media such as ceramics, printmaking, video, sculpture, textiles, and casting.

Many pieces also incorporate discarded remnants of industry and consumer culture, while others draw inspiration from ancestral artefacts and official records.

“These materials are probed to reveal embedded narratives and knowledges, and are recast into novel configurations to cultivate fresh understandings and imaginaries.”

Developed in collaboration with ACCA, The Macfarlane Commissions, supported by The Macfarlane Fund, aims to foster ambitious new works by emerging and mid-career contemporary artists.

So far, the series has facilitated the development of nearly 30 significant new pieces, greatly benefiting the careers of the artists participating.

“At an historical moment when we are collectively grappling with contested histories and their profound impact on our present reality, the artists brought together in Future Remains not only probe the veracity of personal and social historical accounts, they attempt to rework them into something productive for the future,” Ms McSpedden said.