Sydney-based artists Samuel Hodge and Skye Wagner discuss their two new exhibitions at UNSW Galleries, in a conversation between the artists and independent curator Abigail Moncrieff.

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Presented in conjunction with ‘Samuel Hodge: The Wit of the Staircase’ and ‘Skye Wagner: Opacity Shift’ at UNSW Galleries Courtyard Gallery from 21 March – 18 April 2020.

Samuel Hodge: The Wit of the Staircase
In this exhibition Samuel Hodge draws on his twenty-year archive of artistic practice to present an ambiguous and unpredictable installation in which disparate elements interrupt and collide with misaligned ‘official’ histories. In ‘The Wit of the Staircase’, Hodge considers the imponderability of a body of work that possesses his imagination and, at the same time, offers the audience endless points of access within its staged narratives. This exhibition features works that are included in Hodge's collaboration with Australian fashion label Romance Was Born on their 2020 Spring collection.

Skye Wagner: Opacity Shift
Skye Wagner's photographs explore the circulation and digital malleability of contemporary images. Made from physical objects and printed imagery, they mix vernacular photographic tropes, commodity goods and cultural fragments. The original images and objects are released from their prescribed function and become part of an unruly network that moves throughout works in the exhibition. Animals, food, body parts and consumer products all form incongruous relations. In this mix, things appear out of control, on the verge of becoming something else, and wanting to escape the confines of the frame.