Overview
Artists
Foreword
Essays
Venues
Acknowledgements
Ellen Wignell
Acting Director, NETS Victoria
NETS Victoria is excited to partner with independent curator Zara Sigglekow to present Great Movements of Feeling, an exhibition considering the complexity of emotion and how it is experienced in the world. Art and emotion have continuously gone hand in hand and this exhibition exposes ways in which art and emotion manifest for both the contemporary and not- so-contemporary artist.
Theory of emotion is a delightful hole of psychology, philosophy and poetry to be sucked into. As Sigglekow aptly discusses, there are two historical discourses surrounding
the theory of emotion: emotion as subject to bodily
sensations and emotion as thought. The carefully selected
and commissioned artworks assembled in this exhibition sit
on a sliding scale between these two camps. They demonstrate that nothing is ever black and white, and that ‘feeling’ cannot be so easily defined.
NETS Victoria is passionate about developing and supporting contemporary practices through exhibitions and bespoke public programs, and this tour is no exception. We delight in sharing artworks with new audiences, especially those artworks that bring new and distinctive perspectives. Over the last 20 years, NETS Victoria has toured more than 75 exhibitions to more than 380 destinations. We have shared these exhibitions with more than two million people since the early 1990s, helping facilitate networks, collaboration and innovation between artists, arts workers and audiences alike.
Great Movements of Feeling was originally developed
for the 2018 Next Wave Festival through the Gertrude Contemporary Emerging Curators Program, and was supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation for an online catalogue. In 2019, the exhibition premieres at Hamilton Gallery as a touring exhibition, before travelling to Mildura Art Centre and Latrobe Regional Gallery. I would like to thank these venues and their respective staff for continuing to collaborate and share our exhibitions with their audiences.
This tour has been supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, who we thank for their generous support. The tour would not have been possible without the artists and their respective galleries: Michael Lett, Auckland, Goodman Gallery, Johanesberg, South Africa, Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art, Melbourne, THIS IS NO FANTASY + Dianne Tanzer Gallery, Melbourne, Assembly New York, ReadingRoom and MADA Monash University,
as well as lender Australian Catholic University Art Collection, and Curator, Zara Sigglekow. I thank them all for their ongoing dedication and involvement in the project. Lastly, I would like to thank the NETS Victoria team who work tirelessly behind- the-scenes to ensure each exhibition is the best it can be.