Low Stakes Exhibition

The Wink of an Albatross (A sinking feeling) (2024)

Claire Clark-Robertson & David Clark-Robertson

Amidst the chaos of life—with constant demands on our attention, availability, and advancement—we chose to create a chair for surrender. An ouroboric sack to sink into and be becalmed.

Fashioned from a ragged mainsail, stuffed with defective navigational guides, we invite you to untether yourself. Turn off your phone, forget what needs to be done, pull the scrambled quilt up to your chin, close your eyes, and drift.

Exhibition curated and artwork photography by Dan McCabe / Artdoc

Materials:

Discarded Dacron Mainsail, Nylon Signal Flags, Wool Emergency Blanket, Synthetic Sailing Line, Out of Date Navigational Guides (courtesy of The Navigation Centre), International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (Brown, Son & Ferguson, LTD.), and an Albatross Feather.

 
 

Send me coordinates and send me your praise. 

Send me some wind and send me on my way. 

I hope that you’re well, best regards, kindly, cheers and the rest.

Your message finds me how? Sorry wait—this a test?

Scrambled, coded, redacted, punctured, omitted. 

For the life of me, I can’t parse the words you’ve committed. 

Like maps that are tired, all tied in knots, set adrift.

Furl in the mainsail, these waves merely lick. 

Becalmed in the moment—be it a spell, curse, or hex?

No, just blissfully free from the what was and what’s next. 

The sung sky lays low, so lie back and relax.

Your message shan’t reach me through chaotic syntax. 

I’ll just nod, laugh and smile, as the albatross winks,

And I’ll send you my love as my listing ship sinks. 

 

Exhibition Dates

GOOLUGATUP HEATHCOTE
5 October - 17 November 2024

Low Stakes is an exercise in design, materials and function. The brief is simple: make an object that can be sat on. It could be a couch, a recliner, a chair, a bench, a stand, a throne or a stool.

Throughout human history chairs are present in all aspects of life as both invisible and symbolic objects. They can be impromptu assemblages of random materials on hand or celebrations of the most sophisticated craftsmanship. This exhibition will present a range of chair designs built by creatives working in the field of visual art, textiles, architecture and design. Curated by artist Dan McCabe, this project utilises play as its core philosophy –– the stakes are low, loosen up. It’s ok to fail. It’s a chair.

Featuring artists Sarah Poulgrain, Nathan Thomas, Monica Rohan and Mitchell Donaldson, Melanie Martin, Meagan Streader, Lulu Mitchell-Oehlers, Loren Kronemyer, Katie West, Jamie Macchiusi, Han Oh, Corey Khan, Claire and Dave Clark-Robertson, Bruno Booth, Amanda Bell, and curated by Dan McCabe

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.