Dimension: curated by Liam Garstang and Alex Gawronski Thursday 7 May – Saturday 13 June 2026
Photos: Document Photography.
Dimension
Curated by Liam Garstang and Alex Gawronski
Thursday 7 May – Saturday 13 June 2026
SCA Gallery, Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney
Artists: Hany Armanious, Dean Cross, Alex Gawronski, Newell Harry, Biljana
Jančić, Anna John, Andrew Lavery, Michelle Nikou, Jacky Redgate, Tina Stefanou
Performance: Tina Stefanou, 6pm – 8pm Wednesday 27 May
Everything that exists is determined by its dimensionality. Everything has scale from the pyramids to the proverbial grain of sand, from a Richard Serra slab to a Bethan Huws coracle comprised of a single length of grass. Discrepancies between scales are usually ignored in our daily lives as everything we do is typically immured within predictable routines. This habituality is sometimes broken if we stumble across a new edifice imposing itself on the environment for better or worse. Alternatively, we might become momentarily transfixed by inconsequential details like the central protagonist of Jean Paul Sartre’s novel Nausea who develops a momentary obsession with a soiled piece of paper lying in the gutter.
The question of dimension is not simply determined by macro/micro polarities either. The scale of something is also fundamentally a question of value. Typically, in our overwhelmingly capitalist culture, that which occupies most space is considered most valuable and important. Nonetheless this basic formula can be reversed when we consider the disparity between, say, the value of a typical suburban house in an ‘OK’ suburb and the earth’s most perfect pearl or purest gold nugget. Scarcity, the lack of something, can increase the dimension of its value while things that are everywhere and statistically occupy significantly more space – and no matter how essential to the quality of life - can be dismissed as mediocre and unworthy of attention. The dimension of something is not necessarily determined by its visibility either. An aroma, sound or action, is proportional. Whether something smells or sounds very good or very bad cause that smell or sound to occupy space in undeniable ways. Likewise, an objectively banal action easily missed or ignored by those not affected, can have sizeable consequences depending on subjective contexts. On the other hand, demonstrably violent actions in the case of wars and occupation, can be minimised and normalised to make them seem as inevitable as the weather. This exhibition focuses on the myriad implications of dimension and scale. It brings together a diversity of perspectives from the global to the parochial, the monumental to the miniscule, the unmissable to the frequently disregarded.
— Alex Gawronsk