BODY LANGUAGE: art, sport and the cyber conversation

Body Language is a provocative exhibition of current work by four Australian artists at the cutting edge of photo-based and digital technology. Using holographic, photographic, virtual and cyborg technologies, these artists explore the visual and sometimes technological limits of human potential. Collectively, their images, interactive installations and performances suggest how the posthuman body of the 21st century might be altered and re-defined for greater intellectual and athletic potential.

Paula Dawson and Rosemary Laing describe imaginary realities for fictional characters. Dawson's installation includes a video made at Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef, tracking the development of a major new hologram created with a number of collaborators.

Rosemary Laing's flight research series of large colour photographs feature athletic performers aero-dynamically located in arcane sites or floating dreamily in the sky. Magical in mood and composition, the images question and enhance everyday perceptions of human limitation and earthly reality.

John E. Hughes and Stelarc create interactive works that use digital technology to involve the viewer on a number of levels. For Body Language, Hughes has created Human Tide, a sensory alteration chamber based on the analogy of the museum, into which the viewer must enter and participate in a surreal narrative.

Stelarc, a major international performance artist since the early 1970s, uses the latest scientific and computer research to devise digital systems that interact with his bodily functioning in various ways. His robotic third arm can be manipulated by internet viewers across the world. Stelarc will present a new performance, Extended Arm, to coincide with the exhibition opening on Friday 25th August, 6-9pm (bookings essential: $15/$10).

Together, the four artists in Body Language challenge the boundaries of art, sport and technology, creating hyper-real and virtual cultures of physical and psychological intrigue. Curated by Felicity Fenner, the exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with a text by Anna Munster.