HEINZ RIEGLER
GHOSTS
In some cultures, it is not just humans who carry a spirit or soul. Objects, too, can maintain such qualities. In November 2019, one-hundred-and-four stowaways, simplistic Russian educational robots, boarded a container ship in the Chinese port city of Shantou. For three weeks, they sat in darkness, their only certainty a variable state of undulation and a dull hum of engines pushing through water. Arriving without purpose and alienated from their intended use and country of destination, they find themselves exposed to a tropical storm outside a warehouse in Rocklea, Australia. Salvaged by the artist, time slowly passes, their bodies trapped in the stasis of storage, their sense of purpose remains unclear.
Years later, unpacked, devolved, and unbounded, their constituent parts are readied to imagine new uses and possible futures. Now, their exuvial remains are returned to the northern hemisphere, a phantom presence bearing witness to absent bodies behind a thick pane of glass. Disembodiment carries forth an unimagined sense of becoming and, in turn, purpose.
Ghosts is the second iteration in the Supply Chain series.
Heinz Riegler lives and works on Gubbi Gubbi Land in South East Queensland, Australia.
Exhibition duration: 8.11. - 31.12.2024