Sciencefictive

Sciencefictive is a stunning exhibition suited to all ages that brings gardens from around the world into the IMA Gallery.

Science fiction is one of the most common constructs in the arts and yet, on paper, they’re incredibly strange bedfellows. One deals with finding out the truth about life, while the other invents its own rules for doing so. But Brisbane-born, Sydney-based artist Gary Carsley has created a new art exhibit that marries the two seamlessly, called Sciencefictive.

The Institute of Modern Art has two of its galleries transformed into an interior garden for Carsley’s work, with the white walls of the gallery punctured by apertures, or “Moongates”. As visitors walk the path through the gallery, they can peer through these Moongates – which are about as tall as a person and four times as wide – to get a glimpse of gardens from around the world. The idea is to place Brisbane as the centre of the world where visitors can see the whole planet in one location, or a giant, stylised “Mappa Mundi”.

Apart from being just plain neat to look at, Carsley’s work serves a greater purpose with the way he’s designed the aesthetic. His aim is to not only get us talking about the relationship between social constructs, geography and garden plants, but to also have us meditate on the links between land, sea and sky. 

And if you’re wondering how Carsley managed to turn the IMA into a series of gardens from around the world by using IKEA furniture to blur the boundaries between real and non-real, exterior and interior, well, you’ll just have to stop by the IMA from now until 26 July to see for yourself.