Turbulent Terrain: The Sublime in Contemporary Art

Whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling. Edmund Bourke, 1757

Turbulent Terrain presented works by Australian and international artists who engage with contemporary concepts of the sublime. Traditionally associated with 19th century artists such as Caspar David Friedrich, the aesthetic concept of the sublime originally referred to the sense of awe and fear inspired by the vastness and immense power of nature and the elements. Contemporary artists Stephen Hurrel, Nicholas Folland, Charles Green and Lyndell Brown, Lara Merrett, Olga Cironis and Peter Daverington continue to attempt to evoke a form of human experience that is beyond the everyday, expressing wonder, awe and exhilaration through works which engage science, technology, military activity, environmental concerns and genetic engineering.