Octopus 24: Ricochet
Curated by Patrice Sharkey

Initiated in 2001, the Octopus series of exhibitions supports ambitious curatorial practice, through engaging an invited curator annually to develop a project that draws upon their research interests and provides a platform for new forms of exhibition making. In 2024, Gertrude is delighted to work with Patrice Sharkey on the exhibition Octopus 24: Ricochet.

Octopus 24: Ricochet uses a nonlinear framework to bring together artists who reckon intergenerationally with the power of representation and provocation to influence our social and political lives. Select works by long-established and recognised artists are positioned in dialogue with a new generation of practitioners whose own works express an affinity across ideas of autobiography, performativity, sexuality, community, activism and life as art. Engaging with historical and contemporary questions of cultural and personal identity, and the attendant political frameworks, Octopus 24: Ricochet highlights the conceptual resonances of each practice.

The exhibition will feature new commissions by Chelsea Farquhar (Kaurna South Australia), Dominic Guerrera (Ngarrindjeri, Kaurna and Italian, Kaurna South Australia) and Truc Truong (Kaurna South Australia) positioned alongside contemporary-historical works by visual artist Destiny Deacon (KuKu and Erub/Mer, born 1957), electronic music pioneer and performance artist Cosey Fanni Tutti (UK, born 1951), and social history photographer and gay rights activist William Yang (Sydney, born 1943).