Australia’s first Solar Art Exhibition, Desert Equinox, kicks off on Saturday in Broken Hill. The exhibition will showcase solar powered and related artworks installed in and around the desert city.
The inaugural exhibition aims to utilise and expose solar technology to further increase public interest in energy consumption and to expand the “technical palette” for artistic production.
“Solar power in this context will offer the artists autonomy for their installations, freeing them from the national grid,” according to a statement on the Broken Hill Art Exchange web site.
While some artworks will make direct use of solar technologies available, the concept of ‘solar’ may also be interpreted in a wider context.
“Practicality and poetry will converge to highlight one another.”
Director of the project, Allan Giddy, said the idea for the show came from a similar event held at the Sydney Olympic Showgrounds.
The exhibition will run until September 22, the day of the Spring Equinox – a time when night and day have approximately equal length.
Among the supporters of the exhibition are the Environmental Research Initiative for Art (ERIA), College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, the Australian Research Council, Sydney Olympic Park Authority, Community Inc., Broken Hill, the Broken Hill Art Exchange and Desert Knowledge Australia Outback Business Networks.
Broken Hill is a mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales. It is located near the border with South Australia and the closest major city is Adelaide, some 500km away. With a population of approximately 22,000, it is Australia’s longest-lived mining city.
