Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

January 2025

February 2025

March 2025

April 2025

May 2025

Exhibitions

Wednesday 1 January
2025

René Magritte

Magritte

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Saturday 26 October – Sunday 9 February

Group Show

Infinite

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Saturday 14 September – Sunday 12 January

Group Show

Big Rain Falling

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Saturday 5 October – Sunday 9 February

Leyla Stevens

PAHIT MANIS, Night Forest

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Saturday 2 November – Sunday 16 February

Angelica Mesiti

The Rites of When

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Saturday 21 September – Sunday 11 May

Nusra Latif Qureshi

Birds in Far Pavilions

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Saturday 9 November – Sunday 15 June

Group Show

Making Worlds

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Sunday 1 December – Sunday 15 June

Lee Ufan

Quiet Resonance

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Saturday 31 August – Monday 1 September

Group Show

Grand Courts

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Sunday 1 December – Monday 1 December

Group Show

20th-century galleries

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Sunday 1 December – Monday 1 December

Asian Lantern

Elemental

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Sunday 1 December – Monday 1 December

Group Show

Yiribana Gallery

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Sunday 1 December – Monday 1 December

Group Show

Coomaditchie: The Art of Place

Museum of Sydney
Saturday 30 March – Sunday 2 February

Group Show

A Generous Gift: The John and Phyllis Murphy Collection

Caroline Simpson Library
Tuesday 29 October – Friday 28 February

Group Show

Beauty Rich and Rare

Museum of Sydney
Saturday 7 December – Sunday 30 March

Mehwish Iqbal

Submergence

Fairfield City Museum & Gallery
Saturday 2 November – Saturday 1 March

Group Show

Tender

Fairfield City Museum & Gallery
Saturday 16 November – Saturday 25 January

Catherine Nelson

Riverbound

Michael Reid Gallery
Thursday 5 December – Thursday 9 January

Kate Newby

Hours in wind, 2024

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Thursday 29 August – Thursday 4 September

Julie Mehretu

A Transcore of the Radical Imaginatory

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Friday 29 November – Sunday 27 April

Julie Rrap

Past Continuous

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Friday 28 June – Sunday 23 February

Isaac Julien

Once Again... (Statues Never Die)

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Friday 27 September – Sunday 16 February

Group Show

Primavera 2024: Young Australian Artists

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Friday 30 August – Monday 27 January

Hayv Kahraman

Bodies of Water

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Sunday 1 December – Sunday 16 March

Group Show

MCA Collection: Artists in Focus

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Saturday 23 November – Monday 27 January

Group Show

Works on Paper

Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
Friday 6 December – Saturday 25 January

Kaylene Whiskey

Indulkana Soup

Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
Friday 6 December – Saturday 25 January

Group Show

IMMORTAL

Saint Cloche
Wednesday 11 December – Saturday 25 January

James Erskine

Archer, Mali and Me

Liverpool Street Gallery
Thursday 12 December – Tuesday 21 January

Group Show

Borrowed Landscapes

Mosman Art Gallery
Saturday 19 October – Sunday 2 February

Group Show

This Is How We Love

Mosman Art Gallery
Saturday 19 October – Sunday 2 February

Jennifer Blau

In Profile

Mosman Art Gallery
Saturday 9 November – Sunday 2 February

Group Show

Summer Group Exhibition

Olsen Gallery
Monday 9 December – Saturday 1 February

Tamara Henderson

Slug in the Mug

Artspace
Friday 25 October – Sunday 5 January

Shireen Taweel

Cosmographic

Artspace
Friday 25 October – Sunday 5 January

Yang Xifa

The Divine World

Vermilion Art
Thursday 28 November – Saturday 18 January

Danish Quapoor

redux

Firstdraft
Friday 6 December – Saturday 18 January

Nicole Clift and Nicholas Hanisch

maelstrom

Firstdraft
Friday 6 December – Saturday 18 January

Tia Madden

Some Sort of Notation

Firstdraft
Friday 6 December – Saturday 18 January

Tia Madden

Some Sort of Notation

Firstdraft
Friday 6 December – Saturday 18 January

Some Sort of Notation takes its name from the journals of Alexander Marshack: an archaeologist who, in 1964, published a study on seemingly random, human-made notches on palaeolithic bones. Adamant that the markings were far from meaningless, he proposed they were complex lunar observations— a proto-writing system. “It is clearly neither art nor decoration,” he’d said, “but some sort of notation.”

This project considers how modern language structures – such as grids, sequences, patterns and repetitions – create illusions of legibility, prompting misrecognitions of language where it mightn’t exist. By affecting how we differentiate between image and text, these structures confuse the transition between looking and reading, opening a space where poetic and erroneous correspondences can occur.

In this exhibition, several hundred oxidised metal ‘fragments’, which have been hand and lasercut by the artist, are arranged in text-like configurations. These fragments assume the role of anomalous artefacts— relics of unknowable origins that are not bound to our current knowledge systems. A series of ballpoint pen drawings, referencing ancient inscriptions, indecipherable codes, and elaborate hoaxes, act as an estranged lexicon that might inform - or destabilise - possible readings of the fragments.

Weaving connections between the ancient artefactual and the science-fictional, the project continues investigations into the gaps and overlaps between drawing and writing. Some Sort of Notation is an invitation not to decipher, but to misread and to uncode: to pull apart, dismantle and unravel the language structures we rely on to resolve feelings of suspicion and duplicity. To draw conclusions, and doubt conclusions; to get lost and disoriented; and to linger in a space where meaning can be glimpsed or sensed, but never fully grasped.

Location

Firstdraft
13/17 Riley St, Woolloomooloo NSW 2011

Date

Friday 6 December – Saturday 18 January

Save to Calendar

Google

Website

https://firstdraft.org.au/program/2024/12/6/some-sort-of-notation

All exhibition content on this website has been sourced from the exhibiting gallery’s website or provided by other art enthusiasts. We do not own or seek to own any of this material. If you are concerned about any misuse of your content, please let us know here.

Suggest a change

Suggest an edit or change to this exhibition

Exhibitions

Wednesday 1 January
2025

René Magritte

Magritte

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Saturday 26 October – Sunday 9 February

Group Show

Infinite

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Saturday 14 September – Sunday 12 January

Group Show

Big Rain Falling

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Saturday 5 October – Sunday 9 February

Leyla Stevens

PAHIT MANIS, Night Forest

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Saturday 2 November – Sunday 16 February

Angelica Mesiti

The Rites of When

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Saturday 21 September – Sunday 11 May

Nusra Latif Qureshi

Birds in Far Pavilions

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Saturday 9 November – Sunday 15 June

Group Show

Making Worlds

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Sunday 1 December – Sunday 15 June

Lee Ufan

Quiet Resonance

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Saturday 31 August – Monday 1 September

Group Show

Grand Courts

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Sunday 1 December – Monday 1 December

Group Show

20th-century galleries

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Sunday 1 December – Monday 1 December

Asian Lantern

Elemental

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Sunday 1 December – Monday 1 December

Group Show

Yiribana Gallery

Art Gallery of New South Wales
Sunday 1 December – Monday 1 December

Group Show

Coomaditchie: The Art of Place

Museum of Sydney
Saturday 30 March – Sunday 2 February

Group Show

A Generous Gift: The John and Phyllis Murphy Collection

Caroline Simpson Library
Tuesday 29 October – Friday 28 February

Group Show

Beauty Rich and Rare

Museum of Sydney
Saturday 7 December – Sunday 30 March

Mehwish Iqbal

Submergence

Fairfield City Museum & Gallery
Saturday 2 November – Saturday 1 March

Group Show

Tender

Fairfield City Museum & Gallery
Saturday 16 November – Saturday 25 January

Catherine Nelson

Riverbound

Michael Reid Gallery
Thursday 5 December – Thursday 9 January

Kate Newby

Hours in wind, 2024

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Thursday 29 August – Thursday 4 September

Julie Mehretu

A Transcore of the Radical Imaginatory

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Friday 29 November – Sunday 27 April

Julie Rrap

Past Continuous

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Friday 28 June – Sunday 23 February

Isaac Julien

Once Again... (Statues Never Die)

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Friday 27 September – Sunday 16 February

Group Show

Primavera 2024: Young Australian Artists

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Friday 30 August – Monday 27 January

Hayv Kahraman

Bodies of Water

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Sunday 1 December – Sunday 16 March

Group Show

MCA Collection: Artists in Focus

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Saturday 23 November – Monday 27 January

Group Show

Works on Paper

Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
Friday 6 December – Saturday 25 January

Kaylene Whiskey

Indulkana Soup

Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
Friday 6 December – Saturday 25 January

Group Show

IMMORTAL

Saint Cloche
Wednesday 11 December – Saturday 25 January

James Erskine

Archer, Mali and Me

Liverpool Street Gallery
Thursday 12 December – Tuesday 21 January

Group Show

Borrowed Landscapes

Mosman Art Gallery
Saturday 19 October – Sunday 2 February

Group Show

This Is How We Love

Mosman Art Gallery
Saturday 19 October – Sunday 2 February

Jennifer Blau

In Profile

Mosman Art Gallery
Saturday 9 November – Sunday 2 February

Group Show

Summer Group Exhibition

Olsen Gallery
Monday 9 December – Saturday 1 February

Tamara Henderson

Slug in the Mug

Artspace
Friday 25 October – Sunday 5 January

Shireen Taweel

Cosmographic

Artspace
Friday 25 October – Sunday 5 January

Yang Xifa

The Divine World

Vermilion Art
Thursday 28 November – Saturday 18 January

Danish Quapoor

redux

Firstdraft
Friday 6 December – Saturday 18 January

Nicole Clift and Nicholas Hanisch

maelstrom

Firstdraft
Friday 6 December – Saturday 18 January

Tia Madden

Some Sort of Notation

Firstdraft
Friday 6 December – Saturday 18 January

Tia Madden

Some Sort of Notation

Firstdraft
Friday 6 December – Saturday 18 January

Some Sort of Notation takes its name from the journals of Alexander Marshack: an archaeologist who, in 1964, published a study on seemingly random, human-made notches on palaeolithic bones. Adamant that the markings were far from meaningless, he proposed they were complex lunar observations— a proto-writing system. “It is clearly neither art nor decoration,” he’d said, “but some sort of notation.”

This project considers how modern language structures – such as grids, sequences, patterns and repetitions – create illusions of legibility, prompting misrecognitions of language where it mightn’t exist. By affecting how we differentiate between image and text, these structures confuse the transition between looking and reading, opening a space where poetic and erroneous correspondences can occur.

In this exhibition, several hundred oxidised metal ‘fragments’, which have been hand and lasercut by the artist, are arranged in text-like configurations. These fragments assume the role of anomalous artefacts— relics of unknowable origins that are not bound to our current knowledge systems. A series of ballpoint pen drawings, referencing ancient inscriptions, indecipherable codes, and elaborate hoaxes, act as an estranged lexicon that might inform - or destabilise - possible readings of the fragments.

Weaving connections between the ancient artefactual and the science-fictional, the project continues investigations into the gaps and overlaps between drawing and writing. Some Sort of Notation is an invitation not to decipher, but to misread and to uncode: to pull apart, dismantle and unravel the language structures we rely on to resolve feelings of suspicion and duplicity. To draw conclusions, and doubt conclusions; to get lost and disoriented; and to linger in a space where meaning can be glimpsed or sensed, but never fully grasped.

Location

Firstdraft
13/17 Riley St, Woolloomooloo NSW 2011

Date

Friday 6 December – Saturday 18 January

Save to Calendar

Google

Website

https://firstdraft.org.au/program/2024/12/6/some-sort-of-notation

All exhibition content on this website has been sourced from the exhibiting gallery’s website or provided by other art enthusiasts. We do not own or seek to own any of this material. If you are concerned about any misuse of your content, please let us know here.

Suggest a change

Suggest an edit or change to this exhibition

Menu

Instagram↗Facebook↗

ArtCal by studiomass.com.au