National Gallery of Victoria Presents WADE MARYNOWSKY: NOSTALGIA FOR OBSOLETE FUTURES, Now thru 10/19

A masquerade ball for robots will be part of an exhibition that brings together robotics, performance art, sound and video at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia.

Dr Wade Marynowsky, a self-described 'anti-disciplinary' artist, creates works straddle humour and high-camp to surprising effect.

This unnerving array of interactive exhibits has seen Marynowsky break gallery conventions when instruments were tumbled down four flights of stairs at NGV Australia as part of a new site-specific video work for the exhibition.

NGV Director, Tony Ellwood, said that Nostalgia for Obsolete Futures gives insight into Marynowsky's remarkable artistic practice.

'The exhibition will include a range of experimental and emerging art forms including The Hosts; four programmed robots which will roam around the foyer of NGV Australia and the Studio, interacting with visitors through sound and movement to create an uncanny and unique experience.'

'Marynowsky has created a number of new works for this exhibition, one of which is Stairway to Heaven, a performance based work which makes use of the grand staircase at NGV Australia. A range of musical instruments were released from the top of the staircase and a recording made as they fell down the seventy-six steps. It is the latest in a series of video and sound works where Marynowsky has combined his interest in experimental music and autonomous improvisation,' Mr Ellwood said.

Other interactive works include Black Casino 2013 in which five flying V guitars are mounted atop a rotating roulette wheel reminiscent of popular games such as The Wheel of Fortune and when spun, create Diablous in Musica (The Devil's chord) and Fish and Chips 2013, a robotic and video work which studies seagulls in flight searching for hot chips - transforming a great Australian pastime into poetry in motion.

The exhibition also presents some of Marynowsky's static works including Remote Tribe 1-4 2012 which critiques the position of technology in our daily lives through four large scale wood-carved television remote controls.

Based in Sydney, Wade Marynowsky has exhibited and performed nationally and internationally since 1998. Recent highlights include his representation at thingworld: International Triennial of New Media Art, National Art Museum of China, 2014 with the Acconci Robot. In 2013 he exhibited in Fish and Chips at Campbelltown Arts Centre for ISEA2013, Sydney, and Black Casino in MONA FOMA Tasmania. In 2009 Marynowsky exhibited The Hosts: A Masquerade Of Improvising Automatons, at Performance Space, Sydney and Autonomous Improvisation v.1 in the annual Primavera exhibition at Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. The following year his work was highly commended in The Premier of Queensland's National New Media Art Award, Gallery of Modern Art and exhibited in the International Biennale of Contemporary Art, Poznan, Poland.

Nostalgia for Obsolete Futures will be accompanied by a series of public programs including In Conversation with Wade Marynowsky led by David Hurlston, Curator of Australian Art and NGV Studio coordinator, on Saturday 23 August. Seengv.vic.gov.au for further details.

Wade Marynowsky: Nostalgia for Obsolete Futures will be on display at NGV Studio, Flinders Street, Federation Square from today, 22 August - 19 October 2014. The Hosts will be on display in the NGV Australia foyer from 6 September. Open daily 10am-5pm, admission is free.