The Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre will present the touring exhibition, Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Spiders of Paradise, at its opening celebration on Friday 9 May.
Maria Fernanda Cardoso speaking at Cairns Art Gallery, 2024 Photo: Jacinta Pink.
The exhibition has been developed by the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA Australia) and has toured nationally since August last year. It is centered around 17 large-scale digital photographic portraits of various species of the Maratus, displaying their unique and brightly coloured abdomens that form part of their elaborate mating rituals. Cardoso worked with renowned scientific imager Geoff Thompson and entomologist Andy Wang from the Queensland Museum, who specialise in deep focus microphotography and microscopic specimen preparation to create these large-scale photographs. Each photographic image is comprised of over 1,000 individual photos which together reveal the spiders’ nuanced colour and form in stunning detail.
Accompanying the suite of framed photographic works is a large-scale immersive projection of Cardoso’s acclaimed video On the Origins of Art I-II (2016), a work co-owned by MCA Australia and Tate through its International Joint Acquisition Program. This work presents the complex courtship ritual of the Maratus, a sophisticated communication through dance and vibration, which culminates in the display of their colourful patterns.
The exhibition will officially open on the evening of Friday 9 May as part of a multi-opening event celebrating the Gallery’s launch of its Winter program. Bookings are recommended via the Gallery website.
