PREFACE: I write to you from Sydney, Australia, my location for the next 6 months where I am trying my hand at a new adventure before pursuing my MA in Art History in the Fall. I am discovering a whole new art scene and deciphering a completely new national discourse. Below is my first Aussie review, a reflection on a show by Lynette Wallworth presented within the Sydney Festival. While both the exhibit and the festival are now over, Wallworth’s works were too good not to share. And the venue, CarriageWorks, will surely showcase some more intriguing and powerful work in the future.

Lynette Wallworth, Invisible by Night, 2004. Photo by Colin Davison. Courtesy of Sydney Festival, National Glass Centre and the artist.

At a time when technological innovations spring up more and more quickly and no one leaves home without their cell phone, some sort of android future seems imminent. There is hope, however, as there are a few select innovators, like Australian artist Lynette Wallworth, who mine technology for its humanizing qualities, using gadgets to enhance real sensual experiences. As part of Sydney Festival, Australia’s largest multi-disciplinary arts festival showcasing everything from music to dance to visual arts to theatre, three interactive video works by Lynette Wallworth were shown at CarriageWorks (a venue which is a work of art in itself, integrating modern spaces within an old railway factory). Within a pitch-black space, Wallworth has created immersive, interactive and intimate audio/visual environments that create profound experiential moments.

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