The 56th edition of the Venice Biennale marks a watershed for Australia as it unveils a new pavilion designed by the studio Denton Corker Marshall, which replaces the temporary structure designed in 1988 by Philip Cox. This is an unusual event in the Giardini, where only 29 countries have permanent pavilions and the last addition occurred 20 years ago with the admission of Korea. To inaugurate this special occasion, Australia chose Fiona Hall as its representative this year. She has created an impressive, multisensory exhibition composed of hundreds of works made from the most disparate objects. The seemingly illogical combination of everyday and consumer objects with meticulous craftsmanship has a deep meaning within Hall’s sculptural practice, which over the last three decades has addressed subjects such as botany, gardening, colonialism, consumerism, and global trade. More recently, she has turned toward problems of environmental destruction. …see the entire article in the print version of September’s Sculpture magazine.
