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new media art

In addition to historical objects and art, Eyes, Lies & Illusions features spectacular works by contemporary artists inspired by the power of illusion.

international artists

International artists featured in the exhibition include Christian Boltanski (France), Carsten Holler (Belgium), Anthony McCall (UK), Alfons Schilling (Switzerland) and Ludwig Wilding (Germany).

australian artists

chris barker While the Renaissance mastered the scientific art of linear perspective, the Baroque age of the seventeenth-century was synonymous with many forms of visual trickery. Chris Barker re-visits the Baroque's delight in visual intrigue as well as its love of grand-scale architectural illusions.

ENESS ENESS are a multidisciplinary design team specialising in interactive design, software development and interactive multimedia installations. Their work Crowd is a suspended, disembodied community of eyeballs that gazes out inquisitively at the viewer, watching and tracking every movement.

ian haig Twisting and turning like the reflections of a fun house mirror, Ian Haig's Trick or Treat shares a common theme with folk festivities of the carnival creating a fictitious world that presents the 'real' world of official order and ideology in a grotesquely exaggerated way.

david lawrey & jaki middleton David & Jaki's installation, The Sound Before You Make It, was inspired by the nineteenth-century technology of the zoetrope and its ability to create the convincing illusion of three-dimensional animation, long before the advent of film and television.

keith tucker At the heart of most visual illusions and cinematic special effects, lies the seemingly impossible combination of two or more objects from different space/time realities in one physical space. Keith Tucker's 3D Object Illusion evokes the tradition of the theatrical illusion known as Pepper's Ghost.

craig walsh & michael yuen The development of the science and art of optics and the moving image has always produced a two-fold pleasure; the satisfaction of knowing how things work, and the thrill of not knowing. Walsh & Yuen's Swarm, in the tradition of the phantasmagoria, hides the technology by which its effects are created.

renato colangelo & darren davison Colangelo and Davison's Standpoint is a large, walk-in camera obscura constructed on Federation Square. Visitors can see the hustle and bustle of Swanston Street in a spectacular nine metre wide inverted projection, and share the experience of seeing the world 'captured' that fascinated people five hundred years ago.