Author Description

This full-colour publication features the work of the twenty-four participating artists and collaborations in the 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Monster Theatres, as well as insightful texts on the practice of these leading Australian artists by curator Leigh Robb. Senior Curator Julie Robinson charts the history of monsters in art and award-winning author Claire G. Coleman explores their contemporary manifestations. Monster Theatres invites artists to make visible the monsters of our time. Leigh Robb says 'Monsters ask us to interrogate our relationships with each other, the environment and technology. They force us to question our empathy towards difference across race, gender, sexuality and spirituality'. Monster Theatres proposes an arena of speculation, a circus of the unorthodox and the absurd, a shadow play between truth and fiction. The title is inspired by a group of provocative Australian artists. Their urgent works of art are warnings made manifest. These theatres are theirs.