At PICA we recognise that we are situated within the unceded lands of the Whadjuk people of the Noongar Nation. We pay our respects and offer our gratitude to Elders past and present, and to those emerging leaders in the community. We acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the importance of their care and continued connection to culture, community and Country.

Always was, always will be.

Galleries are open today, 10am–5pm. Our exhibitions are always free.

Rosa Barba
Emanations

Rosa Barba – Emanations

Emanations by Italian artist Rosa Barba is their first solo presentation in Australia and features a selection of works from the last 10 years, including 16mm and 35mm film, sculpture and installation. Developed in response to the 2023 Perth Festival theme of djinda – Noongar for cosmos or stars – the exhibition revolves around Barba’s long-standing exploration of the connections between film and astronomy, and their shared engagement with concepts of light, time and distance.  

The film Drawn by the Pulse (2018) is dedicated to American astronomer Henrietta S. Leavitt (1868–1921) whose study of the ‘flicker’ of stars revolutionised our understanding of the size of the cosmos. In The Color Out of Space (2015) images of stars and planets are projected through a series of coloured glass panels while the voices of scientists, writers and artists ruminate on the universe and its enigmas. Alongside film, Emanations includes several sculptural and text-based works where fragments of language are projected, printed and cut into materials such as film, felt and paper to draw our attention to the relations between language and its representation as text and image.  

Supported by Ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), Consultate of Italy Perth, and CCA Productions. 

Rosa Barba

Born Agrigento, Italy, Rosa Barba lives and works in Berlin, Germany and has been exhibited at prestigious institutions and biennials worldwide. Rosa merges film, sculpture, installation, live-performance, text pieces and publications that are grounded in the material and conceptual qualities of cinema. Experimenting with time-based forms, she expands their potential to become not only sculptural objects, installations or architectural sites but also speculations, in an ever-changing process of transformation.

She has had solo exhibitions at Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2021); Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art, Turku (2020); CCA Kitakyushu, Kitakyushu (2019); Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen (2018); Remai Modern, Saskatoon (2018); Tabakalera, International Centre for Contemporary Culture, San Sebastián (2018); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Palacio de Cristal, Madrid (2017); Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan (2017); Vienna Secession, Vienna (2017); Malmö Konsthall, Malmö (2017); CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux (2016-2017); Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (2016); Albertinum, Dresden (2015) and at the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA (2015).


Supporters

Presented in association with Perth Festival


And supported by CCA Productions

 

Institutional Partner

Courtesy the artist and Esther Schipper, Berlin | Paris | Seoul and Vistamare, Milan | Pescara

Image: Rosa Barba, Drawn by the Pulse, 2018, installation view, Tabakalera, San Sebastián Photo: Mikel Eskauriaza Courtesy the artist and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022