Saturday 6 February 2021
Parliament Steps Walking Drawing 2021 by Kerrie Poliness is a large-scale participatory, geometric drawing, which was chalked onto the steps of Parliament on Saturday 6 February 2021, in the lead-up to ACCA’s exhibition and research project Who’s Afraid of Public Space?
Parliament Steps Walking Drawing continued Kerrie Poliness’ ongoing series Generation Mesh, for which large architectural drawings are created in public by groups of people using coloured chalk. The series is characterised by geometric compositions which reference social, design and computational networks and collaborative and adaptive inter-relationships between people and the world. Poliness invites diverse members of the public to work together to create a collective drawing according to a compositional template and instructions, the results revealing the interconnective processes and patterns of nature and people.
For Parliament Steps Walking Drawing, Poliness devised a geometric pattern that contracted and expanded as it descended down the terraces and steps of Parliament – a location selected for its classical architecture and status as a civic institution. The work was eventually erased by rain or foot traffic.
Kerrie Poliness is known for painting and drawing works that revisit the ideas and practices of conceptual art. She uses everyday materials to produce large scale asymmetrical geometric artworks which respond to the place in which they are made. Poliness regularly works with galleries, museums, councils, schools, architects and others to deliver workshops where large groups of people can participate collectively in making public artworks. She is represented by Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne.
Kerrie Poliness: Parliament Steps Walking Drawing 2021 is part of a series of public projects and events developed in the lead-up to the forthcoming exhibition and research project Who’s Afraid of Public Space?, which will open at ACCA in the summer of 2021–22. Continuing ACCA’s series of Big Picture exhibitions, Who’s Afraid of Public Space? explores the role of public culture, the contested nature of public space, and the character and composition of public life itself, engaging with contemporary art and cultural practices to consider critical ideas as to what constitutes public culture and to ask, who might it be for?
Parliament Steps Walking Drawing is presented by ACCA in association with UPTOWN an art exhibition for our city, curated by Robert Buckingham and Fiona Scanlan, which transforms the top of Melbourne’s Bourke Street into an outdoor art gallery over the summer months. Parliament Steps Walking Drawing is supported by Creative Victoria, the City of Melbourne and Parliament of Victoria.
Kerrie Poliness Parliament Steps Walking Drawing 2021. Commissioned by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne. Photograph: Andrew Curtis 
Kerrie Poliness Parliament Steps Walking Drawing 2021. Commissioned by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne. Photograph: Andrew Curtis 
Kerrie Poliness Parliament Steps Walking Drawing 2021. Commissioned by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne. Photograph: Andrew Curtis 
Kerrie Poliness Parliament Steps Walking Drawing 2021. Commissioned by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne. Photograph: Andrew Curtis 
Kerrie Poliness Parliament Steps Walking Drawing 2021. Commissioned by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne. Photograph: Andrew Curtis 
Kerrie Poliness Parliament Steps Walking Drawing 2021. Commissioned by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne. Photograph: Andrew Curtis 
Kerrie Poliness Parliament Steps Walking Drawing 2021. Commissioned by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne. Photograph: Andrew Curtis 
Kerrie Poliness Parliament Steps Walking Drawing 2021. Commissioned by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne. Photograph: Andrew Curtis 
Kerrie Poliness Parliament Steps Walking Drawing 2021. Commissioned by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne. Photograph: Andrew Curtis
