In Big Feelings (going nowhere), Dawson slows things down. Hapless symbols of movement – a Mid-Western tumbleweed, a 1979 Motobécane moped, and a series of decommissioned road signs – are employed in sculptural meditations on progress and the passage of time.
Exhibition Dates: 11 July – 11 August 2013
In Big Feelings (going nowhere), Dawson slows things down. Hapless symbols of movement – a Mid-Western tumbleweed, a 1979 Motobécane moped, and a series of decommissioned road signs – are employed in sculptural meditations on progress and the passage of time.
In Slow Burn (full circle), Dawson castrates a moped, bypassing its petrol engine and employing a geared-down electric motor to force it into an endless, quiet and impeccably circular burnout. In Untitled (tumbleweed again), a Mid-Western tumbleweed is caught in a balletic approximation of its natural wanderings. The series of road signs, which during the term of their official life were broken, bent or shot at, are presented super polished and stripped of their official markings.
Dawson’s technical dexterity partners spectacle with subtlety, stillness with motion, and utilitarianism with purposeless in a series of works that coalesce the contradictory yet aspirational nature of contemporary America.
Dawson has exhibited extensively in Australia and has presented work internationally in group exhibitions in Paris, Hong Kong and Washington D.C. He is currently undertaking studio-based research in Washington D.C. supported by an Australia Council for the Arts Skills and Arts Development grant.
Marley Dawson (b. 1982, Australia) works across sculpture, installation and performance and employs simple physics, chemistry and sophisticated D.I.Y. fabrication techniques in his constructed situations and machine sites.
Group Show, The First 40 Years
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2024
Marley Dawson Bungambrawatha
Albury City, New South Wales, 2023
Marley Dawson hum
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2021
Marley Dawson ghosts
The Phillip's Collection, 2021
Marley Dawson Public Furniture
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2018
Group Show, State of Play
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2017
Group Show, Future Eaters
Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, 2017
Group Show, Gravity (and Wonder)
Penrith Regional Gallery, 2016
Marley Dawson Construction (Barangaroo 2016)
Barangaroo Sculpture Walk, Sydney, 2016
Marley Dawson Palethorp
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2016
Group Show, Solid State
Casula Powerhouse, 2015
Group Show, Cars = my automolove
Caboolture Regional Art Gallery, 2014-15
Marley Dawson Statics and Dynamics
Hemphill, Washington DC, 2014
Group Show, Dawson, Griggs, Moore
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2013
Marley Dawson
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2013
Marley Dawson Big Feelings Going Nowhere, 2013
Hillyer Art Space, 2013
Group Show, SEXES
Performance Space, Sydney, 2012
Marley Dawson HEAVY INDUSTRY / LIGHT COMMERCIAL
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2011
Group Show, Purlieu
Awesome Arts Festival, Perth, 2010
Group Show
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2009-10
Marley Dawson Box of Birds
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2009
Marley Dawson Trick Shop
Locksmith Project Space, Sydney, 2009
Marley Dawson Shed
Chalk Horse, Sydney, 2008
Group Show, OBLIVION PAVILION
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2008
Group Show, ECR
Parramatta City Raceway, Sydney, 2008
Group Show, Oblivion Pavilion
Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne, 2008
Group Show, She's not Structural
Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney, 2007