The Institute of Modern Art presents Kraft, the first survey exhibition of Melbourne-based artist Stuart Ringholt. As part of his diverse practice, Ringholt leads audiences on naturist gallery tours, anger workshops, and participatory performances that invoke embarrassment, fear, laughter, and love. Ringholt also makes videos, absurdist sculptures, painted mirrors, and collages.

Occupying all four of the IMA’s galleries, this exhibition includes two ambitious new commissions, Untitled (Clock)  (2014) and Club Purple (2014), shown in context with a selected survey of recent videos, drawings, collages, and sculptures. Ringholt’s practice challenges audiences to engage with personal themes, such as the fear of embarrassment and the pressure to conform to social norms, using remarkable humour and sensitivity.

Generously supported by the Catalyst: Katherine Hannay Visual Arts Commission, Ringholt’s Untitled (Clock)—a monumentally scaled and temporally askew clock—has a singular, powerful presence in the gallery, provoking a disorientating and uncanny sense of time and an associated reconsideration of how time may be measured and spent.

In this world of altered time, the IMA features Ringholt’s Club Purple—a nude daytime disco. Including mixed and solo dance days, ‘ladies days’, and an endless playlist to choose from, Club Purple offers a unique experience for audiences who choose to participate and tests the limits of those who choose not to join in. Club Purple features solo days, mixed days, ladies only days, and is available for private events.

Acquisition

In late 2014, Ringholt’s Untitled (Clock) was acquired by The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) in Sydney. The work was featured in Taking It All Away, an exhibition of works drawn from the The MCA’s collection, on display from 18 December 2014 to 22 February 2015. MCA’s Director, Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE, subsequently listed Untitled (Clock) as one of her favorite Australian artworks of all time in the Sydney Morning Herald.