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To pass by the flanking Roman statuary and through the black star-studded curtains into Wunderkammer/Kunstkamera is to pass, as did Alice, through the Looking-Glass to a place "full of all manner of curious things".1 The white cube of the modernist gallery is transformed here (literally) as spectacle: museum cases crammed full of incongruous artefacts; 'souls' of a multitude of stuffed toys in ascension above; ornately crafted antiques supporting great urns; tabloid newspaper billings; the painted oeuvres of Philip, Rex and Fitz; a statue of a Greek warrior (19th century copy) clasping a kewpie doll; works of art incorporated for their regal (Queen Victoria), pontifical (Joel Elenberg's Totem) or sensual connotations (lames Gleeson's Clouds of Witness); a replica of the Tomb of Oo(h) Wa(h), and much, much more. In the deep soothing tones of Her Holiness we are advised, "For what you are about to receive, may Pope Alice make you truly thankful", while apparitions of Her various namesakes and associates appear fleetingly above us (Pope Alice greeting the Mardi Gras crowds, Pope Alice with Gilbert & George...). How can we but succumb to the magical lure of this grand theatrical display?
"THE VOYAGE WITHIN THE WONDERFUL CONTINUES", states a plaque by the entrance of the installation at the Queensland Art Gallery, a reminder that this is an ongoing project for artist Luke Roberts. His first Wunderkammer, or 'cabinet of curiosities', was sited at the State Library of Queensland in 1990, to be followed by The Voyage Within The Wonderful Continues in Australian Perspecta, 1991, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Initially modest in scale, the replicant museum has increased in abundance with... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline