Caroline Austin

Caroline Austin (Rockhampton, Australia)

List for Apocalypse, 2023

[Infinity of Lists Series]

Dibond

18 x 24 inches

18 x 9 x 12 inches

The list acts as the origin of culture.  It is part of the history of art and literature.  What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order — not always, but often. And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists.

Umberto Eco, 2009, SPIEGEL

My practice considers the formation of collective identities. In this most recent series of works, I have collected lists made by a broad range of individuals, restructuring them visually to control the elasticity of language and form. Within this particular piece in the series, we encounter a meticulously curated list compiling items essential for navigating an Apocalypse. By revising and connecting the lists into different visual frameworks, I am hoping to build connections, allowing the viewer to contemplate infinity and the vastness of the universe, putting our own small, short existence into relative terms.