The Temple Complex is the inaugural outcome of a new partnership between Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) and Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre.  The genesis of this project developed from a desire to combine a number of outreach investigations over the past 12 months at Casula Powerhouse; namely the realisation of temporary exterior site-specific artworks, continuing professional mentorship for emerging artists and establishing working partnerships with tertiary arts institutions.

The Temple Complex has seen these strands combine in series of inventive works produced by six students from SCA undergraduate and honours program. All of these students are at different stages within their chosen course of study as well as representing a cross-disciplinary approach to challenges of site specific work combining sculpture, photo media and sound.

For each of these artists, The Temple Complex represents their first experience of exhibiting within a major arts institution, but also responding specifically to the demands of the project brief; to propose a temporary exterior work that responded to a specific site in relation to Casula Powerhouse’s exhibition program at the time. Casula Powerhouse’s establishing itself as the permanent home of The Blake Prize added a sense of foundation for the project. The Temple Complex sees these artists translating the core themes of religion and spirituality to Casula Powerhouse’s immediate exterior spaces including an existing sculpture garden. These act not unlike an aesthetic nursery, a negotiation between the universal white cube of the gallery and arguably the more hostile terrain of the public domain.

These temporal additions will also transition from physical and aural encounters to conditions of memory. Once removed their habitation of site will continue to be projected from the imaginations of those that have encountered them. The Temple Complex is therefore a most valued addition to the extremes that bound the discourse within such spaces and confidently announces the continuing agenda of the partnership between the SCA and Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the students and staff of the SCA in their commitment to developing and realising this project and to the Casula Powerhouse staff members Arian Bozorg and formally Danella Bennett who have been instrumental in mentoring the participants and managing the project to a successful outcome.

Roy Marchant
Producer Public Programs and Education