The Fraud Complex
West Space, Melbourne
5 May - 4 June 2016
Co-curated by Peter Johnson & Denise Thwaites
Abdul Abdullah (NSW), Abdul-Rahman Abdullah (WA), Hany Armanious (NSW), Tully Arnot (NSW), Bindi Cole (VIC), Megan Cope (Quandamooka/VIC), Beth Dillon (NSW), Sara Morawetz (NSW/USA), Técha Noble (NSW/GER), Yoshua Okón (MEX) and Tyza Stewart (QLD)
The Fraud Complex, curated by collaborative duo Johnson+Thwaites (Peter H. Johnson and Denise Thwaites), was an interdisciplinary project comprising a group exhibition, publication, digital archive and associated live events.
Including performance, experimental writing, painting, photography, video, sculpture and installation, The Fraud Complex invited audiences into a system of suspended categories. Objects of uncertain provenance co-mingled with artworks to incite feelings of doubt, raising questions such as: What constitutes a fraud? And are we all just ‘faking it’ in different ways?
The project explores contemporary art’s complicated relationship with fakes, facsimiles and impersonations, while highlighting the relevance of these concepts beyond the white cube, as notions of authenticity penetrate everyday debate around gender, ethnicity, culture and morality.
The Fraud Complex website acts not only a reference for the exhibition, publication and events, but as a dynamic digital archive for further interrogations, presentations and questions into the concepts of authenticity and fraudulence.
This project was presented as part of the Next Wave Festival, and was made possible by their Emerging Curators Program in association with West Space, Melbourne.