Marine Dreams is an exhibition that looks at the pull of the deep on the human imagination. Cairns Art Gallery is situated metres from the Trinity Inlet, an oceanic inlet that connects directly to the Coral Sea, and from there out to the vast oceans of the earth. The Gallery’s Collection is rich with significant art works inspired by ocean realms that can be flashpoints of contemporary debate, and are producers of multiple meanings for Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists. Water is the element more than any other that ties human beings into the world around them, from the oceans that surround us to the water that makes up most of our bodies. The art works in Marine Dreams explore this idea of the hydrosphere and share expressions of the visible and invisible capacity of the sea to culturally, poetically and politically shape the world.
The exhibition highlights artists from Far North Queensland, Cape York, Zenadth Kes, Torres Strait Islands, and around Australia. The works on view range from an uncanny human-sea creature sculpture; to an expansive print symbolizing the sacred space between land, sea and sky; to carefully observed drawings of marine life; to an examination of classical Western archetypes of beauty and domination through the depiction of Poseidon, Greek god of the sea; to the vitality and beauty of beizam (hammer-head shark) totemic dance machines.
Marine Dreams looks at what is above and below the surface to consider: what do we know about these vast bodies of water, what do we imagine, and what do we long for?The exhibition also reckons withhow the ocean can remain a central motif in art for critical discourse around migration, colonial expansion, environmental issues, and be a powerful metaphor for collective memory. Beauty, science, belief, and kin are explored through the lens of Marine Dreams, where dreams may be the expression of the unknown, of fascination, of knowledge, the unconscious and adventure.
Marine Dreams: Collection in Focus, installation at Cairns Art Gallery, October 2026
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