Meanjin/Brisbane residents who braved the torrential rains to visit A Narrow Strip Along a Steep Edge on Mother’s Day weekend may have witnessed a change in climate of a different nature. This ambitious artistic activation of Fort Lytton (built in 1881 to defend Brisbane from a naval invasion which never occured) is the undertaking of University of Queensland art history student Holly Eddington, who, armed with a Brisbane City Council Creative Sparks grant of just over $8000, engaged eight emerging artists to address the colonial remnant and the ‘boundaries’ it embodies.
A decade and a half ago, Artworkers Alliance, under the helm of industry luminary Dr Kevin Wilson, staged New Interpretations of Past Lives. This predecessor featured Pat Hoffie, Megan Cope and Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan. The involvement of the latter’s son, Miguel Aquilizan, in this new and independent initiative may be incidental, but for viewers of both events, his inclusion may alternatively signal a spectacular shift in generations.
Aquilizan’s In Shallow Seas Unveiled (2025) is among four intriguing artworks in the ‘Engine Room’, which once powered the precinct using steam. The sculpture appears to be primarily comprised of pieces of wood, including found bric-a-brac vessels, reclaimed furniture components and foraged driftwood. A synthetic skull and rib cage, both clad with unfired clay, are positioned at an adult human height. On one hand, this could point to the superfluity of anthropometric classification. Although the heyday of this ‘science’ of racial discrimination and the building of Fort Lytton may have coincided, its echoes arguably linger.
Across the room, an ascendant Meanjin artist asserts the arrival of a contending ideology in the post-human. Max Athans, who is skilled in 3D modelling, was the 2025 recipient of the Jeremy Hynes Award. Institute of Modern Art patrons were acquainted with Athans’ handiwork through their curious quasi-religious statues made for Natalya Hughes.
For A Narrow Strip Along a Steep Edge, Athans has manipulated an array of anatomical scans sourced from digitised museum collections in the work Polymerization I-VI (2023). The subsequent polylactic acid (PLA) prints of hybridised and dissected heads have been secured on a black metal rack at eye level. Through the processes engaged, the artwork may be celebratory of a newfound fluidity in physical form and identity. However, Athans appears to have exercised restraint in their finishing of the parts. Retained is a crudeness that suggests experimentation, and an associated uncertainty, if not explicable fear.
In ‘Casemate Two’, a chamber which offered protection from artillery fire, one of the artworks which put a physical form to fear is Threshold (2025). Its creator, Angel, graduated from Queensland University of Technology in 2024. Like the Rorschach test which inspired this series, the production process was simple. The effects are also equally sophisticated. Angel literally gives these patterns, which are typically used to elicit a psychological response, another dimension. For some viewers, the supersized manifestation of their psyches may not be benign. Sticky pitch-black splotches appear to seep up from the ground. Is the artist capturing the anxieties held by wartime occupants of the room? The bitumen-coated cutouts, fashioned from from laser-cut medium-density fibreboard (MDF) could as easily be referential of the one-time ownership of the grounds by Ampol.
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Running off the smell of an oily rag, the exhibition has been executed without frills and some fixings have had to be improvised. For example, there is an absence of labels. As a consequence, the exhibition may be a little challenging for viewers to navigate. The dissolution of boundaries is, in any case, difficult terrain. Through her curatorship, Eddington walked a fine line. In less capable hands such critique could have been divisive. A few of the artists, like Jessica Dorizac and Ziyi Wei, employed traditional crafts to covertly convey the controversial. These are time-proven methods of embedding delicate sentiments for posterity.
Eddington has pulled off a project that is as aesthetically appealing as it is provocative in conceptual content. She effectively transformed a space which was once designated as a line of defense into a site for dialogue about the delineation of geography, identity and ideology. Most impressive is the ensemble Eddington has assembled. With every artist aged under 40, this intervention into a historical precinct could offer a glimpse into the future of contemporary art in Meanjin.
A Narrow Strip Along a Steep Edge also features Dean Ansell, Yanru Pan and Charlie Robert. It is installed at Fort Lytton until 18 May 2025.
