Turbulence

The 3rd Auckland Triennial addresses a prevailing condition of our times: turbulence. Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries artists, writers and filmmakers have responded in a variety of ways to extraordinary and diverse levels of turmoil. Such is the power of turbulence, that it can create disturbing and serendipitous experiences. Turbulence gives rise to passion, and passion can produce fantasy, desire, anxiety and enjoyment, all of which underpin the arts. Turbulence describes a condition of unsettledness, turmoil, surprise, rupture, dissensus and unpredictability through which ‘mutual transformation’ can be achieved. Turbulence has several dimensions:

Turbulence describes a condition of unsettledness, turmoil, surprise, rupture, dissensus and unpredictability through which ‘mutual transformation’ can be achieved. Turbulence has several dimensions:

– a condition that is characterised by unpredictability and uncontrolled change;

– an instability in the atmosphere that disrupts the flow of the wind, causing gusty, unpredictable air currents;

– a form of flow in which particles of fluid move and interact with irregular local velocities and pressures, producing mutual transformation. The term suggests a condition that is always changing, and this is a process that is built upon so that new formulations are created. It is not a theoretical construct. It can be a metaphor, a description of a state of mind, or being. It is a condition that is not specific to a person’s identity, class or gender or a nation’s borders, and yet it also arises from such. In this sense, it is nowhere and everywhere. It is ambient. It is not one thing, but multifarious. It is both within us, in our psyches, and it is outside us.