seeing through you
Consuelo Cavaniglia
Consuelo Cavaniglia has been commissioned to develop a major contemporary art project to engage with the Museum’s extensive collections and architecture.
Consuelo Cavaniglia’s project represents the first time an artist has been invited to respond directly to the architecture of the Chau Chak Wing Museum. Cavaniglia intensifies the viewer’s experience of the interior spaces as they navigate the building, by colouring the ‘lantern’ skylight, and by intervening onto glass surfaces to create perceptual shifts.
In the Penelope Gallery, she has selected objects from the Chau Chak Wing Museum’s collection, including optical instruments and glass from the ancient world, which are presented alongside her own recent works.
The artist has also selected to display artworks from the collection by Lily Greenham (1924–2001), and Martha Boto (1925–2004). Cavaniglia celebrates these women artists and connects her own practice to theirs in a lineage of engagement with abstraction, colour, light, and perception.
Cavaniglia’s interest in perception extends to the ways that voices are represented within the museum. The artist has invited women and gender-diverse staff members to reflect on their experience of the museum and its collections. Their responses create alternative narratives to the more formal voice of museum wall labels, reframing the experience of the museum and its collections through personal perspectives.
Lily Greenham, 'Study in visual perception', 1965. Installation view, Consuelo Cavaniglia, 'seeing through you', Chau Chak Wing Museum. Photo by Stefanie Zingsheim.
50
automatic
Link
Consuelo Cavaniglia has exhibited extensively in Australia, with key solo exhibitions at Perth Institute for Contemporary Arts, Boorloo/Perth; Gertrude Contemporary, Narrm/Melbourne, University of NSW Galleries, Gadigal land/Sydney. In 2019, Cavaniglia was included in the inaugural Macfarlane Commissions exhibition at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. She studied at the University of Western Australia followed by Curtin University. In 2017, she was awarded a Master of Fine Art, from Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney. She is represented by STATION.
Curator
Katrina Liberiou
Designer
Catseye Bay
Exhibition Manager
Luke Parker
Open seven days a week
Mon - Fri: 10am - 5pm
Sat - Sun: 12 - 4pm
Closed on Public Holidays
Until 23 March 2025
Penelope Gallery, Level 1; throughout the museum
Chau Chak Wing Museum
Free
Consuelo Cavaniglia, 'seeing through you' (installation view), Chau Chak Wing Museum, 2024. Photo by: Stefanie Zingsheim.
50
automatic
Link
Consuelo Cavaniglia, seeing through you (installation view), Chau Chak Wing Museum, 2024. Photo by: Stefanie Zingsheim.
50
automatic
Link
Consuelo Cavaniglia, seeing through you (installation view), Chau Chak Wing Museum, 2024. Photo by: Stefanie Zingsheim.
50
automatic
Link
Header image: Consuelo Cavaniglia: seeing through you, 2024. Hand blown glass, acrylic; scientific instruments from the collection. Courtesy of the artist and STATION. Photo by David James
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.
This project is supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.
Phone: +61 2 93512812
Email: ccwm.info@sydney.edu.au
Chau Chak Wing Museum
University Place
Camperdown NSW 2050
