Michael Stevenson: Serene velocity in practice: MC510/CS183

Published by: MUMA | 29-Apr-2019
MUMA presents a major commission by renowned New Zealand artist Michael Stevenson.
Venue: MUMA | Monash University Museum of Art
Address: Ground Floor, Building F, Monash University Caulfield Campus, 900 Dandenong rd, Caulfield East, VIC, 3145.
Ticket: Free
Web: https://bit.ly/2ZHQK7J
: https://www.monash.edu
: https://twitter.com/MonashUni
: https://www.facebook.com/Monash.University
Michael Stevenson is one of New Zealand's most acclaimed artists.

His solo exhibition, Serene Velocity in Practice: MC510 & CS183, is one of his most significant large-scale installations. It opens at Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) on Wednesday 22 May until Saturday 6 July 2019.

Serene Velocity in Practice: MC510 & CS183 is commissioned by Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki with commissioning partners the Biennale of Sydney 2018 and Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA).

Stevenson is known for his rigorous and forensic approach to art making. His ambitious sculptural practice has, over many years, mapped historical narratives from certainty to ruin, mathematics to miracles, and secrets and exchange.

Transforming the galleries of MUMA, this major installation is based on two seemingly unrelated academic courses, MC510 and CS183, which were modules taught for a short time in Californian higher-learning institutions.

'This is the perfect project to present in our university context as it tests many of our assumptions around pedagogy, and the world views that inform what and how we teach' says Charlotte Day, Director, MUMA.

Serene Velocity in Practice: MC510 & CS183 takes the form of an imagined tertiary institution of two classrooms, each of which represents one of these courses.

Both academic courses referenced in the exhibition were transformative in their respective fields, and each quickly developed a mass following globally, resulting in best-selling books and a multitude of spin-off courses.

Mission Class 510 or MC510 was the code used by the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena for a course taught for four years from 1982. John Wimber, then leader of the Vineyard Ministries, an evangelical Christian movement, became synonymous with this program, using it as a testing ground for his radical ideas in the experiential realm of miraculous healing and exorcism.

CS183 was the course code for 'Startup' at Stanford University's Computer Science faculty, which Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel taught in 2012. CS183 provided a platform for Thiel's new intellectual framework in which he analysed case studies of failure in the tech industry and modelled a future of exponential progress where technological miracles take place.

While previously unrelated, Stevenson brings these two courses together in Serene Velocity in Practice as an installation of two conjoined structures.

The exhibition will run 22 May - 6 July 2019.

Newsletter Sign Up

Join Our Growing Community

ART NEWS PORTAL is a global crowd sourced art news feed.
Everyone is welcome to share their art and culture related news.