Jordan Wolfson: Body Sculpture

This book was published on the occasion of Jordan Wolfson: Body Sculpture at the National Gallery of Australia, the artist’s first solo exhibition in the country and the world premiere of Body Sculpture (2023). Acquired by the museum, the animatronic work features a thirty-minute programmed performance in which a boxlike metallic form with mechanical hands interacts with a large robotic arm. By articulating formal, spatial, and associative concerns against a backdrop of debates around AI, Wolfson’s project elicits a range of emotional and physical responses.

The publication features extensive photography of the work by David Sims along with several texts that position it within the contexts of disciplines including art history, media theory, and cybernetics. A foreword by the NGA’s director, Nick Mitzevich, is followed by a detailed account of the sculpture’s sources and themes by curator Russell Storer. Also included are a conversation between Wolfson and artist Anne Imhof; an essay by curator and writer Russell Ferguson; a conversation between Wolfson’s principal collaborator, Mark Setrakian, and Richard Taylor of Wētā Workshop; and a text on the history of automatons by Genevieve Bell and Andrew Meares of the Australian National University School of Cybernetics.