A celebration of Andrew Rogers’ artistry

Andrew Rogers is a critically acclaimed artist whose sculptures and photographs are exhibited around the world including in New York, Venice and the Melbourne Holocaust Museum. For his distinguished contribution to contemporary art and culture, Rogers was awarded an honorary doctorate from Deakin University.

Rogers’ life’s work as an artist is now being celebrated in a retrospective exhibition at the Jewish Museum of Australia titled Andrew Rogers: Where We Are, on display until September.

It includes photographs of his work Rhythms of Life, which began 30 years ago and is the largest contemporary land art undertaking in the world – comprising 51 massive stone structures across 16 countries visible from space. It began in 1998 creating the largest stone Chai in the world in the Arava desert in Israel – and was inspired by a meeting with David Ben Gurion who discussed the Arava with Rogers.

The sculptures are enormous undertakings requiring mathematical order – for example, the land art in China required the assistance of around 1000 Chinese soldiers, a sculpture in Kenya required the help of about 1200 Masai.

When asked which of his land art sculptures are his favourite, Rogers told The AJN, “They are all my favourites,” but he has a special love for the time he returned to the Arava in 2003 and photographed 42 pregnant women standing on the Chai to create Celebration of Life.

The exhibition also looks at the artistic process behind Rogers’ practice, portraying his personal journey and evolution as an artist through figurative sculptures, abstract forms and his renowned land art – all together reflecting on the human experience, issues of identity, community, and the passage of time.

At the opening of the exhibition on May 8, Rogers told the audience, “I continue to be motivated by art because I am encouraged to think beyond what we can see and imagine things that do not exist. And therefore, I’m always reaching for possibilities, particularly about beauty. Art offers space for imagination and for ways of thinking. Art assists in creating meaning. I feel privileged to able to express myself and have the opportunity to create beautiful things. The challenge is always to use materials in a new and different way and make them convey meaning and turn them into a form that has not been seen before.”

Jewish Museum of Australia director and CEO Noè Harsel said, “The Jewish Museum of Australia is honoured to host an exhibition of Andrew Rogers, an artist whose works are a testament to the collaborative spirit of art and its power to unite people across continents.”

Where We Are is showing until

September 1 at the Jewish Museum of Australia. Tickets: jewishmuseum.com.au/exhibitionions/andrew-rogers-where-we-are