Sarah Poulgrain, Houseboat (Gallery Side), 2024. Installation view, Platform, Institute of Modern Art, 2024. Photo: Carl Warner. Courtesy: the artist and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane.

Platform is the Institute of Modern Art’s new annual exhibition showcasing new commissions by emerging Queensland artists. In 2024, the gallery presents the work of Miguel Aquilizan, Mia Boe, and Sarah Poulgrain.

Sculptor Miguel Aquilizan is intuitive in his inquiry, improvisational in his approach, and inventive in his use of materials. Working with found and foraged materials, Aquilizan attributes his love of materials to the Philippines, where he was born. For Platform, he presents a series of sculptures imbued with elements of science fiction and the post-human, and totemism and animism.

Mia Boe is a painter of Butchulla and Burmese ancestry whose work responds to colonisation and the mistreatment of people and culture in K’gari and Burma. Her paintings feature elongated figures that often float in the landscape, representing ancestral spirits, family members, and historical figures. Boe presents a six-panel painting inspired by the poetry of Uncle Lionel Fogarty.

Sarah Poulgrain’s work is grounded in labour and learning and sharing skills, from welding to weaving. Poulgrain lives and works in a former bike-wreckers’ workshop, which is also home to Wreckers Artspace, an artist-run initiative they co-founded. For Platform, they present part of their long-term project Dreamboat, a fully-functional houseboat that is part residence, part art space.