Stephen Giblett, Panic, 2012, oil on linen, 163 x 200cm

Held in February each year, our annual project exhibition promotes and inspires innovative contemporary artists through a specific curatorial theme. This year, Project 13 – Jamais Vu, will include the works of thirteen contemporary Australian and international artists, working in a wide range of disciplines from video, collage, installation, drawing and painting, exploring this psychological and philosophical concept.

Widely viewed as the opposite of Déjà Vu, Jamais Vu is a phenomenon in which the familiar becomes unfamiliar, moments in which our cultural perspective is replaced with an instinctive perspective. The realisation that we can lose control of our minds in such a way as Jamais Vu can fill us with sensations that are both thrilling and disquieting.

In such instances, recognition leaves us and we are abandoned to plunge into a psychosomatic chasm of vacant delusion and isolation. In that moment, every pulse of confidence exits our body, every thread of social camouflage is ripped from our naked skin. It is at once horrifying and exhilarating to realise that what you thought you knew is completely unrecognisable.

Artists: Holly-Anne Buck, Danny Devos, Heath Franco, Will French, Stephen Giblett, Christopher L G Hill, William Mackinnon, Clare Rae, Ernesto Rios, Cameron Robbins, Marc Standing, Paul Williams, Soo-Joo Yoo