“Yield strength” is an engineering term: how much pressure can be exerted on an object before it is irrevocably changed? Ellie Buttrose has chosen the phrase as the title for the 2026 Adelaide Biennial. How far can the 24 artists she has curated push their ideas, and the very materials they work with?
This is an exhibition that puts sculpture at the fore. George Egerton-Warburton gives us a roadkill cat preserved in resin. Kirtika Kain’s copper sheets have been submerged in acid baths, leaving parts preserved by wax while others are almost entirely eaten away. Jennifer Mathews’ oversized cattle runs corral us through the gallery like, well, cattle.
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