An exhibition of traces from Scottish artist Peter Hill’s splendid fiction, the Museum of Contemporary Ideas. Located somewhere on New York’s Park Avenue, the museum installation features an equally fictitious art fair.

The time is two hours before the art fair is due to open and the press have been allowed in to preview the work. Some works have still to be hung and the air is filled with a mixture of excitement tinged with mild panic. There have been delays in Chicago and Frankfurt and not all the artworks have arrived. Some gallery booths have still to remove the crates and wrapping from their territory, while others are ready to go and are uncorking the champagne.

The serious side of Peter Hill’s project examines the mechanics of paradigm change in late 20th century art, asking why and how do art movements change? Biennales, art fairs, the Documenta, jet travel and the virus-like spread of glossy international art magazines are highlighted as the leading forces of change in the synthetic modernist era.

A University of South Australia Art Museum exhibition. Catalogue essay by Peter Hill.