The art world vacillates between its love of calm and its appetite for mayhem. The pendulum has swung toward calm. There’s a new emphasis on gentle attentiveness, good works, and a fear of triggering hurt. In the art world and beyond, ‘care’ is a buzzword, being used to reset policy and practice.

But ‘care’ is an elastic notion. It can refer to care for others (those less fortunate, less blessed, the have-nots) and for Country, but also for ourselves (self care). But whatever its object, ‘care’ carries a moral tenor, implying ethical superiority. It suggests a way of being, an orientation to the world. It also implies opposing positions, ‘not care’ positions: libertarians and litterers, meat eaters and gas guzzlers, colonists and white supremacists, sexists and racists, and those amused at others’ misfortune. Could care become the new culture-wars frontline, the new us-and-them?

An international group show, Duty of Care will explore care as obligation, institutional and professional care, care and gender, care and race, care and medicine, artists as healers, and extreme care. Duty of Care is a partnership with Griffith University Art Museum, encompassing two concurrent exhibitions and an extensive suite of public programs.