Donna Marcus, a nationally acclaimed artist, was a long-term resident of the Gold Coast hinterland, before locating back to Brisbane. For more than 20 years she’s been a dedicated collector of aluminium kitchenware, which she sources from op shops, garage sales, church fetes and scrap metal dealers.

Emerging from a point of nostalgia, the saucepan lids, strainers, fry pan lids and cake tins are domestic objects, but aluminium is also an industrial material.

Marcus treats these aluminium objects as a medium, which she builds into minimalist assemblages. In Code, Marcus uses these pre-formed pieces of aluminium to explore the formal properties of composition, form, and pattern – in much the same way an abstract painter may form a work.

Next time you visit us, be sure to pause for a moment and take in this incredible work.

Code by Donna Marcus is part of the City Collection.