The Substation/ In the air – Artist Panel and Performances /
This event is wheelchair accessible and gender-neutral accessible toilets are available. Registered assistance animals are welcome.
Free
Please RSVP here
PRESENTED BY THE SUBSTATION
This is a free event, please note that spaces are limited. RSVP here to secure your attendance at the event.
Join us for an evening of conversation and live performance surrounding In the air, a group exhibition curated by Dr. Jessica Clark currently showing at The Substation, that explores the urgent entanglements between energy, industry, and Country.
Exhibiting artists Aidan Hartshorn, Casey Jeffery, Cassie Sullivan, Emily Parsons-Lord, Francis Carmody, Xanthe Dobbie, and curator Jessica Clark, will gather to collectively reflect upon the tensions between progress and preservation, consumption and collapse, and the role of creative practice in navigating the complex ecological and political climate of the present.
The panel discussion will be followed by performances by artists Emily Parsons-Lord and James Howard, drawing on their practices concerning atmosphere, vibration, and sonic texture.
Presented in the context of The Substation – a repurposed power station turned multi-artform space – In the air collectively draw focus to the vulnerability and wreckage inherent to the now.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Humanity is consuming too much too fast, and the planet is at a breaking point.
In the air variously explores critical perspectives on energy and power production, consumption, excess, and human impact, past, present and future. Featuring new and recent works by a selected group of Australian artists, the exhibition highlights the realities of industry, infrastructure, and technology to the detriment of Country.
Silicon, steel, silver, cobalt, graphite, coal, nickel, copper, tin, lead, chlorine, petroleum, the list of rare earth metals (REMs) required to power life and living is seemingly endless. Every year, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of REMs are extracted across the globe, for solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles, but also anything with a screen or battery.
In the air equally draws focus to the electrical currents and electro-magnetic waves circulating within the natural realm, in the earth, in the body, in the air, and beyond. In doing so, the exhibition is grounded by an Indigenous knowledge framework that acknowledges the interrelationship between life, materiality, and place.
Participating artist’s channel notions of confusion, connection, curiosity, and prompt a contemplative space to consider an urgent human responsibility to act at an individual and collective level. Presented in the context of The Substation – a repurposed power station turned multi-artform space – works of art collectively draw focus to the vulnerability and wreckage inherent to the now.
Curated by The Substation Artform Advisor, Jessica Clark.
ARTISTS
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Dr. Jessica Clark is a proud palawa/pallawah woman, born in lurtruwita/trowunna and currently living and working on Wurundjeri Country in Naarm/Melbourne. She is a curator, researcher, and writer with a background in art history and education. Clark holds a PhD Fine Art and Music (2023), Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, which was awarded The Chancellor's Prize for Excellence, University of Melbourne 2024.
Currently, Clark is Curator at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA); Curatorial Manager, Victorian First Peoples Art and Design Fair at Creative Victoria; Ursula Hoff Fellow (2024-26), University of Melbourne and an Artform Advisor at The Substation.
Image by Cassie Sullivan
