Exhibition dates: Thurs 8 Oct – Sat 5 Dec
The artwork can be viewed from outside the building, in the Avago window gallery on Albert Road.

Public Loss brings the sensitive topic of mental health and suicide “out” to all who care to look in the window of the MAC Avago Space on Albert Road, Moonah, from 8 October until 7 November.

Public Loss is an installation of baby clothes. It reflects on the lived presence of a child’s body. Accumulatively, the articles of clothing portray a simplified depiction of a child’s face.

The face is based on a photograph of the artist’s brother, John, around the age of four. Approximately 30 years after this photograph was taken, and after struggling for most of his adult life with yearly bouts of clinical depression, John took his life.

We were all once babies, and one day we all die. No one can ever predict that a life might be seriously impacted through the effects of mental illness, and as a consequence, deliberately extinguished. No one wants this for their child — no one wants this for anyone — and yet it happens and continues to happen, and increasingly so.

Every suicide is a tragedy that has long-lasting and devastating effects on the people left behind.

Public Loss deliberately coincides with World Mental Health Day on Saturday 10 October.

Image: Maria MacDermott, from Public Loss, 2020, folded fabric, M. MacDermott

Exhibition dates: Fri 13 Nov – Sat 5 Dec
Open Tuesday to Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 11am–3pm, free entry

Ruth Hadlow (rh) and Mandy Smith (ms) are process-based installation artists. In field notes & conversations, the artists will work at MAC as artists-in-residence for 3 weeks.

MAC’s Project Space will become a studio for creative interactions between reading, writing, making and conversation, focused on a poetics of the ordinary. (ms) & (rh) will explore the surrounding local environment, as well as the ad-hoc nature of ideas imported through books, conversations, and incidental encounters.

(rh) & (ms) are interested in making the interior of creative practice visible through an informal performance of process. Their diverse joint backgrounds include theatre, visual art, performance, writing, publishing, educating, community & socially engaged projects, gardening and walking. They work with makeshift and improvisational strategies, basic materials, and language to explore attentive, intimate and playful relations with the immediate moment and all the possibilities it may contain.

Image: Ruth Hadlow, field notes-palimpsest (detail), 2016, mixed media. Photo: Peter Mathew

Exhibition dates: Fri 13 Nov – Sat 5 Dec
Open Tuesday to Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 11am–3pm, free entry

Repetitive, reductive language reinforces unconscious biases and stereotypes. In Sticks and Stones, common idioms and newspaper headlines from 2001 to today are delicately hand embroidered on pastel backgrounds. The wallpaper of soft textile works belies the meaning of the words.

The texts are centred around two main themes. The idioms focus on gender stereotypes. The headlines explore Islamophobia in Australian print media.

These themes are drawn from intersections of the artist’s personal identity. Sharifah Emalia is a woman who has Muslim family and belongs to what is known as the “post 9/11 generation”. Since September 2001, Muslims have been viewed through a narrative lens of terrorism. The 9/11 attack has come to frame almost all common understanding of Islam and the Middle East.

The juxtaposition of throwaway idioms against the violent headline excerpts acts to recontextualise the phrases. The audience is invited to reconsider the weight that words hold. Pairing the seemingly banal idioms with the overtly vitriolic headline excerpts creates a dialogue.

This exhibition interrogates how reductive language becomes embedded in everyday vernacular. It emphasises the power that colloquial language has in perpetuating harmful stereotypes.

Image: Sharifah Emalia Al-Gadrie, Sticks and stones, 2020, mixed media. Photo: Nick Bauermeister

Exhibition dates: Fri 13 Nov – Sat 5 Dec
Open Tuesday to Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 11am–3pm, free entry

In Connexion: entanglements in place, Jan Hogan and Keven Francis respond to their local environment.

Nestled under Mt Nelson in the suburb of Taroona, the artists negotiate the everyday life of family and work. Through immersion in the ecology of the Derwent River Estuary, the artists reflect on how the process of art making assists in developing a caring relationship to place.

Through making and reflection, the artists engage with the material and atmospheric conditions of place. They are surrounded by a chorus that links them to their surrounds; the interconnection of human and nonhuman entities that contribute to a sense of place.

Connexion reveals the seepages and blurred boundaries across their practices.

Through ink and wash drawings, abstract acrylic paintings, photographs, video and prints, the artists aim to reveal the entanglement of the material world within their daily lives. The cycle of engagement through walking, swimming and reflection are all part of the process that has allowed the place to seep into their bones.

This exhibition is part of their commitment to take responsibility for the place that nurtures their lives.

Image: Keven Francis, untitled, 2019, Acrylic and scorch on paper

Exhibition dates: Fri 13 Nov – Sat 5 Dec
Open Tuesday to Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 11am–3pm, free entry

Ruth Hadlow (rh) and Mandy Smith (ms) are process-based installation artists. In field notes & conversations, the artists will work at MAC as artists-in-residence for 3 weeks.

MAC’s Project Space will become a studio for creative interactions between reading, writing, making and conversation, focused on a poetics of the ordinary. (ms) & (rh) will explore the surrounding local environment, as well as the ad-hoc nature of ideas imported through books, conversations, and incidental encounters.

(rh) & (ms) are interested in making the interior of creative practice visible through an informal performance of process. Their diverse joint backgrounds include theatre, visual art, performance, writing, publishing, educating, community & socially engaged projects, gardening and walking. They work with makeshift and improvisational strategies, basic materials, and language to explore attentive, intimate and playful relations with the immediate moment and all the possibilities it may contain.

Image: Ruth Hadlow, field notes-palimpsest (detail), 2016, mixed media. Photo: Peter Mathew

Exhibition dates: Fri 13 Nov – Sat 5 Dec
Open Tuesday to Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 11am–3pm, free entry

Repetitive, reductive language reinforces unconscious biases and stereotypes. In Sticks and Stones, common idioms and newspaper headlines from 2001 to today are delicately hand embroidered on pastel backgrounds. The wallpaper of soft textile works belies the meaning of the words.

The texts are centred around two main themes. The idioms focus on gender stereotypes. The headlines explore Islamophobia in Australian print media.

These themes are drawn from intersections of the artist’s personal identity. Sharifah Emalia is a woman who has Muslim family and belongs to what is known as the “post 9/11 generation”. Since September 2001, Muslims have been viewed through a narrative lens of terrorism. The 9/11 attack has come to frame almost all common understanding of Islam and the Middle East.

The juxtaposition of throwaway idioms against the violent headline excerpts acts to recontextualise the phrases. The audience is invited to reconsider the weight that words hold. Pairing the seemingly banal idioms with the overtly vitriolic headline excerpts creates a dialogue.

This exhibition interrogates how reductive language becomes embedded in everyday vernacular. It emphasises the power that colloquial language has in perpetuating harmful stereotypes.

Image: Sharifah Emalia Al-Gadrie, Sticks and stones, 2020, mixed media. Photo: Nick Bauermeister

Exhibition dates: Fri 13 Nov – Sat 5 Dec
Open Tuesday to Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 11am–3pm, free entry

In Connexion: entanglements in place, Jan Hogan and Keven Francis respond to their local environment.

Nestled under Mt Nelson in the suburb of Taroona, the artists negotiate the everyday life of family and work. Through immersion in the ecology of the Derwent River Estuary, the artists reflect on how the process of art making assists in developing a caring relationship to place.

Through making and reflection, the artists engage with the material and atmospheric conditions of place. They are surrounded by a chorus that links them to their surrounds; the interconnection of human and nonhuman entities that contribute to a sense of place.

Connexion reveals the seepages and blurred boundaries across their practices.

Through ink and wash drawings, abstract acrylic paintings, photographs, video and prints, the artists aim to reveal the entanglement of the material world within their daily lives. The cycle of engagement through walking, swimming and reflection are all part of the process that has allowed the place to seep into their bones.

This exhibition is part of their commitment to take responsibility for the place that nurtures their lives.

Image: Keven Francis, untitled, 2019, Acrylic and scorch on paper

Exhibition dates: Fri 13 Nov – Sat 5 Dec
Open Tuesday to Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 11am–3pm, free entry

Ruth Hadlow (rh) and Mandy Smith (ms) are process-based installation artists. In field notes & conversations, the artists will work at MAC as artists-in-residence for 3 weeks.

MAC’s Project Space will become a studio for creative interactions between reading, writing, making and conversation, focused on a poetics of the ordinary. (ms) & (rh) will explore the surrounding local environment, as well as the ad-hoc nature of ideas imported through books, conversations, and incidental encounters.

(rh) & (ms) are interested in making the interior of creative practice visible through an informal performance of process. Their diverse joint backgrounds include theatre, visual art, performance, writing, publishing, educating, community & socially engaged projects, gardening and walking. They work with makeshift and improvisational strategies, basic materials, and language to explore attentive, intimate and playful relations with the immediate moment and all the possibilities it may contain.

Image: Ruth Hadlow, field notes-palimpsest (detail), 2016, mixed media. Photo: Peter Mathew

Exhibition dates: Fri 13 Nov – Sat 5 Dec
Open Tuesday to Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 11am–3pm, free entry

Repetitive, reductive language reinforces unconscious biases and stereotypes. In Sticks and Stones, common idioms and newspaper headlines from 2001 to today are delicately hand embroidered on pastel backgrounds. The wallpaper of soft textile works belies the meaning of the words.

The texts are centred around two main themes. The idioms focus on gender stereotypes. The headlines explore Islamophobia in Australian print media.

These themes are drawn from intersections of the artist’s personal identity. Sharifah Emalia is a woman who has Muslim family and belongs to what is known as the “post 9/11 generation”. Since September 2001, Muslims have been viewed through a narrative lens of terrorism. The 9/11 attack has come to frame almost all common understanding of Islam and the Middle East.

The juxtaposition of throwaway idioms against the violent headline excerpts acts to recontextualise the phrases. The audience is invited to reconsider the weight that words hold. Pairing the seemingly banal idioms with the overtly vitriolic headline excerpts creates a dialogue.

This exhibition interrogates how reductive language becomes embedded in everyday vernacular. It emphasises the power that colloquial language has in perpetuating harmful stereotypes.

Image: Sharifah Emalia Al-Gadrie, Sticks and stones, 2020, mixed media. Photo: Nick Bauermeister

Exhibition dates: Fri 13 Nov – Sat 5 Dec
Open Tuesday to Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 11am–3pm, free entry

In Connexion: entanglements in place, Jan Hogan and Keven Francis respond to their local environment.

Nestled under Mt Nelson in the suburb of Taroona, the artists negotiate the everyday life of family and work. Through immersion in the ecology of the Derwent River Estuary, the artists reflect on how the process of art making assists in developing a caring relationship to place.

Through making and reflection, the artists engage with the material and atmospheric conditions of place. They are surrounded by a chorus that links them to their surrounds; the interconnection of human and nonhuman entities that contribute to a sense of place.

Connexion reveals the seepages and blurred boundaries across their practices.

Through ink and wash drawings, abstract acrylic paintings, photographs, video and prints, the artists aim to reveal the entanglement of the material world within their daily lives. The cycle of engagement through walking, swimming and reflection are all part of the process that has allowed the place to seep into their bones.

This exhibition is part of their commitment to take responsibility for the place that nurtures their lives.

Image: Keven Francis, untitled, 2019, Acrylic and scorch on paper

Exhibition dates: Fri 13 Nov – Sat 5 Dec
Open Tuesday to Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 11am–3pm, free entry

In Connexion: entanglements in place, Jan Hogan and Keven Francis respond to their local environment.

Nestled under Mt Nelson in the suburb of Taroona, the artists negotiate the everyday life of family and work. Through immersion in the ecology of the Derwent River Estuary, the artists reflect on how the process of art making assists in developing a caring relationship to place.

Through making and reflection, the artists engage with the material and atmospheric conditions of place. They are surrounded by a chorus that links them to their surrounds; the interconnection of human and nonhuman entities that contribute to a sense of place.

Connexion reveals the seepages and blurred boundaries across their practices.

Through ink and wash drawings, abstract acrylic paintings, photographs, video and prints, the artists aim to reveal the entanglement of the material world within their daily lives. The cycle of engagement through walking, swimming and reflection are all part of the process that has allowed the place to seep into their bones.

This exhibition is part of their commitment to take responsibility for the place that nurtures their lives.

Image: Keven Francis, untitled, 2019, Acrylic and scorch on paper

Exhibition dates: Fri 13 Nov – Sat 5 Dec
Open Tuesday to Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 11am–3pm, free entry

Repetitive, reductive language reinforces unconscious biases and stereotypes. In Sticks and Stones, common idioms and newspaper headlines from 2001 to today are delicately hand embroidered on pastel backgrounds. The wallpaper of soft textile works belies the meaning of the words.

The texts are centred around two main themes. The idioms focus on gender stereotypes. The headlines explore Islamophobia in Australian print media.

These themes are drawn from intersections of the artist’s personal identity. Sharifah Emalia is a woman who has Muslim family and belongs to what is known as the “post 9/11 generation”. Since September 2001, Muslims have been viewed through a narrative lens of terrorism. The 9/11 attack has come to frame almost all common understanding of Islam and the Middle East.

The juxtaposition of throwaway idioms against the violent headline excerpts acts to recontextualise the phrases. The audience is invited to reconsider the weight that words hold. Pairing the seemingly banal idioms with the overtly vitriolic headline excerpts creates a dialogue.

This exhibition interrogates how reductive language becomes embedded in everyday vernacular. It emphasises the power that colloquial language has in perpetuating harmful stereotypes.

Image: Sharifah Emalia Al-Gadrie, Sticks and stones, 2020, mixed media. Photo: Nick Bauermeister

Exhibition dates: Fri 13 Nov – Sat 5 Dec
Open Tuesday to Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 11am–3pm, free entry

Ruth Hadlow (rh) and Mandy Smith (ms) are process-based installation artists. In field notes & conversations, the artists will work at MAC as artists-in-residence for 3 weeks.

MAC’s Project Space will become a studio for creative interactions between reading, writing, making and conversation, focused on a poetics of the ordinary. (ms) & (rh) will explore the surrounding local environment, as well as the ad-hoc nature of ideas imported through books, conversations, and incidental encounters.

(rh) & (ms) are interested in making the interior of creative practice visible through an informal performance of process. Their diverse joint backgrounds include theatre, visual art, performance, writing, publishing, educating, community & socially engaged projects, gardening and walking. They work with makeshift and improvisational strategies, basic materials, and language to explore attentive, intimate and playful relations with the immediate moment and all the possibilities it may contain.

Image: Ruth Hadlow, field notes-palimpsest (detail), 2016, mixed media. Photo: Peter Mathew

Exhibition dates: Fri 13 Nov – Sat 5 Dec
Open Tuesday to Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 11am–3pm, free entry

Ruth Hadlow (rh) and Mandy Smith (ms) are process-based installation artists. In field notes & conversations, the artists will work at MAC as artists-in-residence for 3 weeks.

MAC’s Project Space will become a studio for creative interactions between reading, writing, making and conversation, focused on a poetics of the ordinary. (ms) & (rh) will explore the surrounding local environment, as well as the ad-hoc nature of ideas imported through books, conversations, and incidental encounters.

(rh) & (ms) are interested in making the interior of creative practice visible through an informal performance of process. Their diverse joint backgrounds include theatre, visual art, performance, writing, publishing, educating, community & socially engaged projects, gardening and walking. They work with makeshift and improvisational strategies, basic materials, and language to explore attentive, intimate and playful relations with the immediate moment and all the possibilities it may contain.

Image: Ruth Hadlow, field notes-palimpsest (detail), 2016, mixed media. Photo: Peter Mathew

Exhibition dates: Fri 13 Nov – Sat 5 Dec
Open Tuesday to Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 11am–3pm, free entry

Repetitive, reductive language reinforces unconscious biases and stereotypes. In Sticks and Stones, common idioms and newspaper headlines from 2001 to today are delicately hand embroidered on pastel backgrounds. The wallpaper of soft textile works belies the meaning of the words.

The texts are centred around two main themes. The idioms focus on gender stereotypes. The headlines explore Islamophobia in Australian print media.

These themes are drawn from intersections of the artist’s personal identity. Sharifah Emalia is a woman who has Muslim family and belongs to what is known as the “post 9/11 generation”. Since September 2001, Muslims have been viewed through a narrative lens of terrorism. The 9/11 attack has come to frame almost all common understanding of Islam and the Middle East.

The juxtaposition of throwaway idioms against the violent headline excerpts acts to recontextualise the phrases. The audience is invited to reconsider the weight that words hold. Pairing the seemingly banal idioms with the overtly vitriolic headline excerpts creates a dialogue.

This exhibition interrogates how reductive language becomes embedded in everyday vernacular. It emphasises the power that colloquial language has in perpetuating harmful stereotypes.

Image: Sharifah Emalia Al-Gadrie, Sticks and stones, 2020, mixed media. Photo: Nick Bauermeister

Exhibition dates: Fri 13 Nov – Sat 5 Dec
Open Tuesday to Friday 10am–5pm, Saturday 11am–3pm, free entry

In Connexion: entanglements in place, Jan Hogan and Keven Francis respond to their local environment.

Nestled under Mt Nelson in the suburb of Taroona, the artists negotiate the everyday life of family and work. Through immersion in the ecology of the Derwent River Estuary, the artists reflect on how the process of art making assists in developing a caring relationship to place.

Through making and reflection, the artists engage with the material and atmospheric conditions of place. They are surrounded by a chorus that links them to their surrounds; the interconnection of human and nonhuman entities that contribute to a sense of place.

Connexion reveals the seepages and blurred boundaries across their practices.

Through ink and wash drawings, abstract acrylic paintings, photographs, video and prints, the artists aim to reveal the entanglement of the material world within their daily lives. The cycle of engagement through walking, swimming and reflection are all part of the process that has allowed the place to seep into their bones.

This exhibition is part of their commitment to take responsibility for the place that nurtures their lives.

Image: Keven Francis, untitled, 2019, Acrylic and scorch on paper