Suspense and suspension at the Gallery

12 July 2018

Alison Allcock’s performance art features in new solo exhibition

As the sun descends behind Wollumbin-Mount Warning, beneath the balcony of the Tweed Regional Gallery in Murwillumbah, artist Alison Allcock sits suspended within a cocoon-like net that has been slowly and methodically woven by hand.

This performance, designed to raise awareness of our threatened species and the specialist techniques used to study them, has been documented via video and photography at the Gallery After Hours and will form part of the artist’s first solo exhibition titled Exchange, opening at Tweed Regional Gallery on Friday 20 July.

Taking inspiration from the view from the Gallery’s windows, Exchange explores the tension between culture and nature, forestry, mining and agriculture. The works consider the conundrum that humans welcome the benefits of ‘development’ while opposing the impact of extractive industries on our environment and biodiversity.

“As a community we have been fairly critical of the loss of natural resources and associated biodiversity, even though we want to live in comfortable homes and have access to quality infrastructure and technology,” Allcock said. “This exhibition speaks of change and exchange, and considers our environment and biodiversity within the framework of environmental change and economic transactions.”

Gallery Director Susi Muddiman, OAM, said Exchange was being exhibited as an outcome of the Gallery’s Community Access Exhibitions Program (CAEP), which caters to artists who are residents of Tweed, Kyogle, Lismore, Ballina, Byron Bay, the Scenic Rim or Gold Coast City shires.

“This popular program offers regional artists the opportunity to present their work within a world-class facility. We are very proud to be able to showcase the exciting work of local emerging artist Alison Allcock, whose sophisticated sculptures and documented performance delivers powerful messages about human impact on the environment,” Ms Muddiman said.

Using old fence posts, rusty tools, core samples and plastic bling, Allcock transforms her materials and objects through a process of partial destruction and reconfiguration – cutting, splitting, burning and painting – to give objects alternative meanings.

On Sunday 22 July from 10.30am, Allcock will be re-creating the net made for her performance, which will then form part of the final exhibition display. Following this, at 1.30pm, Allcock will be giving an artist talk, discussing her overall practice and the development of the exhibition.

All are welcome to attend the official opening of Exchange on Friday 27 July at 6pm with guest speaker Senior Lecturer at the School of Arts & Social Sciences at Southern Cross University Dr Stephen Garrett. The exhibition opens in conjunction with Experimenta Make Sense: International Triennial of Media Art and Australian exotica: An MGA travelling exhibiton.

Downloads

Photo 1(JPG, 262KB)

Caption: Alison Allcock, Suspense (2018), documented performance. Photo: Jules Hunt © The artist

Photo 2(JPG, 77KB)

Caption: Sarah McGhee, Curator – Exhibitions; Alison Allcock, Artist; Susi Muddiman, Gallery Director. Photo: Jules Hunt