By Afia Khan
Underpinned by an Indigenous framework, In the air is an exhibition at The Substation, which explains how energy and human excess contribute to the climate crisis we are experiencing.
Created by Palawa/Pallawah curator Dr Jessica Clark, who is also The Substation’s Artform Advisor, the exhibition showcases recent and new works from several Australian artists, including Aidan Hartshorn, Francis Carmody, and Cassie Sullivan.
The exhibition offers the community the chance to reflect on their impact through works depicting the cultural effects of industrialisation, the reliance on extracting natural resources for survival, and the environmental devastation endured.
A sculptural wall installation from Walgalu/Wiradjuri artist Aidan Hartshorn depicts the profound ongoing impact of the Snowy Hydro-Electric Scheme. Hartshorn, also associate lecturer at Australian National University (ANU), dedicates his practice to illustrate the environmental and cultural ramifications of industrialisation. The flooding and diversion of the Snowy River in Australia’s high country serves as a case study. In Bangadirra, which means ‘to cut, split or chop’, a LED light batten slashes through the sixteen bluestone rocks from Wee Jasper in hopes to pave the way for ancestral dominance.
From Lutruwita artist Cassie Sullivan comes a sculpture called to collect with holes in your basket in 2024. Specialising in moving image, photography, writing, sound, installation, and printmaking, Sullivan’s copper wire weaving is an ode to the power of renewable energy systems. As the sculpture suspends from the ceiling, it gathers the unseen and holds minerals from significant sites of Country.
Francis Carmody is an artist who gives a voice to people by tracing networks and natural structures. With smudges of orange and ash acrylics over a canvas, Carmody presents Continuous cities – Ferro 2024. He uses geological projection modelling to show the total average amount of iron deposits across the world. He references Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities and shows the once thriving industrial spaces in ruins.
Nuala Furtado, CEO of The Substation, believes this exhibition seeds hope for the future, reminding the community to take a moment to reflect on their spaces and how they are utilised. It also reminds the community of the urgency of climate action.
In the air is showing at The Substation until the 16th of August.
