Troubled Waters - New Season of Exhibitions at UNSW Galleries

Opening on Thursday 18 August, Troubled Waters is UNSW Galleries new season of exhibitions, projects, seminars and special events exploring the complex and often troubled relationship that human beings have with the natural environment.    

Three stellar exhibitions will be presented across UNSW Galleries including two major moving image installations, one by leading international British filmmaker and artist John Akomfrah and another by Australian filmmaker and artist Georgia Wallace-Crabbe.

Critically acclaimed award-winning artist and filmmaker, John Akomfrah, has created Vertigo Sea, an immersive, confronting and poetic reflection on exploration and exploitation of the worlds oceans and seas throughout history.  Spanning themes of colonisation, the whaling industry, ongoing refugee crises, and the impact of environmental catastrophes and climate change, Akomfrah’s work furthers an important social dialogue that the nations of the world must confront.   

The Earth and the Elements is a five-channel film installation created by Australian producer and director, Georgia Wallace-Crabbe, exploring the ecological issues resulting from the extraction and flow of minerals from Australia to China.  Wallace-Crabbe’s large scale-work offers a broad reflection on environmental degradation as viewed through a metaphoric Daoist framework.

Finally, River Journey, is an interdisciplinary project and exhibition led by UNSW Galleries Director, Dr Felicity Fenner, that features work by acclaimed Australian artists examining the changing ecology of the Murray-Darling Basin and the fallout of human use and misuse of natural resources. Participating artists include Andrew Belletty (cinematic and immersive sound designer), Janet Laurence (award-winning multimedia artist and UNSW Art & Design graduate), Nici Cumpston (photographer and descendent of the Darling River people), Bonita Ely (multi-disciplinary artist and Associate Professor at UNSW Art & Design), and Tamara Dean (photographer and installation artist).

RSVP to opening night here. A program of associated activities will be available to view here.