Opening & Artist Talk | Crystalline & Barra

Friday 21 February 2025, 5pm

Join us to celebrate the opening of our next suite of exhibitions, Crystalline by Elizabeth Willing and Barra by Juanita McLauchlan. Hear from Barra artist Juanita McLauchlan at 5pm before the exhibitions are officially launched at 5.30pm.

Crystalline brings together existing and new bodies of work by Brisbane based artist Elizabeth Willing that explore the interconnected qualities of alcohol and sugar. Chemically connected through fermentation and production, nor alcohol are essential for survival, yet are ubiquitous in our contemporary diet, associated with ritual, celebration, also disease. Working across textiles, sculpture and installation Willing’s works are performative and often participatory explorations of foods both concept and material.

Barra, meaning thread in the Gamilaraay language of Juanita McLauchlan’s grandmother’s country in northern New South Wales, connects two distinct, yet interrelated areas of the artist’s practice – textiles and printmaking. As a thread stitches, uniting and securing elements together, McLauchlan’s work speaks to her sense of continuity with family, Country and culture, through generations past, present and future.

Both exhibitions will be launched by Professor David M Watson, an ornithologist and ecologist at Charles Sturt University and a scientific specialist on mistletoe. The mistletoe is of particular interest to artist Elizabeth Willing, who was taken with the species during her residency in the Wangaratta region in early 2024. A motif of the mistletoe appears in a new textile work created by the artist especially for Crystalline.

Refreshments will be served. Book your free ticket now.

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Elizabeth Willing, Untitled (undisclosed red wine), 2019 (detail), watercolour and pencil on paper, 29 x 38cm each.