Constance ARI

C o n s t e l l a t i o n s  U n d e r g r o u n d explores the materials of the body and of the earth by artists Sinsa Mansell (lutruwita/TAS), Jay Song (lutruwita/TAS), Luke Aleksandrow (ACT), Julia Drouhin (lutruwita/TAS) and Georgie Vozar (lutruwita/TAS).

Five artists deconstruct the use of clay as object, as body, as sound. Opening as part of the Australian Ceramics Triennale 2019.

A dancer strains against her bonds, sweat and dust mingling on her body before dripping to the ground as mud - your favourite mug slides off the table, the sound of it crashing to the ground resonates inside you as the many shards skitter across the floor.

Clay, as a natural material found in the earth, connects each artists work with the “stuff” of this place, of lutruwita/Tasmania, and of Australia. This connection is echoed in the exhibition site of the Town Hall Underground, a place where Hobart’s colonial history is palpable and dark, with red bricks crumbling onto stone floor, handmade nails pegging horseshoes over doorways.

The artists’ work culminates in a night of happenings, sound and installations, where they each have taken the material of clay and run amok with it - creating and destroying what we understand an exhibition of ceramics to mean.

C o n s t e l l a t i o n s  U n d e r g r o u n d incorporates a collaborative soundwork by Mat Ward as well as an experimental catalogue essay by Vivienne Cutbush.

Documentation by Remi Chauvin.