InterPlay — interactive art exhibition, free public events and short films
Presented by Environmental Film Festival Australia, Footscray Community Arts, and Curatorial Collective, with support from Artist Co-op and Mekong Cultural Hub
Gabriel Gallery, Footscray Community Arts
September 13 to October 29
InterPlay is a playful and community-minded interactive art exhibition, inviting audiences to experience art in a way that explores our environment, with themes of gender, time, space, memory and essentialism.
Co-presented by Environment Film Festival Australia (EFFA), Footscray Community Arts, and RMIT’s Curatorial Collective, a non-profit championing Asian creatives, InterPlay is an art exhibition accompanied by free public events and four specially selected EFFA experimental shorts.
Originally intended to take place in 2021, InterPlay is a reimagining of a project designed to respond to how artists and art initiatives have been affected by the myriad crises caused by environmental and community issues, in the wake of the COVID-19.
Four emerging international artists — Anita She, Bixiao ‘Frankie’ Zhang, Rosina Yuan and Sherry Liu — have been invited to express their views and thoughts on this critical moment through artistic creation.
The works are: E-motion Cloud (2022) by Bixiao ‘Frankie’ Zhang, an interactive video installation; Nomadic Collective (2022) by Sherry Liu, a printmaking installation and social practice; Secret Chatting (2022) by Anita She, a performance and video; and Where are we going today? (2022) by Rosina Yuan, an interactive projection installation.
Four experimental short films, selected by the EFFA team, will accompany the works: A Demonstration (2020) by Beny Wagner and Sasha Litvintseva; The Pit (2019) by Jona Gerlach; Petrichor (2019) by Shirin Shakhesi; and Wishing Well (2018) by Sylvia Schedelbauer.
Communicating by means both visceral and indelible, these experimental shorts offer haunting and artful inspections of the organising principles that inform how our worlds are constructed and inhabited, including gender, essentialism, sound, time, space, utilitarianism and memory.
Collectively imploring us to appreciate our environments and consider the enigmatic relationship we share with the planet, this collection encourages us to reflect on our world and connect with the planet.
The selection presents a haunting inspection of the organisational principles which inform how our societal narratives are constructed and inhabited, imploring collective appreciation of our environments, as well as reflection upon the complex relationship we share with our planet.
There will be a range of free public events, including the Exhibition Opening Party on September 15, the book launch of Sustainability Art in Hong Kong on October 16 and a Collaborative Collage Workshop on October 29.
Alongside these, Sherry Liu is offering free Artists Chats every Friday throughout the exhibition.
InterPlay runs from September 13 to October 23 at Footscray Community Arts, with a special one-off event on October 29 in The Garden Building, RMIT University.
[For more information, visit: https://www.effa.org.au/exhibitions/interplay.]