Opening Event | Tensile Connections | Onespace

Exhibition Dates: 7 March - 5 April 2025
Opening Event: Saturday 15 March 2025, 5 - 7pm | Artist Talk: 4 - 5pm 

Onespace invites you to the opening of Tensile Connections, an exhibition showcasing a dynamic collection of works on paper by Sonja Carmichael, Elisa Jane Carmichael, Niloufar Lovegrove (Pishva), and Elysha Rei. This exhibition explores the tensile qualities and materiality of paper, while metaphorically highlighting the deep connections these artists maintain with their cultural identities. The exhibition features Niloufar Lovegrove's (Pishva) Equable Goddess, an ambitious 54-panel lino-cut print that spans the gallery’s largest wall. Japanese Australian artist Elysha Rei delves into transcultural identity, family history, and the untold narratives of Japanese Australian migration through intricately hand-cut paper works inspired by Japanese garden design. Meanwhile, Sonja and Elisa Jane Carmichael present a series of prints, including unique embossed works created with organic materials sourced from Quandamooka Country on Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island).

Essay writer Sally Molloy eloquently states, “… it might be this shared approach to materiality that lends works in Tensile Connections a collective sense of powerful softness: a tactile strength registered in the artists’ use of paper toward cultural resurgence, but also resistance.” 

Nilofaur Lovegrove (Pishva), Golden Horizon, 2025, Hand printed lino on Unryushi & Okawara, hand sewn together, 64 x 96 cm. Image: Louis Lim. Courtesy of the artist and Onespace.