Opening & Artist Talk | Crystalline & Barra

Juanita McLachlan Artist Talk | 5pm 

Opening | 5.30pm

Join us for the opening of our next suite of exhibitions, Crystalline and Barra. Hear from artist Juanita McLauchlan speak about her work in Barra at 5pm prior to the launch of both exhibitions 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 opened by Professor David M Watson, ornithologist and ecologist at Charles Stur 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.

Image: Juanita McLauchlan, birralii ngay/My children, 2022 (detail), Woollen blanket, electrical wiring, cotton bias binding, possum fur and tails, cotton thread, contact printed with Australian indigenous plants, 113 x 174 x 7cm.