Take a deep breath! NETS Victorian exhibition Conflated is on tour to ANU

Posted on 28 September, 2022

It’s an exhibition dreamed out of our bodies—the coming together and pulling apart of our lungs, and the beginning of that life-giving dance all over again.

Drawing closely on the idea of inflation and deflation, Victorian artists have had the freedom to explore very literal interpretations while creating mesmerising works that evoke deep questioning of our society, culture, and experiences. And now this moving exhibition (literally) is making its way to the Australian National University (ANU) School of Art & Design Gallery on September 29 before leaving audacious marks around Australia.

These talented and completely diverse artists were invited to explore the thematic nature of conflation, brought together by co-creators Zoë Bastin and Claire Watson. Within their shared space, a beautiful intersection of themes comes to life in the form of video art pieces, installations that confront the deflation of icebergs, and lime green performance pieces that poetically weave between inflatable objects. Truly nothing is off limits.

As Eugenia Lim explains, the unfurling of ideas and discussion amongst artists began pre-COVID—transcending into unexpected realms once the pandemic was in full force. Notions of breath, lungs, touch and the body quickly began circulating with language such as isolation, sickness and fear.

For Eugenia,  human connection (or rather the lack of) became a compelling focal point.

“Something that is so necessary for us to live and function suddenly became dangerous and forced us to isolate our breath from others. I  wanted to come up with a work that would be about connection, belonging and being together with others, even despite this new kind of COVID environment,” she says.

As you step inside the world of Conflated,  it’s easy to get lost in Eugenia’s work. Her performance video art piece tightly stitches itself to this intimate exploration of the human body—remapping movement, people and community.

“My work ended up being this kind of shared costume that three people were one of them was myself, and the other two are key members from the Kyneton area in Victoria, which is on Taungurung Country. And one of them is actually the mayor of the town, and the other is a tip worker there.”

“And so the three of us inhabited this costume and had to learn to sort of move and breathe. I guess it was one, even though we weren’t really touching. But the costume made us this creature with many limbs’ in the work.”

It’s through Eugenia’s tender portrait that we witness this disarming of power dynamics, where a tip worker and a mayor can move profoundly as one—such is the nature of the multidimensional, inspiring exhibition.

“I was interested in working with two people at opposite ends of the environmental, ecological chain. Where one gets to make policy, and the other works on the ground to keep different materials recycled and flowing throughout the town,” she says.

“I was already interested in doing that before COVID hit, but I think it became even more important to witness each other and understand us as all connected as part of this community together so it took on a deeper meaning in the pandemic.”

Each artist has worked independently from each other during this creation process, breathing life into an expansive exhibition—where every piece holds power, pushes a different boundary and offers new meaning to a constantly inflating and deflating world. And as Canberra experiences this beautiful showcase for the first time, so will the artists.

“None of us have seen each other’s work yet, so it’s going to be really interesting to see it all as a whole and to see how each artist has approached the brief because they’re going to be really different but all very moving. It’s very exciting to finally see it come together,” says Eugenia.