Onespace Gallery is pleased to present Quandamooka artist, Elisa Jane Carmichael’s latest solo show, Present Surroundings. This body of work explores nurturing country, climate change, the impacts of mining and recontextualising anthropological documentation. Carmichael will honour these themes through an exploration of a range of new mediums, including cyanotypes and photograms. The exhibition also includes a series of woven forms that highlight and share her practice as a multidisciplinary artist from Quandamooka Country.

Katina Davidson remarks on the exhibition’s significance:

“Present Surroundings ventures into the past with the help of Elisa’s matrilineal ancestors. While it acknowledges the long journey of restoring cultural heritage and knowledge, it also carves its own path through innovative techniques and materials, and sets its sights on the future of her beloved island home.”

Additionally, Onespace Gallery Director, John Stafford, comments:

“Elisa Jane Carmichael’s most recent works segue so nicely between abstraction and representation – substance and illusion. As metaphor, they also say something about the solidity and continuity of cultural practice – the authentic work and skills and practice of previous generations are floating in history, intact, but not always with clear definition or recall. Such has been the substantial impact of colonisation – it has damaged clear memory and lineage but this is now starting to emerge more strongly through its reclamation by Elisa’s regenerative practice.”