From Hereon: Posthuman, Nonhuman, Antihuman

A visual arts exhibition featuring virtual imaging technologies that speculate on what it means to be human – or not

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THE ARTISTS
Tully Arnot + Josh Harle, Hayden Fowler, Tristan Jalleh, Georgie Roxby Smith, Maija Tammi (Finland) and Liam Young, along with Brett Leavy’s Bilbie Virtual Labs.
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ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
From hereon: posthuman, antihuman, nonhuman showcases new works by creatives, which share a common concern – how do we negotiate our presence in this contemporary world, and the influences that direct how we will move forward. The artists and collectives use photography, moving image and imaging technologies to produce innovative music videos, digital simulations and Virtual Reality (VR), which speculate on our existence in the near future.

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Premiering his latest work, speculative architect and futurist Liam Young considers a counterculture reacting against a government empowered by surveillance technologies. Collaborating with New York based creatives and using LiDAR scanning, Camouflage choreography presents dance, fashion and music that encapsulates an emerging underground movement.

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Brett Leavy’s Bilbie Virtual Labs presents Barani from its suite of virtual world projects that feature significant geographical sites across Australia. Unconstrained by linear time Barani, which translates as ‘long ago’, Leavy’s team interweaves the land and activities of the Gadigal people pre-colonisation with an urbanised Sydney cityscape.
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Music video creative Tristan Jalleh constructs his digital-born environs using a range of technologies from a smartphone to drawing with Pixelmator. Lyrical and hyper-real, the aesthetic Jalleh’s human-less virtual sites emerges from an appreciation for the ‘constant churn of construction and demolition’.
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For the last decade, the gender and identity constructs of the alternate reality Second Life have fascinated Georgie Roxby Smith. With a critical yet humorous vision, Roxby Smith presents a posthuman self-portrait against the deconstructed virtual environs of online game performance machinima.

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Finnish artist and scientist, Maija Tammi explores biographical time, where existence is tied to the human life span. Her most recent works positions various species, including humans, in contrast the immortal freshwater hydra.
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The exhibition will evolve with the later addition of two works on 20 October. Hayden Fowler continues his intimate engagements with the nonhuman world. Responding to the catastrophic 2019 Australian bushfires, his most recent work explores the desolation of current environmental realities through a dystopian lens of loss.

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Tully Arnot + Josh Harle will premier their VR work that investigates nonhuman perception and communication. Visitors can use their personal smartphone with our complimentary VR headsets to experience a virtual world that considers our relationship with ecological systems and speculate on posthuman futures.

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Posthuman, nonhuman and antihuman are terms that extend on traditional concepts of how we relate to technology, nature and perceptions of our collective selves. The creatives exhibiting in ‘From hereon’ use imaging technologies to challenge our human-centric position and promotes respect for other sentient beings that share this planet. Some works disrupt notions of the linearity of time while others deliberate on life in future societies.

ABOUT THE AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY
For forty-seven years the Australian Centre for Photography (ACP) has been the leading advocate for photography and photo media. It supports and promotes contemporary artists, educates audiences and students of photography, and inspires conversations through lens-based creative practices.
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The ACP showcases exciting contemporary lens-based media from Australia and overseas, in an agile and site-responsive program of exhibitions and public forums. The ACP’s national and international touring program consists of ACP-curated exhibitions travelling to museums and galleries in regional Australia and overseas.