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Mantle I show installation image. ‘Edifice'. Scaffolding by Nqa Blayed, ceramics by Antoinette O'Brien. 2023. Courtesy the artists. Photo: Elise Derwin⁠

Mantle II

Nqa + Antoinette

Gallery 1

Roomsheet

Mantle II is a part of an ongoing collaboration between the artists Nqa Blayed and Antoinette O’Brien. It emerged from their enduring friendship and was conceived for an exhibition at Elevator ARI in Lismore in 2022. After the brutal Lismore floods last March, in which Antoinette escaped out of the roof of her studio, the infrastructure of the town, the gallery, their lives, and creative pursuits had to be rebuilt to get back to their starting point in 2023.

Shared experiences of the climate disaster tested and solidified their shared support networks and highlighted that both artists address ideas of support in their individual practices. Championing collective energy, witnessing how it transcends individual efforts, not only enriching their art-work but also building a sense of community with a shared purpose.

Antoinette’s ceramic works sit in various stages of resolve, speaking to themes of endurance and vulnerability. She is known for works that push clay to its limits, resulting in tearing and buckling. These inhabit Nqa's seemingly fragile and unstable environments. Nqa makes life-casts, miniatures, noise objects and employs literal 'supports' such as scaffolding in her installation practice. Their compositions are staged in various phases of development/demise to capture the transitory nature of existence while intertwining their complementary disciplines.

In this project they consider assemblages of fragility and strength in the oscillations between support and insecurity in their lives. They hope to stimulate conversation and invite viewers to examine the forms of their own support networks.