This Light, by Joseph Burgess, 2022. Image courtesy of the artist | Alex Tálamo, 30,000 Shots, live performance composite image, 2020, Photographer Credit: Alex Tálamo | Nebbi Boii, A High Priestess, 2025, mixed media, size variable | The Eye of Earth, by Dana Albattrawi, 2025. Image courtesy of the artist | Wirrin Ward-Lowe, CHRU BLEW, 2025 Canvas and Stainless steel, 107cm x 350cm

Gallery 1

What Falls Must Be Pushed

Joseph Burgess, Kiera Brew Kurec, Alex Tálamo, Nebbi Boii, Dana Albattrawi & Wirrin Ward-Lowe

This exhibition considers the function of art in articulating opposition, fostering solidarity and imagining alternative futures. How do methodologies of protest, resistance and action emerge in contemporary art under conditions of censorship, disinformation and oppression? What does it mean to preserve cultural traditions and stories in defiance of erasure? What channels are available to intervene, disrupt and question power structures? How do artists mobilise materials, symbols, and bodies as tools for change? And how can we sustain movements beyond moments of crisis?

While protest, direct action, and political organising remain vital, these efforts can be sustained and amplified by cultural production—by images, performances, objects, and gestures that embody the values of resistance. This exhibition acknowledges that art does not exist in isolation from political movements but actively shapes and is shaped by them. What Falls Must Be Pushed presents culture as not just a reflection of political struggle but an active force within it.