so hot right now now now
Aleshia Lonsdale, Asma D Mather, David Doyle, Freyja Moon, Gus Armstrong, Kate McKay, Lily Cummins, Ronnie Grammatica
Co-curated by Amala Groom, Kris Townsend, and Alex Wisser
Gallery 1
view the roomsheet
view the catalogue
so hot right now now now is a thematically ambivalent reflection on ‘the art world’ and the waste inherent in its pursuit of aesthetic and cultural trends; the disconnectedness of this economy from the past, and the millenarian consequences of catastrophic climate change impacting Australia now.
The insistent repetition of ‘now now now’ iterates this urgency like the manic flicker of a neon sign advertising the imminence and immediacy of existential apocalyptic threat. This is the contemporary, the now – where extinction is a real possibility, and our society, our culture and our relations are reduced to the terms of survival.
Extending from often autobiographical positions, the eight regional artists involved – Aleshia Lonsdale, Asma D Mather, David Doyle, Freyja Moon, Gus Armstrong, Kate McKay, Lily Cummins, and Ronnie Grammatica – were challenged to conflate these two registers, expressing the realities of contemporary lived experience to create artworks that reflect our common, contemporary condition. The resulting exhibition is grounded in the concrete, located in particular experience and expressive of the lived realities and truths of the communities, people and places to which these artists belong.
so hot right now now now is the final outcome of the Cementa and Arts OutWest Regional Artist Mentoring Program (RAMP), a two year creative and professional development initiative conceived and implemented by Amala Groom, with the support of Alex Wisser and Kris Townsend, to deliver skills, build inroads into arts networks, and present an ambitious public exhibition.
Both so hot right now now now and RAMP were developed with the support of Cementa and Arts OutWest, with mentorship provided by industry curatorial peers including Jeff Khan, Performance Space; Michelle Newtown, Artspace; Adam Porter, Campbelltown Art Centre; and Tian Zhang, PARI; and creative mentorship provided by artists Liam Benson, Deborah Kelly, and Claudia Nicholson.
This exhibition is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW and the Regional Arts Fund provided by Regional Arts Australia and administered by Regional Arts NSW. Program partners include West Darling Arts, Southern Tablelands Arts, Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, and Glasshouse Regional Gallery.
Supporting Partners
Program Partners
