Season One: Terrestrial There is no lead mine here

Season One: Terrestrial

A world of wonder, magic, and leaps of imagination may be just what it takes to understand the past and reimagine the future. Artists of Season One: Terrestrial explore the terrestrial plane of our planet through the lenses of history, consumer culture, science fiction and fabulism, taking us on a larger-than-life journey through familiar and unfamiliar landscapes. Time fades as we are silenced for a moment to ponder, what do we know about our natural world and how is it that we came to know it?

What might at first seem like wild conceits, artists in this season, across multiple exhibitions present the land back to us reimagined.

The lines between history and fiction become less clear as artists explore and expose truths about our impact, our assumptions and how we will need to engage with the beauty and magic of the terrestrial if we are to preserve it. Through the slipping states, and ethereal grace of land bound places, reimagined, enlivened as if speaking to us through the magic of art, those practitioners – as conduits- probe and point to ultimately interconnected states of existence on Earth.

The exhibition is part of the 2024-25 Seasons program, seeking to connect the artists and regional experiences so often on the frontlines of climate, economic, and political change, showing us the inherent interdependence of our physical ecosystems and that we in turn are not only interconnected but that our future is inescapably and powerfully collective.

There is no lead mine here

There is no lead mine here is a group exhibition exploring the intersections of nature, economics, and communities in a contemporary context. Conditional approval has been granted for an open-cut silver, lead and zinc mine in Central West NSW, 2km from the village of Lue and within 20km of the townships of Mudgee, Kandos, Rylstone and Gulgong.

Artists of There is no lead mine here ask us to consider what is really at stake with a model of continued extraction and to question if the true cost of a transaction is known, would it take place?

Artists // Jo Albany, Gus Armstrong, Andrew Robards

Image: Jo Albany, Playtime (detail), 2023, Courtesy the artist.