Out of the Everywhen: Plimsoll Gallery, University of Tasmania

Michael Cook

10 Mar - 6 May 2023

Out of the Everywhen

In 1988, a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous printmakers and art organisations from across Australia produced a series of 32 screen-print posters titled Right Here Right Now in response to the nation’s bicentennial festivities. It provided a strong alternative narrative to the official message of celebration, acutely capturing the state of our nation as it relates to themes including dispossession of Aboriginal people, the environment, demands for justice and land rights. It also provided a powerful message of survival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.

35 years later in 2023, this significant body of work provides a springboard for a new group of artists to project themselves another 35 years into the future. In 2058, how will we have managed to change the course of our trajectory (or not)? What will we get right, what are we still learning, and in what ways has our hubris continued to ignore our future ancestors? Invited artists in this exhibition speculate on our futures, and in turn invite us to imagine and actively create the world we want to live in.

This exhibition includes works by artists of the Right Here Right Now series from 1988 alongside works by artists including Michael Cook, Jordan Cowen, Karla Dickens, Tony Albert and Jazz Money.

Curated by Jane Barlow, Caine Chennatt and Rachael Rose

This exhibition was developed by the Plimsoll Gallery and Cultural Collections, University of Tasmania, and will launch to coincide with the Ten Days on the Island festival 2023.