STATIC
exhition
The artists collectively seek the unexpected and imperfect contradictions between post-photography and the resurgence of analogue methods. By exploring the tensions between machine, place, and the (often unseen) trace of experience that connects them, Static gestures toward an uncanny, lingering nostalgia.
still yet never moving,
relative and unaware,
i long to be the Static
unburdened,
active without care
there's a loss of information
sitting inside your Tv,
it's a thing they call the Static
dancing, in
a cold black apple screen
when my sore mind begins to pulse,
and rock forms fall inside my chest,
i wish the Static would stop moving
one second,
honey,
take your rest
what’s the point of moving forwards
if it is never far enough?
and when you find it is a circle,
why not stop to swipe the dust?
i feel the weight of all i say,
watching Static everyday,
on the white plain painted wall,
on the ceiling,
by the floor
so i sit beside the river,
underneath the nearest tree,
and i observe the Static
in the light,
the shade,
the breeze
will i ever see you clearly?
will we ever be aligned?
will we ever find the stillness
in a body,
so confined?
and the Static seems to whisper,
seems to lean on me and say,
“honey, you would be so bored
if it were any other way.
what is water if not fluid?
what are leaves without a breeze?
what would earth be with no dawn or dusk,
no spaces in between?
the Static is a force of life,
a space-time in four-D,
it gives you intuition,
it’s in the bloody air you breathe!”
as i leave the Maiwar river,
i take a photo of my sight,
to exist without the movement,
eternal holding in respite
i am still mortified by Static,
it never quite leaves me alone,
but now i bend it into motion,
I know I’ll never be unknown.
By Miranda Westaway
On the opening night of Static, the gallery shifted from hushed anticipation to a low, constant
hum. Viewers moved between pools of light, pausing in front of Dullat’s photographs, then
drifting towards the soft glow of CRT screens that housed the work of Foster, Dixon, and
Kostoglou. Their bodies, blurring with motion, activated the space; breaking the stillness with a
slow choreography of looking, leaning, and lingering. The air, once hollow and echoing,
thickened as voices layered over the ambient crackle of Hill's slide projector, clicking to a
rhythmic beat, like the quiet whirr of machines.
The exhibition’s premise, where still and moving images intersect, felt amplified by this collective presence. Light spilled across faces as shadows folded into the flicker of analogue film, making each viewer momentarily part of the work's restless and moving surface. Conversations clustered and dissolved, a living rhythm echoing the show’s tensions between stasis and change.
The interplay between analogue textures and digital’s cold precision took on a new vitality in this
social exchange. Here, nostalgia was not solitary, but rather shared in glances, gestures, and
the subtle awareness of others’ looking. By the night’s end, Static had become less about
images on walls and more about the shifting field between them; an ever-changing static charge of bodies, sound, and light, dissolving the boundary between artwork and audience.
Sprig Magazine acknowledge the sovereignty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples over the lands and waters upon which our contributors live, work, and create. This sovereignty has never been ceded. We acknowledge the Turrbal and Jagera / Yuggera Peoples and their traditional custodianship of the areas around Meanjin. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging, while recognising that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples are the continuing custodians of millennia-old stories, traditions, and histories.
Leah Mustard
Maria Hill
Kirra Dullat
Matte Dixon
Briana Forster
Chiara Kostoglou
Jay Varnes
Adela Teubner
Ashlee Palmer
Chloe Hannan
Edith Firkin
Eleanor Searle
Emily-Beth Hodgins
Finn Newsway
Haytham Trueheart
Heather Wadeson
Miranda Machalowski
Riley R
Stephen Zavitsanos
Dana Grace
Wendi Bradshaw
Tom McKenzie
Jamie Riddell
Svetlana Sterlin
Adrian Naracita
Ian Mathieson
TJ Kuo
Anna Coppens
E.M Bancroft
Jaedyn Liebenberg
Maria Blackman
Keely Boyle
Tully Connor
Amy Davidson
Louis Rodger
Adelaide Franklin
Isabella Kelso
Sydney McCosh
Stephenie Henricks
Berend van den Brand
Rasy Bayu