The Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) presents a multi-layered, multi-generational exploration of intimacy, desire, identity and time across visual arts and contemporary performance by four esteemed artists: Paul Knight (AUS), Jack Ball (AUS), Shannon Te Ao (NZ) and Joel Bray (AUS) for their Kambarang-Birak program from 25 October 2024 – 22 December 2024.

In the central gallery, leading photographic artist Paul Knight’s first major solo exhibition in Australia, L’ombre de ton ombre (The shadow of your shadow), employs Knight’s relationship with his partner Peter as an index of time – invoking the intimacy of the present, alongside the interconnectedness of the deep past and near future, through photography, textiles and technology. 

Recording the ebbs and flows of love, the centrepiece of the exhibition is Knight’s ongoing photographic project Chamber Music, which documents the evolution of his relationship with his partner Peter.

‘Having exhibited one of my first solo shows at PICA in 2005, it feels great to be able to bring this work back. In many ways, the work is different, but essentially, at its core, it is the same as it still strives to render the intimacy at the heart of our lives,’ Knight says.

Also featured within the exhibition is Naked Souls, an experimental new project co–commissioned by PICA, Monash Museum of Art | MUMA and UNSW Galleries that tests what occurs when the language of love is absorbed by intelligent machines. Through machine learning and natural language processing technology, two trained chatbots communicate with each other using text messages from the early years of Knight and Peter’s relationship and dialogue from a science fiction novel, discussing topics from space-craft maintenance to intense feelings of love and lust.

Celebrated Sydney-based artist Jack Ball returns to their home state of WA to present Heavy grit – an ambitious large-scale installation of new works conceived especially for PICA.

Known for their sprawling photographic installations that explore themes of queer intimacy and desire through collage (a method of undoing and remaking to create new forms), Ball’s work for PICA’s West End disrupts binaries and showcases the possibilities of abstraction.

Ball says, ‘Over the years I’ve experienced so many exhibitions in PICA’s West End Gallery by artists that I look up to and respect. Many of these exhibitions have resonated deeply and had a significant impact on my practice. I am excited to have the opportunity to develop a new body of work specially for this space.’

The title, Heavy grit alludes to the underlying sensations and tensions at the core of this new body of work. Within the installation, photographs of materials held in the collection of the Australian Queer Archive appear alongside recent images documenting Ball’s studio constructions and moments of everyday life. The artist’s work in the archives explores fragments and glimpses of trans histories and desires through sensory and material connections. 

Working across film, photography and performance – for their first time exhibiting in Western Australia – Aotearoa (New Zealand)-based artist Shannon Te Ao (Ngāti Tūwharetoa/NZ) presents a richly layered cross-generational exploration of place and memory.

Te Ao’s single-channel film what was or could be today (again) borrows its title from an inscription found on the reverse of a landscape painting by Te Ao’s grandmother, Makere Rangitoheriri. The painting depicts a small wetland reserve in the region surrounding Taupō-nui-a-tia (Lake Taupō) in Aotearoa (New Zealand), to which the artist’s family is closely tied. 

Filmed in slow motion, what was or could be today (again) follows elite triathlete Ngarama Milner-Olsen as she swims across Lake Taupō, Aotearoa’s largest body of water. Accompanied by a lilting waiata (song), the work is a sensuous meditation on experiences separated in time – yet inextricably linked by place.

From 23–26 October, PICA’s foyer will be re-converted into a performance space for actor, dancer, writer and proud Wiradjuri man Joel Bray’s return to Western Australia. Homo Pentecostus sees the WAAPA-trained performer lead an odyssey of self-discovery and liberation, in an intimate and bodily exploration of his secret queer identity within the confines of a 1990s Pentecostal Church. 

Co-commissioned by PICA and Malthouse Theatre and previously performed in Melbourne in May by Bray and Peter Paltos (of whom both share a queer experience of growing up in the Pentecostal church), Homo Pentecostus is an ecstatic testament to resilience, love and the pursuit of personal truth.  

Pentecostalism is Australia’s fastest-growing religion, and Bray leads his audience through an insider’s perspective – both humorous and heavy – on the intersection of faith and sexuality.

PICA’s Kambarang­-Birak program opens on Friday 25 October and runs till Sunday 22 December 2024.

Content Advisory: Paul Knight: L’ombre de ton ombre explores themes of sexual intimacy. Please be advised that the exhibition contains adult content including nudity and sexually explicit images and language. Viewer discretion is advised.  

Paul Knight: L’ombre de ton ombre (The shadow of your shadow) is supported by PICA’s Art Commissioners and presented in partnership with Monash University Museum of Art | MUMA, Melbourne and UNSW Galleries, Sydney.

Jack Ball’s Heavy grit is supported by PICA’s Art Commissioners, the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund, and assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.

Joel Bray’s Homo Pentecostus is commissioned by PICA and Malthouse and supported by PICA’s Director’s Circle and Creative Victoria through the Creative Ventures Fund and Creative Australia.

Notes to the Editor