At PICA we recognise that we are situated within the unceded lands of the Whadjuk people of the Noongar Nation. We pay our respects and offer our gratitude to Elders past and present, and to those emerging leaders in the community. We acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the importance of their care and continued connection to culture, community and Country.

Always was, always will be.

Galleries are open today, 10am–5pm. Our exhibitions are always free.

Andrea Meacham

Quick Response Residency

Quick Response Residency

Tear Jerker reimagines the Cocytus River as a strange, twisted bathhouse. It’s a muffled wail of grief and aloneness; of pain and suffering roiling away, under the surface, out of view, held at bay by doom-scrolling and dissociative ceiling-staring, rearing its head in private therapy rooms or ugly crying while trying to brush your teeth in the shower. Tear Jerker tries to entangle you in an eternal karaoke video; you slosh about, chased by dolphins and earworms while dry retching at the congealed, soapy hair clump staring out at you from the abyss. Just relax and cry; things won’t be fine, fine, fine. Works developed during this residency with PICA will be exhibited as PS Art Space through a partnership with Cool Change Contemporary from July-September 2024. 

Andrea Meacham is a multidisciplinary artist working in Naarm, so-called Melbourne, Australia. Drawing from cinema, pop culture, music, sex and mythology, they create awkward tongue-in-cheek monuments to care, fragility and embarrassment. By embracing joyful melancholy and magical dreaming, Andrea’s practice seeks to cultivate encounters between artist and audience that examine contemporary anxieties relating to shame, fear and grief.

Andrea is presenting a solo show at Cool Change Contemporary x PS Art Space in Fremantle in 2024, titled Tear Jerker. Andrea has exhibited at Seventh Gallery, Melbourne (Like a heartbeat drives you mad, 2022) and Elevator Gallery, Lismore (Ultra Terrestrial, 2023), she has illustrated covers for poetry anthologies (No More Poetry, 2023) and facilitated critical reading groups (Collapse, 2020—2022). In 2020, Andrea graduated with a Master of Fine Art at RMIT and received the Lowenstein Arts Management Prize. 


Supporters

PICA’s Studio Program is supported by PICA’s Art Ambassadors. This project has been additionally supported by Cool Change Contemporary and PS Art Space.