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Certain Realities

A performance with a  woman in a light pink outfit is bent at the waist with an arm and leg stretched out behind her. Several people are viewing this performance in a gallery space with purple metal structures in the room
Certain Realities

Lizzie Thomson in Certain Realities
Murray Art Museum Albury, 2019
Image by Jeremy Weihrauch

We have all been impacted by cultural tension in our environment. Pointing out where these cultural tensions existed has been one role of an artist.
Certain realities brought together seven such artists, dedicated to their practice of social investigation and cultural articulation.

The assembly of sculpture, painting, installation, and newly commissioned performances placed the artists voice, concerns, and anxieties at the centre of the conversation.

Barriers, impediments and thresholds presented as recurring motifs with Isadora Vaughan’s beeswax screens and mycelium colonies, Spence Messih’s poetic use of everyday materials, Tony Schwensen’s handcrafted prototypes for a Mexico / US border wall, and Anna Kristensen’s enigmatic photo realist paintings. A major work by Archie Moore took the simplest of marks – X – and ruminated on colonial history, violence and sovereignty.

Incorporated across the exhibition was a series of performance works, with Spence Messih and Tony Schwensen inviting community readings that amplified the concerns of their static works.


Dancer and choreographer Lizzie Thomson’s newly commissioned work considered dance’s fraught cultural history, and a commissioned five-part performance by Brian Fuata presented artwork as correspondence, the artist had sought connection with men in the Albury area, also named Brian. The exhibition concluded amidst the noise of the Archie Moore fronted art rock band, ∑gg√e|n.

Each artist’s work existed in pursuit of truth and understanding. This exhibition recognised the importance of their artistic labour and its ability to shape wider social efforts. With each artists’ contribution we were invited to contend with certain realities.

Exhibition Images

A man in a dark jacket looks at text on the wall. Behind him are purple metal sculptures and wood pieces on white plinths.
Certain Realities

Murray Art Museum Albury, 2019
Image by Peter Charlesworth

A purple metalwork sculpture with lines extended upwards to the corners of the frame, the word Conjure is secretly hidden in the lines extended to the sides of the work
Spencer Messih

CONJURE, 2018
Steel, sand, glass
Image by Jacquie Manning, courtesy of the artist and MCA

Two people in jumpers and with orange hair look at a series of hanging black t-shirts on a rack
Archie Moore

Shirtfront (t-shirt series), 2017
Installation view
Image by Jeremy Weihrauch

A realistic painting with a woman looking out a window of a messy building holding a black circle with sections missing. The metal frame around the painting is in the shape of a rhombus on its side. The frame is covered in marks created by a dremel
Anna Kristensen

Desert Window, 2014
oil on linen, stainless steel
Image courtesy of the artist

A group of people standing behind stomach high pillars, looking at a collection of poems each under an orange.
Tony Schwensen

Trump poems, 2015 – ongoing
seven poems, limited edition inkjet prints on paper
Image by Peter Charlesworth

A man in a white shirt with one sitting out in front of him and the other hidden behind, weaving between pillars. VIsitors around him watch.
Brian Fuata

Broadloom [working title, subject to change], 2019
A performance in five parts
Image by Jeremy Weihrauch

A woman with waving blonde hair holding a toddler both look at hung pieces of mushrooms
Isadora Vaughn

Spent Bodies, 2019
Installation view
Image by Jeremy Weihrauch

A band places in the Atrium of MAMA lit by blue light, from the ceiling is a large while moving on top of artist Archie Moore's head.
∑gg√e|n

Live performance
Image by Jeremy Weihrauch

A room with metal and wood sculptures. Paintings are visible in the background.
Certain Realities

Installation view
Image by Jeremy Weihrauch

Exhibitions