Push / Pull

Upcoming Exhibition

3 May - 28 June 2025

Candy pink stuffed textile chains stretch against a black metal grid background.

Push / Pull is a program of live, experiential, post-object and otherwise “non-haveable” art, including tactile installation, short and durational performance works, lecture performance, re-enactments and responses to the archive, video, poetry, plants, food, voice, experimental sound and music.

When

3 May to 28 June 2025

Access

Tension is important. Under too much load, things fray, and eventually snap. Too little tension, however, and there’s no push and no pull; only slackness. The right amount of tension can be productive - sharpening senses, attuning us to what is real, risky, and worthy of our attention. Experimental art thrives on tension, drawing its charge from confronting cliches, destabilising norms, proposing new modalities, and cultivating frisson.

Unpacking Adelaide’s leading role as the historical world centre of so-called “post-object art” today, Push / Pull asks: What kinds of encounters are possible, when “the shock of the new” is a local tradition? How can we “think with” the artistic radicalism of the past in ways that outpace old limitations while retaining experimental essences, and amplifying unruly energies? How can we build worlds within contemporary and experimental art around the act of being mutually present?

Push / Pull explores these and other tensions in an exhibition and live program offering points of connection with archival and contemporary “non-haveable” thought and practice.

Feature Image: Shan Michaels' studio (2025), detail, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental. Photography by Sam Roberts.

Artists

Antony Abbracciavento,

Elyas Alavi,

Emiko Artemis,

Stephen Atkinson,

Troy-Anthony Baylis,

Alycia Bennett,

Jingwei Bu,

Patrick William Carter,

Luna Chan,

Allison Chhorn,

Amber Cronin,

Dylan Crismani,

Eleen Deprez,

Stephanie Doddridge,

Adam-Troy Francis,

Paul Gazzola,

Alex Grant,

Sasha Grbich,

Dominic Guerrera,

Ray Harris,

Aidan Hughes,

Matt Huppatz,

Heidi Kenyon,

Kirsty Martinsen,

Monte Masi,

VNS Matrix,

Shan Michaels,

Ariella Napoli,

Alexandra Nitschke,

Chris Reid,

Yasemin Sabuncu,

Fiona Salmon,

Cynthia Schwertsik,

Gabriella Smart,

Soundstream,

Trudy Tandberg,

Sione Teumohenga,

Sarah Tickle,

Henry Wolff,

Shirley Wu,

Robert Wyatt,

Jake Yang,

Yasser Yassin,

Shenshen Zheng,

Students from South Australian School for the Visually Impaired

Curators

Henry Wolff,

Danni Zuvela

Adelaide Contemporary Experimental (ACE) is supported by Create SA and Creative Australia.
This project is supported by City of Adelaide and History Trust of South Australia. Shan Michaels is supported by Arts Queensland.
Special thanks to project partners the South Australian School and Services for the Visually Impaired, and The Mercury.