'Push / Pull' – She Also Performs

Special Event

2 May - 24 May 2025

Two hooded figures in motion and stillness, connected by string in a dimly lit room, evoke mystery and quiet tension.

She Also Performs is a performance project that revisits and reimagines feminist histories of live art from the ACE archive.

When

2 May to 24 May 2025

Access

Sparked by the discovery of a set of mysterious negatives in a filing cabinet, documenting the 1976 Ritual Performance by Pam Gilbert in the Experimental Art Foundation (EAF) basement, the project brings archival performance works into dialogue with contemporary experimental practice. Through three new works, artists respond to past performances with care, curiosity and a feminist lens.

Jingwei Bu revisits Pam Gilbert’s Ritual Integration Performance (1976), Luna Chan reimagines Tony Kirkman’s The Working Week (1974) as The Working Day and Sasha Grbich performs Kim Gray’s SWEATER (1976), a piece involving string, ginger, boiling water and a Mallee stump.

She Also Performs is part of Push / Pull and will be accompanied by a new essay from researcher Alexandra Nitschke, along with archival images and side-by-side documentation of past and present works.

Feature Image: Pam Gilbert (1976), ‘Ritual Integration Performance’, Post-Object Art: A Survey, Australia and New Zealand, Experimental Art Foundation (EAF).

She Also Performs Artists

Jingwei Bu,

Luna Chan,

Sasha Grbich

Essay Writer

Alexandra Nitschke

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

Pam Gilbert (1976), ‘Ritual Integration Performance’, Post-Object Art: A Survey, Australia and New Zealand, Experimental Art Foundation (EAF).

Kim Gray (1976), ‘SWEATER’, performed by Jim Allen. Post-Object Art: A Survey, Australia and New Zealand, Experimental Art Foundation (EAF).

Luna Chan (2025), 'The Working Day'

About the Exhibition

Featuring a program of live, experiential, post-object and otherwise ‘non-haveable’ art encounters, and unpacking Adelaide’s leading role as the historical world centre of post-object art today, Push / Pull asks: What kinds of encounters are possible, when the shock of the new is a local tradition?

Support

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.