Image courtesy: Danny Zuvela and ACE Open, Adelaide.

ACE Open’s new group exhibition, WATER RITES, gives voice to Indigenous and environmental perspectives about water. Guest curated by Danni Zuvela, WATER RITES is a group exhibition that brings together new and recent work by some of the country’s most interesting, conceptually-driven First Nations artists, including Libby Harward (Ngugi), Archie Moore (Kamilaroi/Bigambul), Mandy Quadrio (palawa), artists from the Barngarla community in Port Lincoln (Galinyala) and Port Augusta (Goordnada), and more. The exhibition critically examines our relationship to water from the situation of the driest state on the driest continent on earth, in a nation deeply under the spell of extractive industries. WATER RITES positions water as a non-human agent through an array of vessels and acts, giving voice to water, its rhythms, needs and desires.