Courtesy: the artist and Jan Manton Gallery, Brisbane.

Jan Manton Gallery presents Wish You Were Here by Kellie O’Dempsey, an immersive installation of collaged works using paper, drawing, tape and video that transports the viewer into an uncertain landscape. Begun throughout the early days of the pandemic, worked and refined in 2023 during post-covid living, Wish You Were Here  began as a response to lockdowns and has continued to develop with transforming elements of humour and oddity.

In this site-specific installation, uncanny household objects collide with uncertain landscapes. In search of progress, multiple figures attempt to travel, yet go nowhere in this oddball world. Their figurative and abstract forms gently smash together as we all fumble for connection. Through repetitive rhythm, monotonous loops, neon lights, remnants of billboard posters, collaged objects and an unspecified time, Wish You Were Here blends the physical and the psychological for a moment of hypnotic but joyful reprieve.

Wish You Were Here is an ongoing project and has previously been exhibited at Redlands Art Gallery, Cleveland, Northsite Contemporary Art Space, Cairns, Outer Space, Brisbane, and Bundaberg Regional Gallery. It has been selected for the 2022 Queensland Regional Art Award. O’Dempsey’s other past performances and works have also been shown at Art after Dark, Pier 2/3, the 18th Biennale of Sydney, MONA FOMA in Hobart, White Night Melbourne, the National Gallery of Australia, and City of Brisbane’s Botanica 2019 & 2021, as well as the interactive exhibition The Storytellers at the Museum of Brisbane.

Opening Events: Thursday 5 October, 5 – 7pm, with an artist talk scheduled Saturday 21 October, 4 – 5pm.

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