Fulgora curated by EO Gill
EXHIBITIONS
Fulgora curated by EO Gill
3 February – 5 March 2023
The Rayner Hoff Project Space
Monday to Saturday
11am – 5pm
Free admission
Exhibition Image Design Charlie Cummings
Coinciding with Sydney WorldPride 2023 and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the National Art School is delighted to present the group exhibition Fulgora curated by video artist and independent curator EO Gill.
Fulgora presents a suite of commissioned video works by 5 Australian-based artists that are punctuated by a selection of films programmed in collaboration with LA-based collective Dirty Looks Inc.
The fulgora, more commonly known as ‘the lantern fly’, is a species of winged insect with a large, bulbous proboscis. Originally thought to produce light, the proboscis has no obvious practical or survivalist function. The entomologist Roger Caillois uses the useless proboscis to define insect mimicry as a ‘luxury’ rather than something to do with natural survival. The fly’s unique endowment points to a decadent excess of evolution.
The fulgora symbolises figures of luxuriance, characterised by delight in perversion, indulgence and pleasure on the one hand, and evasion, disappearance and deception on the other.
By extension, Fulgora speaks to luxuriant video practices that disrupt conventional acts of looking and force us to ask where our pleasure begins.
Recommended for age 16 years and up.
Fulgora is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
Australia-based Video Works:
Tarik Ahlip, Claudia Nicholson, Jimmy Nuttall, Ainslie Templeton, and VT.
LA Based Program with Dirty Looks Inc. featuring Tom Chomont, Michael Zen
Dirty Looks Inc
Dirty Looks Inc is a non-profit platform for queer film, video, and performance founded in 2011. Using film and time-based art to illuminate queer histories and liminal spaces across Los Angeles and New York City, Dirty Looks traces contemporary queer aesthetics through historical works, presenting quintessential GLBTQ film and video, alongside up-and-coming artists and filmmakers.
Passionate about collections and the arts? Join us as a Digitisation Volunteer!
The National Art School Archive and Collection team is looking for enthusiastic Digitisation Volunteers to help bring our art collection to life! Your work will play a key role in making art and history more accessible—by photographing and recording our collections, enhancing our museum database, and digitising our extensive archive of photographs. Through your efforts, every stored object and artwork in our collection will have a high-quality, searchable digital record for generations to come.
Apply at the link in bio.
Apr 2
Opening night: Gesture and Trace
Join us on Saturday 12 April for the opening night of Gesture and Trace, a collaborative exhibition with the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts (LAFA), Shenyang, China. Featuring 16 students and recent alumni from the National Art School (NAS) and LAFA’s Textiles and Chinese Ink Departments, this exhibition explores cross-cultural perspectives on drawing and material practices.
This exhibition is presented by the National Centre for Drawing, in conjunction with Facture: Drawing Symposium 2025.
Purchase your tickets to the symposium at the link in bio.
Apr 1
Bring a friend to Winter School and save!
We’re offering a 15% discount on the purchase of a second Winter School course—as part of our exclusive ‘bring a friend’ special.
How it works:
1. Sign up for any Winter School course
2. Invite a friend to join you on the learning journey
3. Get 15% off when you purchase a second course for yourself or your friend
Learn more at the link in bio.
Mar 31
Introducing Sean O`Connell and Pia van Gelder, speakers at Facture: Drawing Symposium 2025
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Moderated by Ben Denham, Sean will explore traditional and extended practices that map connections and energetic exchange within abstracted landscapes, while Pia will discuss drawing of electronic circuits and their curious divinatory elements in 20th century radionics and their own work with electrodermal activity and audio synthesis.
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Sean O`Connell is an artist exploring the internal world of matter and the movement of electrical energy and force. He uses alternative photographic techniques, electronic circuitry, noise, energetic structures and experimental processes to visualise and sonify these spaces of interest. His work is concerned with the realms of both matter and electricity, exploring the ways they each transform, modulate, and inform one another`s nature through their interaction.
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Pia van Gelder is an electronic artist, researcher and historian at the School of Art and Design at the Australian National University. Their research investigates historical and contemporary conceptions of energy and how these shape our relationships with technologies, bodies and environments. Their scholarship has concentrated on the influence of esotericism on electronic instruments of the 20th century and their studio practice produces instruments for performance and installation contexts. Their current project *The Energies Artists Say* with co-editor Douglas Kahn, presents a methodology for understanding the polyvalence of energies in practices across the arts.
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Facture: Drawing Symposium 2025
Saturday 12 April 2025
Facture – The manner in which something is made
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Learn more about the speakers and symposium at the link in bio.
Mar 28
We’re looking for a Facilities and Risk Manager - Application Deadline Sunday 13 April
The Facilities and Risk Manager effectively manages and organises services and resources for the facilities, workshop, security, WHS, and campus operations of National Art School in Darlinghurst. In addition, they provide strategic support and advice to senior management on all issues related to facilities and campus operations.
Apply at the link in bio.
Mar 27
Introducing Kirtika Kain and Kyra Mancktelow, speakers at Facture: Drawing Symposium 2025
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Moderated by Chelsea Lehmann, Kirtika will be discussing the role of drawing in process, experimentation, and abstraction in material and socially-engaged practices, while Kyra will discuss the influence Dylan Mooney`s work has had on their practice, especially his most recent exhibition The Story of My People.
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Kirtika Kain is an artist practicing on Darug Country, New South Wales, Australia. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2016 and was awarded the Bird Holcomb Scholarship to complete her Master of Fine Art in 2018 at the National Art School, Sydney. She was a recipient of the Lloyd Rees Memorial Youth Art Award in 2017, the Art Incubator Grant and Dyason Bequest, Art Gallery of New South Wales, and a finalist in the Churchill Fellowship and numerous art prizes including Blacktown Art Prize (2017, 2019). Kirtika has been a finalist in the Create NSW Emerging Artist Fellowship at Artspace, a recipient of the Parramatta Artist Studio (2020, 2024) and an artist in residence at the British School at Rome (2019) and the Amant Siena Summer Residency (2022).
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Kyra Mancktelow’s multidisciplinary practice investigates legacies of colonialism, posing important questions such as how we remember and acknowledge Indigenous histories. A Quandamooka artist with links to the Mardigan people of Cunnamulla, Kyra’s practice includes printmaking, ceramics, and sculpture – each applying a unique and distinct aesthetic. Kyra works with various materials to share her rich heritage, stories, and traditions to educate audiences and strengthen her connection to Country. Her printmaking explores intergenerational trauma as a result of forced integration on colonial missions, and her use of local materials in her sculpture, including clay, emu features, and Talwalpin (cotton tree), strengthens her connection to Country.
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Facture: Drawing Symposium 2025
Saturday 12 April 2025
Facture – The manner in which something is made
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Learn more about the speakers and symposium at the link in bio.
Mar 27
