NAS NEO – Rocked Sculptures

Thursday 27 July, 6–10pm

NAS NEO is art in motion.

Join us for NAS NEO’s July edition as we fuse the worlds of sculpture and punk. With Sydney’s best punk bands, interactive sculpture installations across campus, workshops, DJs, food trucks, and much more, NAS NEO is Sydney’s hottest FREE art after-hours event.

This NAS NEO features some of Sydney’s finest hardcore and punk talent, with Optic Nerve, Carnations, and Grace Lee performing live at the Cell Block Theatre.

Optic Nerve

8.00pm – 8.45pm

Cell Block Theatre

So much sets Optic Nerve apart that it’s hard to know where to start. For one, there are Gigi De Lacy’s cut-up lyrics. Delivered with a bark at turns harrowing and triumphant, they honour the nuance of complex frustrations while subverting punk’s tired trend for abject and simplistic negativity. They are referential, but to a point where it becomes high-concept.

Carnations

7.20pm – 7.55pm

Cell Block Theatre

Carnations are an Art-punk/Jangle-pop band. Songs that are churned through with lilted cultish singing, swirling bright keys, and guitar, backed by a clattering rhythm section. Their amorphous sound can feel like falling forward but moving fast enough to not let you hit the ground. At times honest and at times aloof. A reminder that happiness is merely oneness with the void.

Grace Lee

6.55pm – 7.15pm

Cell Block Theatre

Grace’s new solo project is covers of some of her favourite and least favourite songs to make them better or worse. She records them in her bedroom and then her brother Henry mixes them in his bedroom. Grace has been playing in the music scene in Sydney for a few years. This is her official debut. An album is coming.

Sculpture Installations

6pm – 10pm

Across Campus

We’ll have installations across campus including Telegraph Poles from Finlay Tease, Dumb Bitch Diaan from Diaan, works from Scarlet Stokoe, Sue Taylor, Martin Oldfield, Jacob, Gary Deirmendjian and so much more.

Compositional Chess

6pm – 9.30pm

The Chapel

Join us for Compositional Chess in the Chapel where you’ll join teams to create your own unique structures against others in something one part chess, one part improv theatre, and one part installation making.

Sculptural Arrangement

6pm – 9.30pm

Join Scarlet Stokoe for a fascinating workshop rearranging natural, organic materials into your own sculptures and works of art.

Occurrent Affair

6pm – 10pm

NAS Gallery

NAS Galleries will be open with Occurrent Affair, an exhibition from Brisbane-based Indigenous Art Collective proppaNOW. Established in 2003, proppaNOW is one of Australia’s leading cultural collectives, exploring the politics of Aboriginal art and culture, and provoking, subverting and re-thinking what it means to be a ‘contemporary Aboriginal artist’.

Conceived as a collaborative activist gesture, OCCURRENT AFFAIR will address current socio-political, economic and environmental issues, while celebrating the strength, resilience and continuity of Aboriginal culture. Engaging wordplay through its title, OCCURRENT AFFAIR references the sensational journalistic style of some television current affair programs. The exhibition will reflect on the ongoing state of affairs affecting Aboriginal communities – issues that are relevant to all Australians.

Pyroglyphics

6pm – 10pm

NAS Library Stairwell Gallery

The NAS Library Stairwell Gallery presents PYROGLYPHICS, a BFA 3rd year Ceramics group show featuring work by Alex Bray, Alexia Fisher, Chloe Arathoon, Eva Huang, Georgie Rosenberg, Jen Lennon, Kate Hunter-Walker, Kenya Peterson, Lola Lister, Mark Okeil, Milla Thompson, Omi McCurdie, Tali Ayoub, Talan Alexander, Yulin Hao.

DJ Court Jester

Cell Block Courtyard

DJ Court Jester will be spinning tracks across the night with an eclectic selection of house, techno, lo-fi, and everything else to keep you moving.

Food Trucks

We’ll have Saj House serving up Manoush fresh on site and Sharon Kwan Kitchen delivering Malaysian deliciousness.

This initiative is proudly supported by the NSW Government through the Culture Up Late Program.

#NASNEO #CultureUpLate #CUL2023.

NAS NEO

On Gadigal Land

6–10pm

National Art School

Entry via Forbes Street, Darlinghurst

This initiative is proudly supported by the NSW Government through the Culture Up Late Program.

#NASNEO #CultureUpLate #CUL2023.