[Past Event] Midnight in the Garden

Mezzanotte in giardino is an exhibition of new works by artist, activist, and computer programmer Melanie Thewlis.

Embracing generative AI technologies and traversing oil painting, textile sculpture, e creative coding, the exhibition is a cathartic whirlwind of surrealist works depicting our beautiful and broken dystopia.

After an eight year sojourn in Berlin and Warsaw, Melanie returned home to Naarm/Melbourne in 2018. The following years of bushfires, new motherhood, and pandemic brought a reckoning with the shame and anguish of environmental degradation and colonial legacy.

Melanie has grappled with finding a visual and symbolic language that speaks to her deep feelings of moral compromise, climate grief, alienation from the natural world, and the overwhelming scale and reach of capital.

The resulting works are a discomfiting blend of beauty and sorrow, inviting meditation on the deep sense of unease about our place in the world that many of us carry within.

Opening event

Come along, view the works, and meet the artist while enjoying some light refreshments from Chiosco di Cam.

21 September, 6pm — 8pm 
Galleria di via St Heliers

Orari di apertura

Da lunedì a sabato, dalle 8.00 alle 23.00
Domenica, dalle 15.00 alle 21.00

Circa

Melanie Thewlis is an artist, activist, and computer programmer. She has worked as an ally, advocate, campaigner, and teacher for environmental groups, Aboriginal peoples, Syrian refugees, and women in tech. She works in media ranging from surrealist paintings through textiles, internet of things, and theatre, to interactive projections and online data visualisations. Her work has explored playful connections in public space, power structures in tech capitalism, gender identity, and a fraught relationship to the natural world. She has exhibited in Germany, Austria, Greece, and Australia.

Accessibilità

Image descriptions are available at this exhibition via a QR code.

La galleria di St Heliers Street è accessibile con sedia a rotelle.

Diversità di genere Il Convento è il benvenuto e i clienti possono utilizzare qualsiasi bagno che corrisponda alla loro identità o espressione di genere. Ci sono di genere toilets available close to the venue and gender-neutral bagni disponibili in altre sedi all'interno del comprensorio del Convento. Visualizza il Mappa dei servizi igienici pubblici per trovare il bagno che preferite.