Ecological duo announced as curators-in-residence at MADA Gallery for 2023

Chantelle Mitchell and Jaxon Waterhouse have been awarded the MADA Gallery Curators in Residence for 2023.

The duo will curate a series of three exhibitions called, The line is life itself. The theme of the exhibition is Traces, Threads and Surfaces and looks at theorist Tim Ingold's taxonomy of the line.

“Each exhibition takes one of Ingold’s classifications of the line as its focus. Concretely, works in these exhibitions explore memory, place, time and record though multiple forms and practices. They explore networks of association, a tapestry woven across time and thing, presenting multiple pathways for audiences to navigate. Our relationship with ways of seeing, mapping, technologies of surveillance and the formation of place. All of this can be revealed through a consideration of, and search for the line itself,” says Mitchell and Waterhouse.

Mitchell and Waterhouse hope the exhibition series will resonate across disciplines and the ubiquity of line will provide a simultaneously personal and collective viewing experience.

“We do not have a singular aim for this exhibition, but rather present The line is life itself as the consideration of modes of practice and relation, across the visible and invisible lines that represent connectivity. Doing so challenges notions of temporal linearity, endorses the creation of pathways through and between places and concepts.”

“The Curators in Residence position presents a rather uncommon opportunity for independent artists and curators; the chance to explore various iterations of a concept in multiple forms, building over time, and working with numerous artists in various stages of their practice and careers, and with a strong collection of works.”

Mitchell and Waterhouse’s research and curatorial interests lie in contemporary art settings and are explored through their project Ecological Gyre Theory. Chantelle Mitchell is working as a researcher for the University of Vienna, on a project which considers the material complexity of air and Jaxon Waterhouse works in the remote community of Kintore in the Northern Territory.

The pair have contributed to many exhibitions, books, journals and magazines including e-flux, Green Letters, art+Australia, on_Culture, and Unlikely Journal, and are currently guest editors for Swamphen: a journal of cultural ecology.