Substrate is a cross-institutional exhibition exchange between UNSW Art & Design and the University of Newcastle that brings together a selection of works by students who work with photography in the undergraduate degree program. The works in the exhibition present a diversity of compelling ideas in photography and photo-based art in the form of still and moving images, objects and installations.

Join the Sydney Knitting Nannas for a discussion on the use of knitting as a tool for non-violent political activism and take part in a banner making workshop.

In the era of the colonial anthropocene how do we address histories of loss and disappearance in relation to resurgence? Thinking with Patagonia and other southern spaces, and the Fuegan peoples, I discuss how we might address decolonial representation as working to a politics of and critical solidarity with Indigenous cultural memory, presence, and planetary futures.

Soft Monument is an exhibition by Cambodian-Australian artist Linda Sok which looks to subvert the ways historically felt traumas have been addressed throughout history. The work speaks to the Khmer Rouge Regime without depictions of violence and promotes a softer way of communicating the occurrence of the violent acts perpetrated during this time and its ongoing effects.

When rivers are legally people, does that encourage collaboration and partnership between humans and rivers, or establish rivers as another competitor for scarce resources?

Precarity is a defining feature of contemporary labour. From casualisation to the gig economy, from the erosion of workers rights to the neoliberal drive to transform individuals into entrepreneurs, work is increasingly defined by the absence of safeguards and employee rights.

Tours of ‘Material Place’ will explore key works, themes and ideas from the exhibition whilst connecting to the history and geography of the Galleries site itself.