A multi-disciplinary exhibition co-commissioned by UTS Gallery & Art Collection and La Trobe Art Institute, All That is Alive presents a collection of work that considers what sustains and defines life.
Curators Connie Anthes, Stella Rosa McDonald, Jacqui Shelton and Amelia Wallin have commissioned 11 new works in addition to several loans from artists and collectives. Embracing the mediums of dance, weaving, printmaking, sculpture and publishing, the themes of regeneration and growth are common threads throughout the exhibition as artists explore living systems, whether biological, technological, cultural or social.
As Shelton explains, connections are made across history through the transference of knowledge and the use of culturally significant materials. “In Dabiyil Bajara (Water Footprints) (2021), Sonja and Elisa Jane Carmichael work with natural fibres and dyes to create woven forms that embody the rhythms of Country. Their practice positions weaving as a living system—one that transmits cultural knowledge and sustains connection to land and water through generations of Quandamooka women.”
Contrasting with this is Tully Arnot’s Silicon (2025), a work firmly planted in today’s technological revolution. “Silicon reimagines a robotic vacuum cleaner as a sentient being,” Shelton says. “It humorously yet poignantly questions what it means to be alive, and what forms of consciousness might emerge from technology.”
Also highlighting environmental sustainability, the exhibition features a catalogue printed and bound on site by audience members and bio-signage made from algae-based materials. “Across the two iterations of All That is Alive, works will enlarge, pickle, shrink, double, hibernate and reorient,” says Shelton. “While some will appear unchanged, their programming or internal elements will be reconfigured in response to architecture and environmental context.”
All That is Alive
UTS Gallery, Sydney
Until 12 December
La Trobe Art Institute, Bendigo
25 February—10 May 2026
This article was originally published in the November/December 2025 print edition of Art Guide Australia.
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