Push / Pull is an ambitious program that brings together themes and areas of focus that, for artistic director Danni Zuvela, honour the history of Adelaide Contemporary Experimental, or ACE (and its predecessors, Experimental Art Foundation and the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia) as a platform for radical experimentation. It looks to a best-practice future where programming is developed in deep collaboration with communities, with accessibility at the forefront.
Push / Pull is many things at once: an exhibition, performance series, public programs, community-led workshops, and interventions by 38 artists and non-artists, including 33 from South Australia. The gallery will feature works by Jingwei Bu, Patrick William Carter, Trudy Tandberg, Shenshen Zheng, Shan Michaels, and students from South Australian School and Services for Vision Impaired (SASSVI), as well as a sound composition by Antony Abbracciavento. There’s a strong focus on works that can be experienced through senses other than sight—in particular touch—as well as tactile wayfinding.
Several gallery works will be transformed by iterative performative actions. As Zuvela says, “you could [visit] five or seven times throughout the exhibition, and it would look different every time.” The program, developed by Zuvela and Henry Wolff, is fit for the Festival City. It’s dense, with five major events plus other, smaller happenings. The project’s centrepiece is Deeply Hanging Out, a program of talks, performances, and screenings on 23 and 24 May.
In times of uncertainty it’s tempting to hold on to what’s known, and to minimise the possibility of failure. With its openness to trying new things, to de-centring visual experience, and to messy complexity, Push / Pull feels like a hopeful and celebratory expansion in times of contraction.
Push / Pull
Adelaide Contemporary Experimental
3 May—28 June
This article was originally published in the May/June 2025 print edition of Art Guide Australia.
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