A Forest of Hooks and Nails

Presented in association with Fremantle Arts Centre

Artists often work a range of side jobs to get by. Exhibition install is a prized side hustle, providing close contact with art and the industry, and making use of the artist’s creative knowledge and versatile skills. Working with artists, curators, designers and other staff, installers combine their varied, ever-expanding skills to create elegant exhibitions, seemingly effortlessly. The sign of a good install team is when you don’t notice all the work they’ve done; they’re silent and invisible, essential yet often unrecognised.

In A Forest of Hooks and Nails this dynamic gets flipped on its head – the install crew are the artists. With years of insider knowledge and an intimate understanding of the space, the artists create new artworks across a variety of media specific to Fremantle Arts Centre, the building and its history. Some artists shine a light on their favourite nooks and crannies, while some respond to the materials and processes commonly used to construct, hang, display and light an exhibition. Others delve into the politics and economy of work, labour, production and industry, while some investigate the community and people closely linked to this Fremantle icon.

Through their varied investigation, these artists turn Fremantle Arts Centre inside out and put it back together again, presenting an insightful and enriching look behind the scenes of these hallowed galleries.

Featuring works by Dan Bourke, Phoebe Clarke, Angela Ferolla, Rob Kettels, Maxxi Minaxi May, Hugh Thomson, Phoebe Tran, Tyrown Waigana, Zev Weinstein & Hansdieter Zeh