Ecological Gyre Theory
Chantelle Mitchell & Jaxon Waterhouse

Chantelle Mitchell (VIC) and Jaxon Waterhouse (NT) are long term collaborators, working together as Ecological Gyre Theory, a multidisciplinary artistic research project.

This project manifests as curatorial practice, experimental writing, sculptural and installation practice and academic research.

In 2023, Chantelle and Jaxon were the Monash University Art, Design and Architecture Gallery Curators in Residence, presenting three exhibitions and a series of programs with Australian and international artists in consideration of concepts drawn from the theoretical frameworks of anthropologist Tim Ingold. They have published widely across contemporary theory and ecology.

Together, they were co-directors of Ordinance, a contemporary arts space in Narrm.

︎︎︎ ecologicalgyretheory@gmail.com

the worldlessness of the stone
TCB Art Inc, Brunswick, August 2022

Nicholas Burridge, Jess Day, Semitj Hopcraft, David Horvitz, Mabel Juli, Chantelle Mitchell and Jaxon Waterhouse, Georgia Nowak and Eugene Perepletchikov, Emily Parsons-Lord

The works in the worldlessness of the stone challenge perceptions of the geologic as latent, fixed, unmovable and unchanging. Heidegger famously ascribed a sensation of worldlessness to the lithic, relegating it to the position of world-constituting, but lacking the agency to make the world it exists within, and therefore lacking any experience of life. At its broadest, this exhibition seeks to trouble this ossified framing, presenting a series of works that attempt to read movement, action, accumulation and excavation within, into and against the stratifications of the Earth.

link to exhibition index

List of works:

Mabel Juli
Karngin and Glingennayn, 2000, natural earth pigments on canvas, 122 x 47cm

Nicholas Burridge
Fluid Rock no.5, 2022, basalt, volcanic glass, stainless steel, steel, 50 x 29 x 20 cm

Emily Parsons-Lord
Standing Still (with practice, one may learn to accept the feelings of groundlessness), 2020, HD video, 4:00.

Chantelle Mitchell and Jaxon Waterhouse
Fragments (Port Phillip Arcade, Waratah Place, Wilkinson Street), 2022, found construction materials, dimensions variable.

Semitj Hopcraft
Untitled (correspondence 1-7), 2021-2022, inkjet print onto paper.

Georgia Nowak and Eugene Perepletchikov
I have lived a thousand lives already, 2022, video, archival film footage, 6:08. Narrative text: excerpts from Virginia Woolf’s The Waves (1931). Archival footage: ACMI collections / Private collections

David Horvitz
The Distance of a Day, 2013, digital video, 12 minutes.

Jess Day
Watch and Wonder WorkVest, 2022, cotton drill, waxed thread, cargo straps, buckles, keyrings, chain, paracord, site marker, magnifying glass, reflective tapes, compass, carabiners, D latches, grommets, zips, plastic gems, cloth tape, cotton thread, insulation material, embroidery thread, modified wire coat hanger, silver solder, dimensions variable.

All documentation courtest Teagan Ramsay
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