Polyphony artwork at 2023 Artfully Queer 'Together' exhibition at The Long Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre

14 October to 4 November 2023

'TasPride’s annual Artfully Queer Exhibition showcases the creative talents of emerging and fully fledged contemporary Tasmanian lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans* and queer artists, designers, craftspeople, and performers responding to the theme “Together”. The Artfully Queer Exhibition runs 10am - 5pm Wednesday to Sunday. Curated by Phoebe Adams and Michelle Dracoulis, supported by Vincent and the rest of the fabulous TasPride team.

Please click here for more info about 'Polyphony'

For more AQ23 Arts Program Events go to www.taspride.com and look up Artully Queer / Arts Program.

Kairos solo exhibition at The Barn, Rosny Farm

28 July to 20 August 2023

The 'Kairos' exhibition explored notions of time and place through an immersive, audio visual experience within The Barn (c1818) at Rosny Farm. This solo exhibition included artworks inspired by over a decade of art residences in natural places from around Australia and the Pacific - featuring stunning new work inspired by my wonderful home in nipaluna/Hobart, Rosny Barn and the voices and trees I vibrate with here. Check out the documentation photos and video on my blog. Rosny Farm, Rosny Hill Road, Rosny Park, Tasmania 7018

The Yearning exhibition at MAC

8 June to 1 July 2023
'The Yearning' (Randell, Pieri, VoiceLab 2023) is a mesmeric, tuning experience of embodied transformation. The viewer must step out of their reality and spend time in the gallery space with these magical trees to 'tune in' to their message by becoming immersed in this multi-projection, multi-channel, AV installation. 'The Yearning' is a collaboration between myself, conductor/composer Hugo Pieri, the members of the Hobart VoiceLab: Queer+Allies and the iconic trees on kunanyi/Mount Wellington. The amazing multi-channel, looping, harmonic soundscape created by Hugo from our VoiceLab experiments, creates a complex and ever-changing conversation with the trees to ensure each person's experience is unique.

MAC (Moonah Arts Centre) 23-27 Albert Rd, Moonah TAS 7009

Her Beauty and Her Terror exhibition at Redcliffe Art Gallery

22 April to 2 September 2023

(previous run at Caboolture Regional Art Gallery, 26 June to 11 September 2021)

"The Australian landscape can instil fear and inspire awe - it is an ecosystem that is entirely its own. The picture of Australia evoked by Dorothea Mackellar’s prose in ‘My Country’ still rings true more than 100 years later. She is a land that is beautiful and terrifying, she can be harsh just as she is nurturing. For Her beauty and her terror contemporary artists explore the Australian landscape in its extremities, subtleties and forms to consider our connection to it. Artists include: Anna Litwinowicz, Amber Hearn, Libby Harward, Charlotte Haywood, Jarrod Van Der Ryken, Polly Stanton, Amy Joy Watson, Mandy Quadrio, Jane Burton, Katarina Vesterberg, Katrin Koenning, Yvonne Mills-Stanley, Samantha Lang and Merri Randell." (Caboolture Regional Art Gallery.) A wonderful exhibition curated by Hannah Williamson with help from her amazing team at Caboolture Regional Art Gallery and Redcliffe Art Gallery. Please visit my blog to watch the 2021 artist talk and see more great 2021 documentation photography by Katie Bennett from Embellysh Photography. Click here to see great documentation photos of the 2023 exhibition courtesy of Moreton Bay Regional Council, photography by Louis Lim. Redcliffe Art Gallery, 1 Irene Street, Redcliffe QLD 4020

My World: Voice & Visibility exhibition at QVMAG

20 May to 13 August 2023

When 'GASH' (Randell 2023/2016) was first shown in 2016 as part of the crosseXions project and touring exhibition, I didn't have the courage to reveal what she was really about. I'm so delighted to have the opportunity to 'out' her in this exhibition and be included with this group of courageous artists.

'Featuring works by members of the Queer Artists Collective (QAC)... My World: Voice & Visibility raises a mirror for artists to express their stories and examine their world while comparing differences within the multiple worlds of the wider community.' https://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/Whats-on/Coming-soon/My-World-Voice-Visibility

QVMAG, Museum at Inveresk, 2 Invermay Road, Launceston TAS 7248

The Fen, Decomp and Bushcare featured on The Loop

1 May to 5 June 2023

The Loop generously featured 10 artworks from my Fen, Decomp and Bushcare series as 30+ minute loops twice each day, which invited you to step out of your busy life, 'tune in' to these alternate worlds and share a selfie of your trip #thefenloophobart, #thefenloop - more info here

The Loop is an amazing large-scale outdoor public screen in the heart of the Hobart CBD. It presents videos which display '...the richness and diversity of Tasmania’s creative scene...' and are '...innovative, collaborative, inclusive, expressive, reflective and highly creative ... offering encounters that delight, inspire and provoke...' (The Loop website)

The Loop: 157 Elizabeth Street, Hobart, TAS 7000
 

'Touching the Mauri' (Randell 2018) is a multi-projection immersive AV installation created for the 'He kākano āhau' (I am a seed) group exhibition at the Logan Art Gallery. Artists included: Cheremene Castle, Tania Hapai Heta, Jackie Hawkins, Leona Morete, Mihimai Nikora, Onesian (Allen Vili), Merri Randell and Teraimana Tahiata. Click here for exhibition catalogue.

The journey of 'Touching the Mauri' travels from Peru to Hawaii to New Zealand and back to Australia, blending magical landscape creation story myths from a childhood in a rural Anglo Māori Australian Mormon household to fold time on itself. Soundscape created by Whaia Whaea (whaiacreation.com) This artwork has also been shown at the Australian Centre for Photography (ACP), Sydney at the 'Plant + Human' exhibition (Feb-Apr 2019), in Brisbane as part of the Pacific Arts Association International Symposium 'Coming Together Through Strength & Culture' (Mar 2019) and at the 2019 Moreton Bay Region Art Awards exhibition (May 2019). This project is supported by the Regional Arts Development Fund, a partnership between the Queensland Government and Logan City Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.

The Fen: Furnace (Randell 2013)

Outings:

2023 The Loop (HBA), 2022 Glenorchy Open exhibition: Moonah Arts Centre (HBA), 2016 [UN] natural urges exhibition: Brenda May Gallery (SYD), 2014 Noosa Art Award finalist exhibition (QLD), 2014 BEAF (BNE), 2014 CCP Salon exhibition (MEL), 2014Virion Festival: Parer Place (BNE), 2012 Crane Arts Icebox (USA)

crosseXions: Gash (Randell 2016)
Outings:

2023 QAC My World: Voice and Visibility exhibition: QVMAG (LST), 2016 crosseXions touring exhibition: Metro-Arts (BNE), Cross Arts Projects (SYD) and Alaska Projects (SYD), 2016 Arts meets Science Exhibition (BNE), 2016 Busybrick ARI happening (BNE)