It is through our bodies that we experience the world, that we gain our genetic footprint, that we are codified by others, and that we seek to express our connections and our place in the world.

Through the physicality of our body and its structures; through our skin, our eyes, our voice, our touch, our mind, our heart; we receive, we process, we learn, we communicate, we create, we love, we rail and we confirm that we exist. The body is the literal embodiment of our personal and collective experience.

KNOWN | UNKNOWN presents a selection of contemporary Australian artists who work directly with their own bodies as a key component of their creative practice.

Through movement, dance, choreography, song, performance practice, costuming, video, and virtual reality, the exhibiting artists’ utilise their own bodies, and sometimes those of others, to explore notions of personal, cultural and social identity.

Inquiring into self as an expression of individual, cultural, social and political experiences, identifications, ideas and beliefs, the body becomes a site for questioning, understanding, integration and polarity; the known and the unknown.

Curated by Jessi England, KNOWN | UNKNOWN features artists Bleck, Toby Cedar, Rakini Devi, John A Douglas, Amala Groom and Amrita Hepi.

The exhibition includes The Pace by Amrita Hepi, a new work co-commissioned by The Lock-Up and Cement Fondu, first presented as part of Sydney Festival 2019, newly commissioned works by Toby Cedar and Bleck, site specific installation and live performance work by Rakini Devi, and existing works by nationally recognised artists John A Douglas and Amala Groom.

The project also includes a number of public programs and performance events through the duration of the exhibition period including Identity & The Body, a panel presented in partnership with the Newcastle Writers Festival as part of the NWF program on the opening weekend of the exhibition, and Identity, Culture & The Body Symposium on the closing weekend.