Umbrella Event: Public Art


We Are Made of Stardust by artist Michaela Gleave was commissioned for Kelly’s Garden as part of the Three Portraits Project, which explores Salamanca Art Centre’s past, present and future, a project supported by the Tasmanian Community Fund.

The installation explores humanity’s relationships with the cosmos, reflecting on the impact that scientific knowledge has on our understanding of ourselves, and the world around us. Mounted above the audience and addressing the sky, the text looks out beyond the city to contemplate the vast expanses of time and space. Appearing subtle white during the day, the work comes alive at night as the illuminated letters become visible against the darkened sky. Scrolling through the colours of the visible light spectrum, We Are Made of Stardust considers both the limitlessness and finitude of existence; a celebration of the beauty and majesty of the universe.

Accompanying the lettering is a live soundscape from the project, A Galaxy of Suns. Created in collaboration with composer Amanda Cole, programmer Warren Armstrong and astronomer Michael Fitzgerald, A Galaxy of Suns ‘plays’ the stars as they rise and set over the horizon in real-time, for any location on Earth. Treating the Earth as a giant spinning music box, the project connects GPS and time coordinates to data from the Hipparcos stellar catalogue, to create an atmospheric rendering of our journey through space.

Michaela Gleave

Michaela Gleave is a visual artist based in Sydney, Australia. Gleave’s projects question our relationship to time, matter and space, focusing in particular on the changing intersections between art, science and society. Often temporal, Gleave’s works oscillate between the micro and the macro, between the spaces of personal experience and global understanding, allowing us to experience the processes by which we comprehend reality and rethink our presence within it.

Image Credits: Artwork by Michaela Gleave (2018). All photographs by Rosie Hastie.


This work is a commission for Salamanca Arts Centre, as part of the Three Portraits Project (2018), which explores Salamanca Art Centre’s past, present and future, a project supported by the Tasmanian Community Fund.

Megan Keating

Megan Keating is a Hobart based multidisciplinary artist who explores installation, animation and more recently multimedia performance. Through these mediums she develops new ways of re-contextualising paper cutting and stencil making.

For the Three Portraits commission, Megan drew inspiration from European paper cutting traditions, where a grand narrative is constructed through a centralised motif underscored by elaborate decorative designs of trees, flowers as well as stylised figurative vignettes. These traditions tell complex stories about everyday life and are often displayed on windows or over doorways in village homes.

For the Three Portraits work Megan constructed her motifs from SAC’s archives of creative activities as well as historical records, aural histories and architectural drawings.

In recognition and reflection of the deep history and culture of this island, we also wish to acknowledge the Tasmanian Aboriginal community, who are the traditional owners and continued custodians of the land and waters of lutruwita (Tasmania).

Image Credits: Artwork by Megan Keating (2018). All photography by Rosie Hastie.


Carefully selected from 100,000s of images, drawing from the archives of museums, independent artists, outsiders, and scientific troves, these images have been lost, unseen, overused or set free, here to offer some small treasures for the exterior barricaded windows of Salamanca Arts Centre.

Lisa Campbell-Smith

Lisa Campbell-Smith is a curator and creative producer, currently working at Contemporary Art Tasmania (CAT), an Australian arts organisation based in Hobart, Tasmania. Lisa’s background includes working with organisations, National Gallery of Victoria, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Carriageworks, Glenorchy Art & Sculpture Park and Dark Mofo. Lisa develops projects that implement experimental practice and critical thought, integrating diverse arts and non-arts practitioners, community groups, and organisations to produce public and digital programs and exhibitions.

Brendan Walls

Brendan Walls is a retired noise artist, experimental composer and performer.

From 1999-2019 he performed extensively in Australia and Overseas while releasing over 20 albums, both solo and in collaboration, with esteemed artists like Gregg Turkington, Andrew Chalk and Rizili. He lives in Glen Huon and is currently completing editorial duties on three non-fiction books, a facsimile edition of “The Legend of Aleister Crowley” from 1930;  research journal “Ora et Labora”; and “Logos Mantram Magic” by  German doctor and founder of Fraternitas Rosicruciana Antiqua (FRA), Arnoldo Krumm-Heller (1876 – 1949).

Image credit: Signature Quilt, ‘Bucket of Blood’.
Roslyn Section, American Red Cross (United States)
United States, Pennsylvania, Roslyn, circa 1917
Appliquéd and quilted cotton with inked signatures
(168.91 x 130.81 cm)


Floods, fires and a pandemic – escape is tantalising to us in the face of these threats.

A lifeboat promises liberty and offers hope, and as art it sets the imagination free and transports us from the limitations of our daily routine.

Inspired by the emergency lifeboat of the recently decommissioned Aurora Australis icebreaker, which was a prominent feature of the Hobart waterfront, Escape Pod  by Colin Langridge provides a historical reference to these past three decades.  The bright orange colour is a visual link to the ship that berthed only 200 metres from this site.

Acknowledgements: The artist would like to thank Stuart Houghton (metalwork), Jason James (lighting), Andrew Jarvis (fibreglass) and Trevor Smith for their assistance with this project.

Image credit: Colin Langridge | Escape Pod (2021) | Fibreglass, stainless steel, acrylic, LED light | 200 x 80 x 80cm