Opening Event Wednesday 28 August, 6 - 8pm Artist Nathan Hughes creates work which reflects how it feels to live through this weird moment in space/time. Mordant humour and picaresque metafictions skewer poignant absurdities of human folly and hydrocarbon hubris vis-à-vis anthropogenic climate collapse. Figurative mixed media works filter autobiographical speculations through Spaghetti Westerns and film posters in ludic collisions of myth, mind and screen. Quixotic fables of loss, rejuvenation, and eco- social trauma are refracted through diverse materials and instinctive processes. Absurd Frontier locates Dr Narwhal, Pewps the dog and misanthropic mule Kill me Kwik, in a retro- futurist hybrid of contemporary suburbia and dystopian sci-fi. Profiterolé of Doom riffs on the harbinger horror film trope and Greek Mythology’s Cassandra – cursed with a gift of prophecy but ignored and mocked as mad. A stranger in a strange land, perplexed by cognitive dissonance, PoD hypes himself as a fearful hybrid of the Pied Piper of Hamelin and the Panda Cheese commercials vengeful panda, but he knows he won’t make a blind bit of difference. This body of work engages with the moral implications of cognisance and perception. If we become what we focus our attention on, how do we maintain agency and integrity when our reckless addiction to petrochemical privileges hastens climate chaos? Nathan is a Welsh artist/filmmaker whose eclectic background encompasses a diverse spectrum of audio-visual platforms and inclusive site-specific theatre. Encounters, the UK’s leading short-film festival, described his work as ‘demonstrating a distinctive cinematic and artistic vision’. His award-winning short dramas, documentaries and design fictions have screened internationally, supported by Creative Europe, RIFF Talent Lab, London Screenwriter’s Festival and The British Council. Since relocating to Australia in late 2021, he has exhibited at Canberra Contemporary Artspace (Manuka) with solo show Brace, M16 Artspace and delivered outreach workshops in Kalgoorlie for The NGA’s Single Channel Touring Exhibition. This will be Nathan’s debut Sydney exhibition.