'Crawl Space' by Ambiance Collective

Image Credit: 'Culture Table' by Ambiance Collective, led by Sharon Xu. Image courtesy of Ambiance Collective

Ambiance Collective acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which First Site resides on, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation. Always was, always will be indigenous land.

A crawl space is a dark, unoccupied, narrow space between the ground and first floors of a building, where there is typically only enough room to crawl rather than stand. Functioning as an access point to repairs and serving a protective buffer for toxic radon gas concentrations that form from natural decay in soils, Crawl Space captures themes of unearthing, holding space for each other's cultural and existential experiences to form an ambitious project that examines generational histories.

Ambiance Collective is a multimedia artist collective created as part of the Forms for Encounter and Exchange Studio, led by Dr. Kelly Hussey-Smith and Dr. Marnie Badham. Composed of ten different members from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, the collective examines what it means ‘to be here’ within the shared experience that sparked the human connection to one’s root and rhizomes. In collaboration with the Centre for Projection Arts, the collective held their inaugural exhibition as part of the Social Exchange event at Collingwood Yards in November 2022. ‘Crawl Space’ includes the work of eight emerging artists: Saud Alsaleh, Martina Cavanna, Phuong Nguyen Le, Sofia Menta, Jinyoung Park, Jiaxin (Lala) Shi, Ruby Walker and Sharon Xu.

Location: First Site Gallery