Aidan Hartshorn is included in In the Air at the Substation.
In the air variously explores critical perspectives on energy and power production, consumption, excess, and human impact, past, present and future. Featuring new and recent works by a selected group of Australian artists, the exhibition highlights the realities of industry, infrastructure, and technology to the detriment of Country.
Silicon, steel, silver, cobalt, graphite, coal, nickel, copper, tin, lead, chlorine, petroleum, the list of rare earth metals (REMs) required to power life and living is seemingly endless. Every year, hundreds of thousands of tonnes of REMs are extracted across the globe, for solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles, but also anything with a screen or battery.
In the air equally draws focus to the electrical currents and electro-magnetic waves circulating within the natural realm, in the earth, in the body, in the air, and beyond. In doing so, the exhibition is grounded by an Indigenous knowledge framework that acknowledges the interrelationship between life, materiality, and place.
Aidan Hartshorn channels light, and industrial materials to explore cultural memory and Country disrupted by hydro-electric development. Drawing on ancestral knowledge and grounded in Wolgalu and Wiradjuri connection, his practice speaks to what is lost, and what endures, within the currents of colonisation, electricity, and the environment.
