From 3 December 2022 – 5 February 2023, Alex will present a new solo show at The Lock-Up in Newcastle. The exhibition will explore the possibilities of combining glass and stone to consider the themes of memory and place and how they relate to Australia’s history of migration. Inspired by the archives of the Electric Lamp Manufacturers of Newcastle Glassworks and Lenora Glassworks, as well as stories of the many ship-jumpers incarcerated at The Lock-Up, the exhibition will engage with Australia's colonial past as a penal colony and as a place for forgetting, both deliberate and accidental.
In combining glass and stone, Alex will seek to reflect on the experience of the prisoners once held in the lightless, windowless cells of The Lock-Up. Glass being a medium of light (hope/memory) and stone being a medium of permanence (place/history), the two mediums have an opportunity to intermingle with the confined architecture of a place that has its many stories written on its walls.
In preparation for the exhibition, Alex will undergo a six-week residency at Canberra Glassworks to develop skills in glass techniques. The exhibition and residency have been supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.