Am I in your way? 2025

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Am I in your way?' extends Raquel Ormella's career-long focus on the visual cultures of protest and resistance. This exhibition takes as its starting point the position of Canberra Contemporary at the centre of the Parliamentary Triangle as a site to consider past and present formations of national identities. The work activates the view down the Walter Burley Griffin designed sightline between the Australian War Memorial and Parliament House, and its position in the centre of the International Flag Display on Commonwealth Place. The exhibition includes new drawings, flags and performance works, exploring bodily resistance and protest languages. In this current moment of charged international and national relationships through conflict and brinkmanship, the work looks at the ways political protestors use their bodies as direct forms of passive disruption. In an environment where attitudes towards legitimate disruption and protest are changing, 'Am I in your way?' is a timely exploration of an emerging criminalisation of 'inconvenience'.

Image: Raquel Ormella 'future history #1' 2025, Nylon 90cm x 170cm