Deep in mud, falling bark, a snake losing its skin, Slough is a series of toys and vessels. This exhibition is formed out of shedding remains. Fallen London plane tree limbs from the ‘urban forest’ in Naarm; casts of concrete pavement at the AIDS Memorial Garden outside the old Fairfield Infectious Diseases hospital; material residues of touch and heat. I imagine these objects as toys that connect to an idea of queerness - where grief and melancholy are also playful and collective.
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Based in Naarm, Briony Galligan makes environments - through drawing, ceramics, installation and sculpture - that are slippery and suspended, more atmosphere than coherent logic. Galligan positions objects as conduits, imagining them as tools and appendages to move through various states of disequilibrium such as sickness, queerness, invasiveness. She has exhibited widely in institutional and artist-run spaces including at National Gallery of Victoria, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Westspace, Gertrude, Bus Projects, Firstdraft, Feltspace, TCB and Kings Artist Run. In 2023, Galligan participated in the Maumaus Independent Study Program in Lisbon, Portugal supported by the Ian Potter Cultural Trust. Teaching, artist organising and collaboration are also important for Galligan.
