Join us for the opening of 𝘔𝘠𝘚𝘛𝘌𝘙𝘠 𝘚𝘖𝘓𝘝𝘌𝘋 by Jack Ball on Friday, 22 May, from 6–8pm.
In 𝘔𝘠𝘚𝘛𝘌𝘙𝘠 𝘚𝘖𝘓𝘝𝘌𝘋, the gallery is tightly packed with performative roadblocks and trip hazards. Image formations reference airport runways, rockfall nets, archways, vents and gates, architectural and infrastructural forms that hold back, constrain and enforce order.
Ball playfully reworks these forms into a bodily, porous and chaotic weave. Repetition, layering and movement mirror the conditions of media circulation itself, where images are continually reframed and recontextualised.
RSVP via the link in our bio.
@jack__ball_
Image: Jack Ball, from the series 𝘔𝘠𝘚𝘛𝘌𝘙𝘠 𝘚𝘖𝘓𝘝𝘌𝘋, 2026.
Passage is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW @creatensw , the City of Sydney Creative Grants @cityofsydney .
This project is supported by Australian Queer Archive Research Fellowship, and the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body @creative.australia .
Join us this Saturday 1 March for the Sydney launch of Tight Crop, a recent publication by Artspace studio resident Jack Ball @jack__ball_
The launch will feature an insightful discussion between Ball and the publication’s editor Rachel Ciesla @rachelciesla , Lead Creative for the Simon Lee Foundation Institute of Contemporary Asian Art at The Art Gallery of Western Australia in Boorloo/Perth.
Jack Ball: Tight Crop is available for purchase during the book launch or online via Heart of Hearts @heartofheartspress
📚 Jack Ball: Tight Crop book launch
🗓️ Saturday 1 March, 11am-12.30pm
📍Artspace, Level 1
🔗 Register via link in bio
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‘Jack Ball: Tight Crop’, published by Heart of Hearts, Borloo/Perth
JACK BALL
Stormwater
Opening Friday, January 31st
5 - 8pm
58 Pier street, Boorloo / Perth
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Stormwater.
Skin barrier.
Chemical testing.
Filtration systems.
Lungs.
Sea sponge.
Tannins.
Cold drinking water.
Hypersensitivity.
Stormwater.
Chemical spill.
Contact allergy.
Mood swings.
Night vision.
Burnt capsicum skin.
Smashed rear brake light.
Ice core samples.
Lime green in the periphery.
Stormwater.
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‘Stormwater’ consists of new analogue and digital photographs by Jack Ball. Making use of what they describe as a ‘dyslexic logic’, these images trace loopy and associative pathways between textures, sensations and moods the artist has experienced but not yet frozen into language.
Jack Ball is an artist from Boorloo / Perth currently living on Gadigal Country, Sydney. They are a current recipient of the One Year Studio Program at Artspace, Sydney. Ball recently presented a major new commission at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts developed in response to a collection of scrapbooks at the Australian Queer Archives. Their work often involves large-scale photographic and sculptural installations that explore themes of queer intimacy and desire using collage. Their work is held in several collections including the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Wesfarmers Collection, Artbank and the Stokes Collection. Jack Ball’s photobook ‘Tight Crop’ is currently available through Heart of Hearts Press.
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Please get in touch for more information and a list of works.
sweet pea artist Jack Ball’s exhibition ‘Heavy grit’ opens this Saturday, October 26 at PICA.
🟣 The title, Heavy grit, alludes to underlying sensations and tensions at the core of this new body of work. Within the installation, photographs of materials held in the collection of the Australian Queer Archive appear alongside recent images documenting Ball’s studio constructions and moments of everyday life. The artist’s work in the archives explores fragments and glimpses of trans histories and desires through sensory and material connections.
Using techniques of layering, cutting, cropping, enlarging, printing and re-photographing, their compositions contain visible seams, scratches and stains. These arrangements invite an associative viewing experience, drawing entangled connections while also leaving gaps for viewers to relate their own speculative imaginings.
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Additionally, Heart of Hearts, a publisher for contemporary art and literature, has produced a photobook titled ‘Jack Ball: Tight Crop’ that will be launched at PICA on Saturday. Tight Crop is a high intensity exploration of unbridled intimacies and pleasurable dependencies through the lens of a personal archive. Flirting with the boundaries of abstraction and figuration, liquefying the distinction between the inside and outside of bodies, and using collage to materially explore forms of queer embodiment and image-making, Tight Crop unfolds as an assemblage of photographs by Jack Ball that operate as both a photobook and a poster collection. Jack Ball: Tight Crop’ will be available through select stores and the publisher’s website.
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Join Jack Ball in conversation with curator Sarah Wall at 3:45pm, followed by the ‘Jack Ball: Tight Crop’ book launch at 4:30pm, Saturday October 26.
🟡 Image 1: Jack Ball, ‘Muscle fibres 18’ (2024), Archival inkjet print on rag, 110 x 80cm. Image 2: ‘Jack Ball: Tight Crop’ (2024), published by Heart of Hearts.
Image 3: ‘Jack Ball: Tight Crop’ (2024), published by Heart of Hearts.
Image 4: Jack Ball, curtesy of the artist. @jack__ball_@pica_perth@heartofheartspress
Photos of my show sticky notes currently @sweet.pea.arts
The gallery is open Wednesday to Friday 11-5pm and Saturday to Sunday 12pm-5pm.💛
Image description: 8 installation photos, showing 23 works, some with double layers, orange and cyans, a few curved, cut outs, purples and lime green, hand painted pins, custom mesh, hose pipe, harnesses, magic stones, lattice, bruised lettuce and blanket weave imprinted on thighs.
sweet pea is opening its doors for the very first time this Saturday at 3pm. I’m honored to be the first show up and I’m so excited for Andrew Varano. We’ve been talking about this moment for a long time and now it’s only a few days away!
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ID: Bright yellow invite graphic with the words: sweet pea, sticky notes, Jack Ball. 58 Pier St Boorloo (Perth), 27th of November 3-7pm, with a smoking ceremony at 3:30pm.
@sweet.pea.arts
