De/Centre for Belonging

The first instalment in a multi-year art and public program series exploring paradoxes of belonging and social cohesion. Join us for an informal program launch and to hear from Tasmanian and visiting artists.

Plimsoll Gallery
Friday 19 September 
5:30 - 8pm

All Welcome.

Belonging is often invoked as a self-evident good, promising connection, safety, recognition and community - a centrality to human flourishing. The need to belong a fundamental human motivation. Yet, belonging is rarely fixed. Rather than a place, a community, a nation, or a centre, it is layered, shifting, and often contradictory. To belong can also mean to exclude, or to be excluded.

De/Centre for Belonging takes this paradox as an invitation.

This multi-year art installation and public program series seeks to hold space for multiple truths. As a site, it is an earnest gathering space for diverse practices, voices, and perspectives. Simultaneously, it is a de-centering gesture, a refusal of singular narratives of home, identity, and community. It stages belonging as a question rather than an answer, as a collective process of unlearning, reimagining, and interweaving Tasmanian and universal stories. Participating artists in this project independently interrogate belonging through their lived experiences, reflecting on the atrocities of global wars, resilience, and share both vulnerable and empowering perspectives on community.

What happens when belonging is no longer anchored to a single authority? What if we understand it as a practice — always in motion, always negotiated? A gesture that moves not only through calling out, but also calling in? Can we imagine belonging not as a romanticised destination, but as a decentred, relational practice that resists exclusion and prioritises connection?

Upcoming programs

Artist talk
Talitha Balan 

Friday 19 September, 6:25pm

Program talk and catering
Toni Rands, Honey Child 

Friday 19 September, 6:00pm

In Conversation
Bruno Booth

Saturday 20 September
2:00 - 3:00pm

Artist residency and talk
Dan Elborne 

Saturday 27 September
2:00 - 3:00pm

Performance 
Introduction Tibetan uchen calligraphy 
Talitha Balan

Saturday 4 October
2:00 - 4:00pm

Artist talk
Lou-anne Barker

Saturday 18 October
2:00 - 3:00pm

GALLERY Opening hours

19 September – 18 October
11am – 4pm Tuesdays – Saturdays
Closed Sundays, Mondays, and public holidays

This exhibition includes sensitive material, including themes of racism, injustices, and loss of life, which may be difficult for some visitors to experience. These works are shared in the spirit of truth-telling, dialogue, and learning. We encourage you to engage at your own pace and to take breaks when needed.

For school groups we recommend making a booking in advance so our team can provide appropriate preparation and support. Our aim is to create a safe, respectful, and generative space where plural perspectives can be encountered with care, and where dialogue, learning, and reflection are welcomed.

_{Image credits (top to bottom): Bruno Booth, Always room for one more on a sinking ship, Steel, rubber, aluminium, medical grade plastic, vinyl, batting, webbing, rope and embroidery, 2022.}