28.09-12.01.25: Heavy Air - Tom Hallet & Antonia Brown (Netwerk Aalst)

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Heavy Air is a duo exhi­bi­ti­on that brings together the dis­tinct yet the­ma­ti­cally reso­nant prac­ti­ces of Tom Hallet, for­mer M‑Resident, and Antionia Brown, who per­for­merd in last-years OTG pro­ject The Dinner’. In addi­ti­on to dra­wings, per­for­man­ces, and texts, both artists work with sculp­tu­re, using orga­nic and found mate­ri­als that evol­ve over spa­ce and time.

Informed by per­so­nal expe­rien­ces and a sha­red inte­rest in the­mes like death, decay, loss, trans­for­ma­ti­on, and trans­fi­gu­ra­ti­on, Brown and Hallet appro­ach their work with a research-dri­ven per­spec­ti­ve. They explo­ra­ti­on spans cos­mic and natu­ral realms, incor­po­ra­ting ele­ments from mytho­lo­gy, medie­val sym­bo­lism, gos­sip, rumors, oral tra­di­ti­ons, for­got­ten sto­ries, and magi­cal thin­king. Central to their prac­ti­ces is a focus on queer embo­di­ment and corporeality.

The exhibition’s tit­le, bor­ro­wed from Anne Boyer’s text on capi­ta­lism and the poli­tics of air, trans­forms air into a sym­bol of chan­ge and com­mo­na­li­ty. In times when even the air we bre­a­the is imbued with strug­gle, Heavy Air envi­si­ons it as a dyna­mic spa­ce of resis­tan­ce, sound, move­ment, life, and death — a realm whe­re ide­as take flight, angels dwell, storms brew and fires spread.

On Saturday, November 30, from 1 to 6 pm, Antonia Brown will pre­sent a per­for­man­ce fea­tu­ring Cantate Domino choir, made in col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with Ssaliva (François Boulanger).