This weekend, not one, but two touring exhibitions open at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery and M&G NSW will be on hand for the action.

We’re hoping to get some precious time-lapse footage of the installation of the much anticipated In-Habit: Project Another Country, the fourteenth commissioned project by Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation. This show explores ideas around home and habitation. There is a strong narrative running through the exhibition based on the progressive displacement of the Badjao people of Sabah and the islands of the Philippines, and their ability to adapt and respond to a rapidly changing world.

The husband-and-wife artist team Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan will be working with the Bathurst community–conducting art-making workshops and constructing elaborate cardboard habitats. The miniature makeshift houses sport varied features such as roof-top pools, tiny parks, workshops and verandahs. We’ll be on hand to capture the installation of this mini-metropolis–scaffolded between floor and ceiling–and set to continually evolve over the exhibition period.

Likewise, Striking Contrasts, the second show opening at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery this weekend, features 10 contemporary Australian video artists that explore conflicting representations of place and home. They juxtapose the beauty of our vast untouched landscape against the Australian suburban and road culture using varied approaches–high definition documentary style works are contrasted against abstract mash-ups of found footage and home movies.

The Striking Contrasts videos are strategically divided into two screening groups, projected on parallel screens which encourage viewers to move from one to another–comparing and contrasting styles and stories. Deborah Kelly’s Beastliness, an animated film that wanders into an imaginary world of dolls and dancing insects is projected alongside John Gillies’ Road Movie, a video with a narrative plot that takes us on a car ride through the concrete jungle of Sydney’s Parramatta Road.

Andrew Brettell, our Information & Resources Manager will be behind the video camera for the installation of In-Habit. Lillian Lim and Jasmin Dessmann from our Touring Exhibitions and Gallery Programs team will be involved in the hands-on installation of both exhibitions. They’ll be kept busy, working between adjusting projectors and lighting, holding cardboard constructions in place and handling the hot glue gun.

So come and visit Bathurst in the coming month to be part of these fantastic projects. Join a workshop, wander through or dig deeper to interviews and behind-the-scenes videos using the mobile friendly NETS website.

Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan: In-Habit: Project Another Country is a Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation commissioned project, toured by Museums & Galleries of NSW. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.

Striking Contrasts is curated by dLux MediaArts in association with Geoffrey Weary, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney and toured by Museums & Galleries of NSW.