Once we listened, we found speech. Then scrawled words piled up, sheer weight set in stone and code. Can we listen again, closely and quietly, rekindling our sensitivity to earthly forces? Outside Inn opens a window and calls upon a long standing tradition of host-guest responsibility, extending this commitment to the non-human world by inviting local critters to feast, take shelter and socialise inside the gallery. In a neighbouring room, a series of works confront the ongoing behavioural reductionism often applied to other species by exploring the ornate and cryptic details of animal sound-making.
Alex Last (b. 1985, they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist living and working on Muwinina land in nipaluna, lutruwita (colonial name; Hobart, Tasmania).Alex’s practice spans video, text, photography, sculpture, 3D design, sound and composition. Their work is research-driven and, in recent years, has involved audiences as responsive participants and decision-makers. In an effort to dampen global anthropocentrism, Alex labours to uncover those narratives which illuminate the ornate individuality of earth's scorned and unseen creatures, exploring the entangled, dissonant, cryptic and transformative relationships between living organisms and their human relatives.
