In 2025, The Unconformity delivered a new artist residency program based across Queenstown and Trial Harbour, on the West Coast of Lutruwita/Tasmania.
The residency brought together local and visiting artists to explore site-specific collaboration, creative exchange, and the region’s layered landscapes—both social and physical.
About the residency
The residencies unfolded across two weeks:
- one week in Queenstown, working from The Unconformity Hall; and
- one week in Trial Harbour, working in a spacious, coastal studio and staying in onsite accommodation.
Artists who have previously spent time on the West Coast through The Unconformity Artist in Residence Program were invited to identify a West Coast creative collaborator and 2–3 local organisations to engage with through the creative process.
Trial Harbour artist and studio host Jenny Groves welcomed the artists to the coast, with the group returning to Queenstown to share their work in an Open Hall event.
Participating artists
Bridie Hooper (QLD) and Jen Large (VIC/TAS) collaborated with West Coast artist David “Fitzy” Fitzpatrick, researching the intersection of circus, sculpture and performance art to explore effort, resilience and labour as cultural materials.
Polly Stanton (VIC) worked with Queenstown-based artist Jade Elford, combining video, sound and analogue photography to trace the shifting geographies and atmospheres of Queenstown and Trial Harbour.
Coastal Collaboration Open Hall
The residency culminated in a community sharing event in April 2024, hosted at The Unconformity Hall. Local audiences were invited to encounter the in-progress ideas, connections and creative experiments that emerged over the two-week residency.
Coastal Collaboration Open Hall
6–8pm, Wednesday 23 April
The Unconformity Hall, Queenstown
Acknowledgements
This project was supported by the Minister for the Arts through Arts Tasmania.
