Arranging by chance is a collaborative exhibition that builds on the artists’ research into family trees, queerness, toxicity and healing. It considers the family tree as a symbolic and botanical form, positioning it in relation to ‘pharmakon’—the idea that a poison is also a remedy.
The artists draw from three key sites: a decommissioned NuFarm Factory in Fawkner, a childhood property and ex-banana plantation in Northern NSW, and the AIDS Memorial Garden outside the old Infectious Diseases Hospital in Fairfield. These sites of toxicity, death and contamination are places they are compelled to write, care and make from. As queer parents, the artists share a commitment to interrogating the linear structure of genealogy and the impact of industry on various ecologies.
Arranging by chance borrows its title from a line in Some Trees, a poem by John Ashbury, to suggest a queer reading the artists’ relationships to these logics and sites. The exhibition will incorporate new and existing works spanning drawing, installation, photography, audio and written texts.
Join us at the opening event for Arranging by chance on Sat 11 October 4pm – 6:30pm, click here for more details. Free to attend, all welcome.
Image: Abbra Kotlarczyk & Briony Galligan, Doctored exposure 09, 2025 Multiple exposure digital and analogue photograph
For more information click here
