Outer Space is launching Cross-mending, a group exhibition of new artwork at its Montague Road warehouse, a stone’s throw from GOMA, to coincide with the Asia Pacific Triennial opening celebrations. The term ‘cross-mending’ refers to the archaeological process of piecing together fragments of objects that have been dispersed across a site. Through cross-mending, archaeologists can uncover information not only about the fragmented object, but about the history of a specific site.

The exhibition takes ‘cross- mending’ as its title to describe how we make meaning from the past; what we inherit and learn from those who have gone before us; how we honour and celebrate them; and how we go forward. The exhibition acknowledges and values a multiplicity of voices that speak to the past, present and future. Cross-mending brings together new and recent works by Robert Andrew, Christopher Bassi, Hannah Brontë, Jessica Enkera, Callum McGrath, Sancintya Mohini Simpson and Athena Thebus. Through painting, drawing, video and sculpture, the exhibition will explore ideas surrounding denied or forgotten family histories, the nature of identity, the role of women, female empowerment, maternal relationships, colonial history, queer history and migratory experiences.

Cross-mending is co-curated by Lisa Bryan-Brown, Katherine Dionysius and Amy-Clare McCarthy. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue with intergenerational perspectives, featuring newly commissioned texts from well-known Brisbane-based artist and QUT visual arts lecturer Leah King-Smith, and Brisbane-based emerging writer Hilary Thurlow.

Outer Space’s most ambitious project to date, the exhibition will spread across both galleries, taking up the entire warehouse space in its West End venue, which is conveniently located on Montague Road, between GOMA and the newly relocated Milani Gallery.