Mel O'Callaghan

In Australian artist Mel O’Callaghan’s powerful seven-minute video Ensemble, the human body is pushed to its limits. Presented as a 10-metre-wide, two-channel projection, the work pits one man against the visceral force of a fire hose. Separated from his uniformed opponents across two frames, his struggle, triumph and retreat become a meditation on violence, resilience and overcoming adversity.

For her solo exhibition at Palais de Tokyo, Mel O’Callaghan travelled to north-east Borneo to witness the Orang Sungai people’s perilous biannual harvesting of birds’ nests, 120 metres above the ground in Gomantong’s “white cave.” Combining sculpture, performance and video, Dangerous on-the-way explores ritual, repetition, self-transformation and ekstasis—the state of being “outside oneself.”

Centre of the Centre traces life’s origins and regenerative forces through an ancient water-bearing mineral inherited by Mel O’Callaghan from her grandfather, mineralogist Albert Chapman. Deep-sea footage of Pacific hydrothermal vents, sculpture and breathing performances explore primordial life and resilience. Co-commissioned by Artspace, UQ Art Museum and Le Confort Moderne.

What Lies Within: Center of the Center explores unknowable and alluring spaces at the intersection of nature, science and the human psyche. Installations by Mel O’Callaghan, Laurent Grasso, Suzanne Treister and Pamela Rosenkranz question perception, intuition and empirical knowledge, confronting visitors not with answers, but visceral propositions about contemporary life.

Responding to the initial split of the first cell billions of years ago, Mel O’Callaghan’s major new exhibition, All is Life, encompasses sculpture, performance, sound and film to explore the relationship between life and nonlife. Starting with the singular impulse of the primordial cell that led to the whole of life on earth, All is Life looks at the individual’s connection to the collective.

Co-curated by Peta Rake and Shauna Thompson, Pulse of the Planet brings together Mel O’Callaghan’s films, paintings, sound and performance, developed with scientists and researchers. From deep-ocean recordings to resonant tuning forks, the exhibition connects human and non-human bodies to Earth’s rhythms, exploring climate change, interspecies life and the planet as a living organism.