Umbrella is responding to government restrictions for gatherings at this time and visitors must comply with our COVID-19 Safety Plan. Umbrella’s updated opening hours from Sunday 9 August 2020:  Tues-Fri 9am-5pm | Sat-Sun 9am-1pm | Gallery closed Mondays, public holidays and during exhibition install weeks | Shop open during gallery  open hours and Tues-Thurs of install weeks. Follow our social media for updates.

Kit Colvin is a multi-disciplinary artist, specialising in sculpture, digital art, animation and sound. She aims to surprise and sometimes disturb the viewer. This project and exhibition reflects on Colvin’s time in managed-isolation for Covid-19 quarantine; four weeks in total in New Zealand and Australia. This was an uplifiting, disturbing and transformative experience for the artist, but one in which she escaped her busy life to live outside of time. Separated from her normal life and confined to a hotel room, she used sound to anticipate and navigate her days.
“I looked forward to the rustle of meal bags being placed outside my door, the ding of a message arriving from a good friend, and escaping to the beautiful harmonies of a crystal bowl meditation. Then there were the disturbing sounds that interrupted my peace: the harsh ring of the hotel phone, heralding a Government representative calling to check my details; the police knock for a daily ‘fresh air break’; and the sounds of the nurses and their trolley rolling down the corridor for the dreaded Covid swab tests“.
Visitors to the space will have the chance to experience a reinterpretation of these sounds and experiences, as a looping soundscape and installation. The artwork will be projected in Umbrella’s downstairs Vault space from 20 November – 16 December 2020 (with limited accessibility). Please note there is limited accessibility to the exhibition, as there is one staircase leading to the room (or access via the rear door on Ogden St), then a step up into the room. Please call Umbrella staff prior to your visit if you would like to discuss your options and arrange a time to access the space via our rear door. We apologise for any inconvenience and hope you can make it in to the see the project. Alternatively, please view it online here.

Commissioned through Creative Sparks, this project receives generous support from the Regional Arts Development Fund. RADF is a partnership between the Queensland Government and the Townsville City Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.

Exhibitions also on display include works produced by Young Indigenous Printmakers and The Future: The Umbrella Members’ Exhibition & Bamford Medical Art Prize.