For her exhibition Slug in the Mug Canberra-based artist Tamara Henderson (b. 1982, New Brunswick, Canada) delves deep into alchemy, Earth systems, and symbolic and material transformations. This major new presentation at Artspace represents her first solo exhibition in an Australian public institution. 

In this project, the artist turns her attention to those unsung heroes of the ecosystem – earthworms. These largely unseen and industrious creatures are the catalyst for her current explorations into the energetic vitality of metabolic processes, composting, and the deep entanglement between the body of the earth, and the other bodies of the earth. The exhibition includes a major installation with glass and ceramic sculptural works, a sound installation, new paintings and textile works and a 16mm film. Her joyful works consider the intelligence and beauty of the planetary in ways that gently, but radically decentre the human.

Tamara Henderson (b. New Brunswick, Canada) lives and works in Canberra, Australia.