Perceptive Power examined the complex and sometimes uneasy relationship between the artist and industry within the context of a promised energy revolution. Curated by Carbon Arts within RMIT’s Centre for Art Society and Transformation and the RMIT Design Hub, it featured a series of lunchtime salon events from Wednesdays – Fridays at 12.30pm.

Spanning industry-funded public art celebrating technological progress to activist art performances questioning the status quo, the artist voice seeks to shift our perspective, enhance our powers of perception and provoke action. Perceptive Power presents a diverse body of video and sound artwork by Melbourne based artists Ash Keating and Keith Deverell, Sydney based artists Joyce Hinterding and David Haines, and Paris based collective HeHe (Helen Evans and Heiko Hansen), and includes an interactive, ‘in residence’ program by Carbon Arts.

Whether by design or through heightened observation, the artists in this exhibition focus our gaze on the industrial promises of the past and the future, challenging our perceptions of what constitutes beauty, horror, despair and hope. From the celebratory to the critical, these voices offer the nuanced perspectives essential to understanding and facing the current ecological crisis.

RMIT Design Hub, Project Rooms 1 & 2, Level 2, Corner Victoria and Swanston Street, Carlton.
Tuesday to Friday: 11am – 6pm, Saturday: 12pm – 5pm. Closed Sunday and Monday.

Presented as part of the ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2015 festival