Hero Apartment Building commissions

Melbourne-based artist Scotty So, appears performing as his drag persona Scarlett So Hung Son, in a colourful 1960s office tableaux that reinstates the first-floor windows of the Hero Apartment building.

While So's Through the office window looking glass is firstly informed and fortified by the genuine history of the building, the expanded concept interleaves layers of real and fabricated histories that critique authenticity and characterise So's practice.

Artist Scotty So works across painting, photography, sculptures, site responsive installation, videos and drag performance. Driven by the thrill of camp, he explores the often contradictory relationship between humour and sincerity within lived experience. Born and raised in Hong Kong, So holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours from the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne and has exhibited his work in Hong Kong, China and Australia. He is represented by MARS gallery.

Melbourne artist James Geurts photographic work Aperture f/1.2_Shallow contemplates the relationship between the optics of the human eye, the mechanics of a constructed lens and earth's orbital dependence on the light of the sun.

The photograph of a time specific site-action involved collecting the solar energy from that day to illuminate the sculpture at the exact time the sun disappears at the horizon the threshold of day and night. The immense panorama draws the eye to the outer edges of the landscape that overlooks the southernmost point of the Australian mainland, Wilsons Promontory.

Geurts conceptually driven practice often draws a line from the primordial to the technological, to investigate concepts of time and perception, working across Australia and internationally. Through abstraction, fieldwork, site interventions and studio research, Geurts typically focuses on the way that cultural and natural forces intersect to shape not only landscape but perception itself. For further information about the artist see James GeurtsOpens in new tab.

Watch a video of the work. Opens in new tab

Melbourne artist Aylsa McHugh's artwork Persona was selected for the inaugural commission in 2020. McHugh's artwork used vintage portraits of hair models, inventively collaged with pictures of sculptures from the modernist period. In these playful images, the sculptures have been shrunk and employed as a form of decorative adornment on each model's face. These works examine our tendency to find connections and seek a certain solace in seeing order where none exists.

Aylsa McHugh holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, and has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her practice incorporates a variety of media and draws from a wide range of in uences including architecture, modernism, sculpture, fashion, lm, and urbanisation.