20 June / 26 July 2026
opening: Saturday 20 June, from 4 pm

CHASING TAILS

Artists: Sam Doctor, Jackson Farley, Joseph Kamaru (KMRU), Fabian Knecht, Nicolás Lamas, Sofie Muller, Yhonnie Scarce, Charlie Sofo and Kate Stevens

Curator: David Hagger

Past and present do not cease to interact. The present bears the imprint of the past, and it reverberates deeply amongst us. In our chase for future advancement (across Western perspectives, particularly), there exists a deeply embedded illusion that we own and control nature. We’ve exploited our environment at large by stripping it of raw materials and with it, much of its mystery and awe. It feels, now more than ever, that the chase is not one of advancement but of our own tails.

Art and life comprise the universal and the definite. Both are entities consisting of multiplicity, containing the minute and the grand, the unexpected and the inevitable. And art and life operate as systems of exchange. Within them we draw upon the recurring interpretations of learnings and desires. We do so, in today’s uncertain world, with the weight of complex paradigms bearing over us. Amongst ecological turmoil, global unrest and geopolitical swings, we attempt to authenticate our role – as individuals and as a species – through the relentless pursuit of understanding how we fit within these ecosystems.

Chasing Tails presents as an uncompromising exploration of boundaries: experimental and experiential processes with which artists enquire into the functioning of growth and decay through sustainability and extinction, war and politics, customs and future tech, and the archaeology of time. It features artists that wrestle control of their subject to make sense of contemporary positions, works that balance on the verge of integration and contrast, works that retain autonomy, but as a collective, sharpen our thinking about the agency we hold as a species. It acts as a present-day social laboratory where art reveals our encounters, from the birth of stars to our entanglements with external realities, inextricably tying us to place, and putting to bed any illusion that we can separate ourselves from the past and the future, for we are a small part of a much greater whole.

Chasing Tails features the work of globally respected artists Fabian Knecht (Germany), Sofie Muller (Belgium), Nicolás Lamas (Peru) and Joseph Kamaru (Nairobi), alongside those by local and national artists Sam Doctor, Jackson Farley, Yhonnie Scarce, Charlie Sofo and Kate Stevens. Their coming together creates a vital exchange of ideas, perspectives, and practices within a regional setting—nurturing community discourse and artistic ambition beyond metropolitan centres.

Chasing Tails will be held at Stockroom Kyneton, Victoria, Australia, from 20 June to 26 July 2026

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David Hagger is a Naarm/Melbourne-based curator, consultant and project manager. For over two decades, he has worked with Australian and international artists to realise projects for private and public galleries, art fairs, festivals and institutional, government and corporate stakeholders.
Hagger has successfully delivered significant public artworks, most recently for Edith Cowan University, Scape, the Museum of Contemporary Art, City of Parramatta, Knox City Council, Mansfield Shire Council and Pellicano’s Ballarat Railway Station redevelopment. He has curated exhibitions across public galleries, including the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Benalla Art Gallery, Gippsland Art Gallery, Linden New Art and Wyndham Art Gallery.