Ella Barclay | It's Already Happening

May 16, 2026 to July 26, 2026 | Main Gallery

Image: It's Already Happening, Installation View (detail) Photo credit: Prue Hazelgrove

About

This newly commissioned installation by contemporary Australian artist Ella Barclay explores the relationship between the human body and technology-driven consumer culture in an era of accelerating artificial intelligence. The installation combines large sculptural light forms with a series of smaller figurative works to create an immersive environment shaped by habits of attention, consumption, and digital absorption.

At the centre of the installation, illuminated steel towers emit a shifting glow across the gallery space, recalling the function and aesthetic of server farms and digital infrastructure. Surrounding them, figurative forms appear partially concealed beneath reflective surfaces, absorbed within the ambient light of nearby screens. Flickering illumination emerges from below, evoking the intimate and familiar presence of technology in private spaces.

These figures evoke the quiet familiarity of late-night scrolling and endless streaming of information. Their stillness contrasts with the vibrant lights of the illuminated towers, creating tension between the vast scale of technological infrastructure and the intimate experience of using a device.

Together, the towers and figures form a symbiotic landscape of bodies, light, and screens. Inviting audiences to reflect on how digital technologies shape everyday behaviour, attention and desire, and how contemporary life is increasingly lived through glowing surfaces that both connect and isolate us.

Exhibition Opening Event
Saturday 23 May | 4pm - 6pm

You are warmly invited to the opening of our Winter Exhibitions Season Launch. All are welcome.  Event details and booking link will be shared directly with our mailing list - sign up to receive your invitation. You can also book here.

Wagga Wagga Art Gallery is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

Related Programs and Events

WINTER | Exhibitions Launch

HOSSEI | ESSSENSSSE