Adelaide Biennial Curator, Erica Green, says, ‘the exhibition titled Divided Worlds, recognises that we live in troubled times. However, rather than foretelling conflict, my focus has been on assembling an exhibition that celebrates the enduring role of art and culture. Divided Worlds offers an opportunity to experience an alternative dimension – one where “difference” is the natural order of things, and a strength to be celebrated.’

As part of his inclusion in the Biennial, Fowler has been commissioned to create a new immersive installation incorporating VR technology which will be exhibited at the Art Gallery of South Australia from 3 March – 3 June 2018.

“Hayden Fowler’s Eel Song is a work in many ways typical of his practice, bringing together a range of references to spiritual belief, to science and ecology, and to the language of art gallery and natural history museum practice. The work makes explicit reference to the threatened extinction of animals – in this case the once-abundant eels of New Zealand’s rivers and creeks – while the symbolic eel itself suggests the return of ancient mega-fauna, albeit through an apparition that is technologically created.

For the viewer of Fowler’s work there must be recognition that, no matter how engaging the work might be and how beguiling the immersion effect feels, the reality of our historical moment is being dramatised in a way that doesn’t let the viewer off the hook – we are all implicated in the loss of natural habitat, diminishing diversity, and the spiritual and emotional impacts that these changes bring to our culture as a whole, and to ourselves as individuals.”  – Andrew Frost, 2018

To coincide with his inclusion in the Adelaide Biennial, Hayden Fowler will present an accompanying new video work, developed in conjunction with his Adelaide Biennial VR installation piece Eel Songs, which can be seen at Artereal Gallery later in 2018.