We’re excited to present a stellar program of Winter Night Screens 2026!
Plus we’re teaming up again with our neighbours and partners Next Wave, Michelle Guglielmo Park (260 Sydney Road) and Counihan Gallery to bring you Round the Block - a series of winter outdoor screenings, artist talks and walking tours.
This year, we’re expanding our unique six-week screening series, not only transforming our main glass entrance into a circular portal, but also extending across the Balam Balam Place grounds with large-scale projections on the House façade, creating a platform for storytelling and experimentation.
SCREENING PERIOD: July 9 - August 15, 2026
SCREEN TIMES: Thursday / Friday / Saturday evenings (6pm to dawn)
ABOUT THE artists:
Artist group #1
Blaktasia through the Blak Lens, 2026
Blaktasia Projection Collective
Blak Dot Gallery entrance
9 – 18 July
6pm (Thur, Fri, Sat)
Peer through the Blak lens and into the magical world of Blaktasia.
Step into the Blaktasia Universe, an exciting new world imagined through our eyes and inspired by Country.
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Blaktasia Universe Montage, 2026
Blaktasia Projection Collective
House façade
9 – 18 July
6pm (Thur, Fri, Sat)
Come and check out the art from one of Australia’s deadliest Aboriginal projects, Blaktasia.
We’ll be sharing work-in-progress, behind-the-scenes videos and the latest videos and artworks from the Blaktasia Universe. Watch Merri-bek light up with the magical stories, colours and characters of this expanding First Nations fantasy world. Meet the deadly crew of Land Defenders protecting Country, alongside cute animals, native plants and colourful cartoon worlds that show Country through a contemporary Blak lens.
Yeehaw you Mob!
About GUCK and Blaktasia
Blaktasia® video game and the Blaktasia Universe are created and led by a team of First Nations artists, musicians, designers and creative technologists working at GUCK.
In Blaktasia®, players restore the bush, encounter animals, unlock minigames and take on the corrupting force of the Murk within a First Nations fantasy world informed by Country.
As the project has grown, Blaktasia has become a distinctive, ambitious and multidisciplinary creative work. We refer to this expanding body of work as the Blaktasia Universe. It spans visual art, music, digital interaction, dance, video, sculpture, fashion and textiles, storytelling, installation and live experience.
After many years of deep investment in artistic and professional development, Cultural protocol development, research, pre-production, community collaboration and consultation, the team at GUCK is excited to share more of the Blaktasia Universe with First Nations audiences.
The Blaktasia Projection Collective is a group of artists from the Blaktasia team at GUCK who specialise in projection & installation work.
The collective consists of:
Elijah McDonald - Noongar | Yamatji | Pitta Pitta
Charlotte Allingham - Wiradjuri, Ngiyampaa Pilaarrkiyalu
Rosie Kalina - Wemba Wemba & Gunditjmara
Sasipim Srisunakhrua
Kati Elizabeth
To see the full Blaktasia team, check out their website here.
Artist group #2
i tried to meditate but it was hard, 2026
Vicente Barriga
Blak Dot Gallery entrance
23 July – 1 August
6pm (Thur, Fri, Sat)
i tried to meditate but it was hard (2026) follows the artist on a one-way journey that rewrites the story of Odysseus — no return, only departure. Beginning in a small coastal village in the Cordillera de la Costa, South America, the piece moves through the places the artist has lived: Berlin, the Baltic Sea, Venice, and finally the forests of Victoria, Australia — 11,000 kilometers from where it started.
Shot on a digicam, the footage collapses these landscapes into a collage of light, clouds, and water. Drawing loosely on Spinoza, the work sits with a question it refuses to resolve: why are images of light and sky so readily mapped onto the idea of God?
Running beneath it all is the voice of Teresita Muñoz — a potter from the artist's hometown whose ceramic practice had pre-Hispanic origins. Recovered from an old interview, her voice follows the artist across the journey, connecting him to his ancestors. A meditation on immanence, belonging, and what a body can hold.
Credits: Edited by Lautaro Barriga. Music and sound design by Javier Vargas.
About Vicente Barriga
Vicente Barriga (b. 1997, Chile) is a curator, poet, cultural anthropologist, and multidisciplinary artist, and co-director of Videoclub, an independent platform for experimental video art from the Global South and its diasporas. His artistic practice revolves around territory, spirituality, sound, and moving image — primarily through video collage.
As a curator, he has organized screenings in Berlin, New York, Zürich, Cape Town, and Tokyo, with a focus on sonic materiality, critical intangible cultural heritage, and moving image practices from elsewhere — including the internet as a decentered site of memory. He is currently pursuing a master's degree in World Heritage Studies, Cultural Heritage, and Museum Studies. In 2015, he received the Premio Roberto Bolaño — Chile's leading literary prize for young writers.
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Hotomai, 2026
Tony Aitorea
House façade
23 July – 1 August
6pm (Thur, Fri, Sat)
Hotomai (2026) showcases the initiative of the Hotomai Cultural Village in Honiara, Solomon Islands, which envisions preserving and sharing the traditional ways of living of the Birao people of Guadalcanal Province. Hotomai (2026) reflects an ongoing effort to keep traditions alive for future generations while inviting audiences to engage with the richness and resilience of Solomon Islands culture.
Credits: Special thanks to Hotomai Cultural Village, with contributions from Jessie Koli (Coordinator), Jacinta Koli (Hotomai Founder & Manager), Donald (Carrier and Tour Guide) and Roy Wasi Junior (Technical Support).
About TONY AITOREA
My name is Tony Aitorea, a videographer from the Solomon Islands. Over the past three years, I have worked in the NGO space, using videography to amplify local voices across rural Papua New Guinea. My work advocates for nation-building through youth, capturing stories that highlight resilience, creativity, and the importance of community. Through my lens, I strive to connect people, inspire dialogue, and empower the next generation to see themselves as leaders and changemakers in their own right.
Artist group #3
baal ga, 2026
Pierra Van Sparkes
Blak Dot Gallery entrance
6 – 15 August
6pm (Thur, Fri, Sat)
balga is the grass tree to my Noongar family.
balga was unearthed from boodja to the east.
baal is she and he and it all at once; the sound that calls for me.
A gift from mooditj moort; roots singing for release.
balga will burn before they will grow.
baal ga’s light touches all that I know.
baal ga (2026) was commissioned by Koorie Heritage Trust and Fed Square for the Big Screen program.
About Pierra Van Sparkes
Pierra Van Sparkes (they/them/baal) is a Kulin Country based, queer Pibbulman Noongar artist. Swaying between whispered invitations into their internal world (shhhh, that dog in em is resting) and full-throated Blak humour for mob in the back row, their work is inspired by cultural and material bricolage we engage to assemble individual and collective worlds.
Creating with photography, video and digital media, their work unspools bigger yarns shared with friends and family about place, belonging, surviving the settler colony and dreaming of worlds beyond.
Check out Pierra’s work here.
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Seven Faces of Mother Earth, 2026
Lesley Wengembo
House façade
6-15 August
6pm (Thur, Fri, Sat)
Seven Faces of Mother Earth is a poetic reflection on an Indigenous artist's return to his village after feeling overwhelmed by his experiences in the city. In seeking to rediscover himself, he encounters Mother Earth, who reminds him of where he comes from. Drawing from personal experience, the work imagines Mother Earth as a living presence, speaking to us about what we seem to have forgotten.
Credits: Nikka Tua (Model/Mother Earth), Brandy Maku (Make up artist)
About Lesley Wengembo
Lesley Wengembo is a 29 year old artist originally from the Kumiri tribe of Pangia in Papua New Guinea. He completed a Bachelor of Fine Art at the National Art School in Sydney and is currently undertaking a Master of Fine Art at RMIT University. In recent years, his practice has focused on hyper-realistic portraiture, primarily depicting Indigenous people in traditional attire. He says, “As a contemporary Indigenous artist, I try to capture an essence of what is still alive today, expressed through their faces, before it disappears.”
Proudly supported by: Merri-bek Council Flourish Arts Grant 2025-2026
