A Flinders University Museum of Art exhibition curated by Dr Belinda Howden.

Crosscurrents presents newly commissioned works by Brad Darkson, Chris De Rosa, Honor Freeman, Michael Kutschbach, Sonya Rankine, and Mary-Jean Richardson—artists whose practices are deeply connected to the coastal edges of Ngarrindjeri, Kaurna, and Narungga waters, from Encounter Bay to Moonta.

Through their works, Crosscurrents unfolds as a richly layered schema of place where speculative sculpture, reimagined cultural practice, and collaborations with marine ecologies converge, alongside reflections on the stark realities of extractive bioprospecting. These works also give form to the intimate rituals of coastal life—swimming, walking, and observing the ever-shifting thresholds of land, sea, and sky.

Here, intersecting narratives reveal the myths, histories, images and objects unique to these environments while also evoking universal phenomenological experiences of the coast. Through the artists’ vision, we witness the rapture of light and atmosphere, the pull of liminality and immersion, and moments of communion with non-human entities, as well as the foreboding shadows of our shared ecological future.