Gnomeless is an installation of gnomes in their true form, earth elementals, standing on piles of earth and treasure in the shadows. Dimly lit, of earth and stone, the gnomes are dispossessed and despised guardians of the underground. A limited edition of the Small Issue will be published in celebration of Geelong After Dark and offered to those able see the true nature of the gnome.

Tread Collective explore ideas and possibilities of relevance to space and place. Inviting the community of Geelong to co-produce and collaborate, Tread Collective encourages meditation on the relationship to the items we collect, capital, labour and spectacle within the context of the de-industrialising city.

Components of our installations are found, donated or made in Geelong and are eventually recycled and re-dispersed back into the community. Tread has evolved to include the voices of artists, poets and performers, mechatronic engineers, photographers and graphic designers. Members of the collective have individual practices, which span a broad ecology of creative possibility.

This work explores what interactivity is in a gallery context through observations of viewer engagement of an artwork that combines algorithmic and natural light sources designed to trigger a viewer’s experience.

Geelong After Dark has a theme of ‘earth’ and this work brings together a testing ground building upon existing works currently on show.