Watch This Space

Watch This Space Watch This Space (WTS) is an artist-led organisation established in 1993 on Arrernte land here in Mparntwe.

Watch This Space is the only contemporary experimental art space in Central Australia. We support local, national and international artists, both emerging and established.

You’re invited to take some time with Lille Madden and her show Altherrpe. Join the artist at the WTS gallery on Saturda...
18/06/2026

You’re invited to take some time with Lille Madden and her show Altherrpe. Join the artist at the WTS gallery on Saturday 27th June, 3-4:30pm to paint and draw still life representations of her work.

This workshop is a generous opportunity to be present with Lille’s work and the Country it is made from.

Some materials are kindly provided with support from Chapman & Bailey Alice Springs , you’re also welcome to bring your own if you have a style and approach you prefer.

All are welcome- no experience needed.

Where: WTS 8 gap road
When: Saturday 27th June.
Time: 3- 4.30pm

Watch This Space presents: Redaction, Absence, Opacity: Architectural witnessing of Australia’s hotel detention network,...
17/06/2026

Watch This Space presents: Redaction, Absence, Opacity: Architectural witnessing of Australia’s hotel detention network, an exhibition by Mark Romei.
 
Exhibition period: Friday 10 July—Saturday 1 August
 
Come and join us for the opening:
Friday 10 July
5:00—6:30PM
at WTS
 
Redaction, Absence, Opacity examines Australia’s use of hotels as sites of immigration detention, focusing on a network of facilities concealed through both their everyday appearance and bureaucratic redaction. Operating as “Alternative Places of Detention” (APODs), these sites are embedded within ordinary urban environments, their carceral function obscured by familiar architecture and limited public visibility.
 
Mark Romei is an architectural researcher and spatial practitioner whose work explores how creative and investigative methods can be used to document and challenge sites of violence. His practice brings together architectural research and artistic approaches to examine contested sites and consider how forms of violence are embedded within the built environment. Mark recently completed a PhD at Monash University and has collaborated with DAAR (Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency) on projects in Australia, Palestine, and Sweden.

You can find out more about the exhibition on our website!
 
WTS GALLERY HOURS
Tuesday to Friday, 12—5PM
Saturday, 10AM—2PM
8 Gap Road, Mparntwe (Alice Springs) NT 0870

Come and step into the world of ‘Altherrpe’, Lille Madden’s captivating exhibition, showing until 27 June. Built from lo...
27/05/2026

Come and step into the world of ‘Altherrpe’, Lille Madden’s captivating exhibition, showing until 27 June. Built from locally sourced clay, these works feel alive-sparkling, textured, and full of movement as they catch the light. Every surface revealing a deep level of care and handwork, inviting a closer look each time.

Sharing a few beautiful moments from the opening night last Saturday ✨

‘Altherrpe’ is a body of work sourced from Claypan Country in and around Mparntwe. Working with wild clay is a process of connecting with Country through Country. The works in this exhibition are a part of the contemporary continuation of an ancient cultural tradition that embodies the land and its story.

More info on our website.

WTS GALLERY HOURS
Tuesday to Friday, 12—5PM
Saturday, 10AM—2PM
8 Gap Road, Mparntwe (Alice Springs) NT 0870

AGM 2026 — come join us this Saturday 23 May at 11:00am for a morning tea picnic + reflect on 2025 + shape the future of...
21/05/2026

AGM 2026 — come join us this Saturday 23 May at 11:00am for a morning tea picnic + reflect on 2025 + shape the future of WTS!

If you’re attending the Sally Mumford artist talk at Araluen at 10:30am, come join us afterwards at the park at 11:00am.

We’re excited to share our annual report for 2025 and our financial audit. There will also be many reflections shared plus Board nominations.

Our annual report and financial audit is now available to view. More info on our website, link in bio. 🔗

Meet our next TAiR artists ‣ Áki Frostason and Milly Yencken, joining us May 19—June 30. Introducing Áki Frostason (imag...
18/05/2026

Meet our next TAiR artists ‣ Áki Frostason and Milly Yencken, joining us May 19—June 30.
 
Introducing Áki Frostason (image one/two): from Akureyri, Iceland, who has lived and worked in several European countries throughout his career. He studied music in Iceland and in Havana, Cuba and later earned a BA in Audiovisual Composition at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in Tallinn. A polyglot who speaks seven languages, Áki has long been curious about seeing and understanding his surroundings through different means. The same curiosity has brought him to cultivate several artistic practices and to find different ways to combine them, rendering much of his work as multimedia art.

Introducing Milly (image three/four): where the paths diverged.. based somewhere between the red soil of Australia and the black sands of Iceland. Milly Yencken uses her practice to find connections between the painted canvas and traditional techniques of animation. These two methods are used interchangeably as a tool to unlock other worlds within. For her aim is to invite the viewer to gaze beyond the veil, just for a little while. Like observing unusual flowers that bloom only in the night.  Her belief is that animation doesn’t have to be a film, or a cartoon, but rather a meditative tool to hold an idea open. Like it, or hate it. Understand it, or reject it. At every fork in the road there may be two paths, but neither of them is the wrong choice to make.. The interpretation is simply your choice to make.
 
Milly will use the residency as a testing ground to develop the early concept for a new animation film inspired by the colour, light, and landscapes of Mparntwe (Alice Springs), focusing on building the visual language, metaphors, and ideas that will shape the final work. Áki will develop the second phase of an ongoing multimedia performance project, combining historical material and Icelandic folklore with themes of dreams, memory, and layered storytelling.

A very warm welcome to Milly and Áki!

Since January, Jet has been based in Nukus - a city in the republic of Karakalpakstan within Uzbekistan. Jet has been pa...
18/05/2026

Since January, Jet has been based in Nukus - a city in the republic of Karakalpakstan within Uzbekistan.

Jet has been part of the inaugural cohort of the Aral School - a transdisciplinary learning community combining local insight with global perspectives to explore new approaches to ecological regeneration in the Aral Sea region. This region sits amongst the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, and the surrounding Kyzylkum and Aralkum deserts. This region has been intensely impacted by the Soviet Union’s diversion of the region’s rivers for cotton production, causing the collapse of an ecosystem and its livelihoods.

Joining 22 participants, half local and half international, Jet brings her experience across social and anthropological research, art curation and film production, and community collaboration to this new space. She is surrounded by diverse knowledges, including researchers, makers and artists, with expertise in agriculture, seed-saving, solarpunk, engineering, finance, water governance, and more.

Almost 4 months in, Jet will return in July to embed their learnings and research back into our desert ARI and community.

In the meantime, you may have noticed some familiar faces around WTS! Jet is proud to have Joel, Yul and Waari supporting while she’s away and excited for the new magic they bring to the space.

For anything WTS related during this time, you can still reach out here or [email protected]. 

For anything desert dreaming related, questions or ideas or thoughts, you’re welcome to reach out to Jet directly [email protected].

🫶🫶🫶

“It rained a lot.  Rivers flow. Red becomes green. The cup of life fills.  Of course when I venture into the central des...
18/05/2026

“It rained a lot.
 
Rivers flow. Red becomes green. The cup of life fills.
 
Of course when I venture into the central desert it becomes a tropical wetland...
 
Is this an omen?
 
Rivers flow so aggressively they separate community.
Red becomes green that invades the natural landscape to feed industry.
The cup of life fills to feed the flies that rummage the corpses of drowned animals.
 
Did my presence spur the elements to colour the colonial brush onto the canvas?
 
Perhaps I should be elsewhere?
 
Yet I cannot come home.”

Jahan’s TAiR journal now online (website link in bio)🖤 read the rest of this very special reflection.

‘CRISÁLIDA’ has now come to a close at WTS Gallery.An interplay between artificial and natural, the artists wrestle with...
14/05/2026

‘CRISÁLIDA’ has now come to a close at WTS Gallery.

An interplay between artificial and natural, the artists wrestle with their relationships to time, intimacy, landscape and money through the lens of the body. The first collaboration between dance artist Ashleigh Musk and video artist Ivan Trigo Miras, CRISÁLIDA is an immersive installation blending video, sound and the body to create a space for introspection.

Over the past weeks, the work has held space for slowness, conversation, reflection and encounter and it’s been a gift to witness people return to it in their own time and way.

Thank you to Ashleigh Musk and Ivan Trigo Miras!

📸

WTS GALLERY HOURS
Tuesday to Friday, 12—5PM
Saturday, 10AM—2PM
8 Gap Road, Mparntwe (Alice Springs) NT 0870

Welcome to ~~~space~~~We’re excited to present our annual members fundraising exhibition at The Roastery, celebrating a ...
14/05/2026

Welcome to ~~~space~~~

We’re excited to present our annual members fundraising exhibition at The Roastery, celebrating a new partnership and space for WTS artists, projects and exhibitions.

WHEN
Saturday 4 July running until August
at The Roastery: 9 Hele Cres, Ciccone NT 0870

This year’s exhibition invites artists and audiences to respond to the idea of ‘space’….space can be physical or imagined, empty or full, personal or shared, grounded or beyond us, a place for gathering, a site of change, the sky above, or the future we make together at Watch This Space.

We invite artists to explore the theme in any medium, form or expression.

Most importantly, this exhibition is a chance to support the community of artists who make, exhibit, experiment, gather and it is a chance to care for our space into the future.

Artworks are to be delivered by Thursday 25 June. Please submit artworks to WTS during opening hours:

Tuesday–Friday, 12–5PM
Saturday, 10AM–2PM
8 Gap Road
Mparntwe / Alice Springs NT 0870

Watch This Space and The Roastery presents: ‘A Recce’, an exhibition by Lilly Kaiser.Exhibition period: 30 May—26 June C...
06/05/2026

Watch This Space and The Roastery presents: ‘A Recce’, an exhibition by Lilly Kaiser.

Exhibition period: 30 May—26 June
 
Come and join us for the opening:
Saturday 30 May
10:30AM
at The Roastery
 
This exhibition is an insight into an evolving arts practice. On show is the early stages of a project that depicts imagery drawn from memory, imagination and observation; imagery that is set in the desert and plays with ideas of intimacy. These works are made in the pursuit of contextualising a story, figuring out the relationship between characters, their surroundings, and the role that painting plays in setting the tone and building a scene. These works are beginning to establish a language of paint in which the story will be told.

Lilly is a visual artist and arts educator whose practice explores the non-verbal connections between people, place, and environment. Through colour, texture, and abstraction, she gives form to the subtle relationships that shape our lived experience. Inspired by tactile environments and the language of materiality, her work investigates the tension between the fluid systems of nature and the rigid structures of contemporary society. Guided by personal narrative and intuitive processes, Lilly creates works that reflect both internal experience and shared human connection. Based in Mparntwe / Alice Springs on Arrernte Country, she lectures at Charles Darwin University while maintaining an active studio practice and exhibiting nationally.

Photo 1: Artist Portrait
Photo 2: Wish upon a Starlink, 2026, oil on board, 200 x 220mm
Photo 3: Grass hopper, 2026, oil on board, 200 x 220mm

All works will be available for viewing whenever The Roastery is open.

Address

8 Gap Road
Alice Springs, NT
0870

Opening Hours

Wednesday 12pm - 5pm
Thursday 12pm - 5pm
Friday 12pm - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 2pm

Telephone

+61889521949

Website

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