In Conversation with Van Sowerwine, Isobel Knowles and Antoinette O'Brien

Where: NRCG - 44 Cherry Street Ballina
Date: Saturday 14 November 2026 
Time: 3pm - 4pm 
Age: Open to all
Cost: Free to attend

An in-depth conversation with exhibiting artists and collaborators Antoinette O’Brien, Isobel Knowles and Van Sowerwine about their respective exhibitions, facilitated by Gallery Coordinator Imbi Davidson.

Delving into their latest work, the artists will share their unique and related challenges collaborating with communities and individuals dealing with the aftermath of natural disaster, and their approaches to managing grief, loss and trauma as part of the artistic process. Alongside her own exhibition It Becomes Light, Antoinette O’Brien was a key collaborator with Isobel Knowles and Van Sowerwine on their work The World Came Flooding In, where she shared her experience of flooding in Lismore in 2022. Collectively, Antoinette, Isobel and Van will reflect on the relationship they formed with each other and the collaborative work they created together. 

Artist Bios

Van Sowerwine & Isobel Knowles

With a shared passion for stop-motion animation, storytelling and technology, Isobel Knowles and Van Sowerwine have a 20+ year career creating elaborate interactive artworks, moving short films and unique immersive installations which have been celebrated all over the world.

Their works have premiered at international film festivals including Cannes (where they were awarded a Special Mention), Venice, Rotterdam, Chicago and Sundance. Their installations have been exhibited nationally and internationally including at GOMA, MONA, NGV, Art Gallery of NSW, Ars Electronica, Linz, the ICA, London, and at the Seoul New Media Biennale. Their installation You Were In My Dream won the 2010 Premier of Queensland's National New Media Art Award. Their VR film Passenger won the Virtual Reality Award - Best Film at the 60th Thessaloniki International Film Festival. Their Augmented Reality work Night Creatures won the 2023 AIDC award for best Immersive/Interactive Documentary.

Antoinette O’Brien

Antoinette O’Brien’s work explores the figure within the social and the natural world.  Animating her mixed media ceramics are the joys, anger, pleasures, alienation, and deep connections felt for both popular culture as well as sea, sky and soil. Educated at Tasmania University and Lismore TAFE ceramics department, O’Brien’s innovative work was recently awarded TAFE Outstanding Achievement (2020), Hurford Hardwood Portrait Prize (2020), and Franz Porcelain Design Scholarship (2019). O’Brien has exhibited widely, notably at Lismore Regional Gallery and Yogja National Gallery, Indonesia. O’Brien’s work has appeared in Australian Ceramics Journal (2019,2020) and Art Edit and Interior Design (2021).

The artists exhibitions The World Comes Flooding In and It Becomes Light are on display at NRCG from 15 October – 6 December 2026.

NRCG is a wheelchair accessible venue. Please contact us ahead of time if you have accessibility needs you would like us to be aware of.

For more information contact the Gallery on 02 6681 0530.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government's Visions of Australia program.

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Image: Isobel Knowles & Van Sowerwine, photographer Briony Ridley