Kate Mitchell: Set States

Curated by Daniel Mudie Cunningham and Louise Brand

8 November - 22 March 2026

Set States brings together a selection of video works by Kate Mitchell, known for her constructed sets and performative, often absurdist gestures. Spanning key works such as Fall Stack, I Am Not a Joke, Beyond Setting Suns, and Hypnotised into Being—recently acquired by Wollongong Art Gallery—the exhibition explores shifting psychological states and embodied experiences: states of mind, states of action, states of play, states of being.

Mitchell’s videos play with humour and endurance, capturing moments where physical and emotional limits are tested or transcended. Her practice examines the fragile space between control and collapse, seriousness and silliness, labour and levity.

Presented in dialogue with works from the Wollongong Art Gallery collection, Set States invites new connections between contemporary Australian video art and historical representations of human agency, ritual, and transformation. The exhibition considers themes of play, perception and performance—suggesting that to “set states” is to be actively engaged with the world, however unstable it may be.

Image: Kate Mitchell, Hypnotised into Being, 2016 (detail from still), HD digital video, 17 min 42 sec. Purchased 2025.