Art + Performance: RISE in Harmony with Bruce Innocent + Ian Chia

Welcome to QVMAG's FREE Art + Performance series - where musicians, artists, dancers and actors respond to and give new life to our exhibitions through performance.

Join percussionist Bruce Innocent and composer and musician Ian Chia for an improvised sound performance that activates the exhibition RISE within the Art Gallery at Royal Park.

Using a range of acoustic and electronic instruments, the artists enter into a live, intuitive dialogue with the artworks – responding to their materiality, themes, and the spatial qualities of the gallery.

Sound will emerge from Gallery 1 and travel throughout the Art Gallery, shifting as audiences move through the various spaces.

This durational performance unfolds as an immersive sound environment. Visitors are welcome to experience the work at their own pace , staying briefly or immersing themselves for the full duration. Textures, rhythms, and electronic atmospheres appear and dissolve around the artworks, offering a contemplative, sensory layer to the exhibition.
The performance responds to the architecture of the gallery, the exhibition works, and the presence and movement of visitors, ensuring each experience is unique.

How you can take part:

• Drop in anytime — stay for a few minutes or immerse yourself for the full duration

• Listen deeply — absorb the interplay of sound and sculpture as the gallery transforms

• Follow the music beyond the walls — let it carry you into your own landscapes

No bookings are required for this free drop-in event. Whether you participate actively or simply listen, you will be part of a collective performance that blurs the line between audience and artist.

Ian Chia is a composer, songwriter, music producer and creative technologist. His works have graced dance and theatre stages and numerous film & video screens in Australia and overseas since the mid-90s.​

His credits have ranged from large-scale dance scores for Argentinian company Nucleodanza at the Melbourne International Festival, and internationally touring works for Leigh Warren and Dancers, Tasdance, Don Asker and Melbourne’s Danceworks, as well as video games and mobile apps.​

Recent works include the kinetic light and music sculpture Breath, featured in Junction Arts Festival 2024 and co-created with Darryl Rogers, and the First Nations planetarium feature film takila milaythina-ti. Ian’s practice combines acoustic composition, electronic sound, and emerging technologies to create immersive, multi-sensory works.

Bruce Innocent is a Tasmanian percussionist, drummer, and improvising musician whose practice spans contemporary jazz, experimental music, and cross-disciplinary performance. Working across drum kit, percussion, and extended sound-making techniques, his work is characterised by attentive listening, dynamic interplay, and a deep responsiveness to space, collaborators, and audience.​

Grounded in jazz performance and improvisation, Bruce has performed widely in collaborative settings ranging from small ensemble jazz contexts to open, exploratory sound practices. His approach draws on jazz traditions while embracing experimental frameworks, allowing for fluid movement between rhythm, texture, and abstraction.

RISE recognises and platforms the considerable talents, ideas, and diversity of practice of 11 selected emerging Tasmanian artists.

Tasmania has always been an island of innovation and craftsmanship with new makers and thinkers rising to provoke and inspire audiences with their skills and creativity.

With RISE, QVMAG and the City of Launceston continue its commitment to introducing audiences to new generations of significant Tasmanian artists, and to providing visibility and support to all phases of artists’ creative practice and career progression.

Featuring: Cheryl Rose – Clara Martin – Dean Greeno – Eloise Kirk – Eloise Lark – Emma Bingham – Halima Bhatti – Jeewan Suwal – Joanna Pinkiewicz – Maggie May Jeffries – Rosanagh May

RISE
Art Gallery at Royal Park, 2 Wellington Steet, Launceston
14 February – 17 May 2026
Free entry | Open daily | 10am to 4pm

Image: QVMAG

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