The lover circles his own heart presents the varied and inventive approaches of artists to the theme of relationships. From the elaborate mating ritual of tiny spiders in Maria Fernarnda Cardoso’s video installation, to a story of love and loss symbolised in the moon and the mountain in Mabel Juli’s painting, this exhibition presents artworks that look at emotional connections between people, relationships in the animal world, and human connections to both objects, country and the universe at large.

The exhibition title – The lover circles his own heart – is drawn from Hossein Valamenesh’s swirling funnel of silk, which symbolises the crazy unbounded energy of love. Ideas of remembrance and memorial involving people and objects is presented in the wall-based installation of painted wooden and gilded frames by Judith Wright; while Benjamin Armstrong’s leaning glass sculptures and works on paper playfully allude to our desire to see and connect with human forms. The relationship between people and country is intrinsic to the works of the Tjanpi Desert Weavers. Using grasses and materials harvested from their desert country, their twisting sculptural works tell the stories of the land and its starry sky above, where the seven sisters are eternally chased by the morning star.

From the body to the stars, the personal to the universal, the human and the animal, and to the lover who circles his own heart, this exhibition shows the interconnectedness of all things.