Welcome to QVMAG's Art + Performance series - where musicians, dancers, and actors respond to and give new life into our exhibitions through performance.
Join us for the next installment of QVMAG’s Art + Performance series, where artists breathe new life into exhibitions through movement, sound, and presence.
In this immersive performance, composer and multi-instrumentalist Karlin Love creates a sonic dialogue with the photographic stillness of Traces: Chris Bell.
Her classical guitar, both improvised and drawn from composed repertoire, is recorded and layered with roving clarinet melodies, forming a duet between the present and the recent past.
Karlin’s music resonates with the exhibition’s quiet celebration of “exquisite ordinariness”: rocks, reeds, leaves, and water reflections. These images, grounded in specific places yet evocative of many, become portals to deeper connection with the natural world.
Inspired by Chris Bell’s quote: "I want to present beauty as a worth in itself, and for that beauty to act as a conduit to a new affirmation with the natural world," you are invited to enjoy this necessary beauty, a meditative, restorative pause in your day:
- Slow down and listen deeply to the interplay of sound and image
- Reflect on the resonance of place, memory, and emotion
- Drop in for a few minutes or linger for the full duration
- Let the music draw you outside — beyond the gallery walls and into your own landscapes
About the performer
Karlin Love is a multi-instrumentalist, improviser, and composer who is perpetually looking for surprises for herself, for performers, and for audiences. Her work gently expands the boundaries of traditional sound worlds, inviting curiosity and discovery.
Performing on clarinet, bass clarinet, Greenwood leather instruments, and guitar, she moves fluidly across classical, jazz, and experimental styles. A passionate admirer of the natural sciences, Karlin relishes every opportunity to intertwine music and nature in her creative practice.
About the Art+Performance series
Experience QVMAG like never before with our FREE monthly Art + Performance sessions –where musicians, dancers, and performance artists respond to the museum’s rich blend of art, history, and science.
Each session transforms QVMAG's spaces into a living, breathing space of creativity, including:
- Sound baths and ambient soundscapes
- Live music from diverse instruments and traditions
- Durational dance-theatre works with live accompaniment
Held each month on a Saturday afternoon, these are FREE drop-in events, with no registration required. With no set lists or schedules, you can stay for ten minutes or two hours.
Keep an eye out for upcoming sessions, held across both of our sites at the Museum at Inveresk and the Art Gallery at Royal Park. Join us to experience visual art in dialogue with performance, where QVMAG becomes a space for reflection, immersion, and discovery.
About the exhibition
Traces: Chris Bell
A passionate naturalist, Chris Bell has been photographing wild places and wild things for over 30 years.
Through the lens of his camera, Bell captures patterns and traces in the landscape and blurs the lines between wilderness photography and art photography.
His work casts a spotlight on vulnerable places and threatened species to bolster conservation efforts.
“It is crucial we re-establish our reverence of nature and regain an understanding of its workings if there is to be any future for humanity." -- Chris Bell
Traces: Chris Bell
Art Gallery at Royal Park, 2 Wellington Steet, Launceston
20 September 2025 – 15 February 2026
Free entry | Open 10am to 4pm daily
Image: QVMAG