The Substation

The Substation 1 Market Street, Newport www.thesubstation.org.au

SUPPORT AMBITIOUS IDEAS EARLY/Since 2016, The Substation has welcomed over 300,000 visitors and engaged hundreds of arti...
18/06/2026

SUPPORT AMBITIOUS IDEAS EARLY/

Since 2016, The Substation has welcomed over 300,000 visitors and engaged hundreds of artists. In 2025 alone, we presented 24 new works and supported 556 artists through our development, commissioning and presentation programs.

Your donation fuels the creative process, allowing artists the time, space and resources that spark their most ambitious ideas.

HOW TO DONATE/

Donate with Credit Card at givenow.com.au/thesubstation. We also welcome donations via Direct Debit, Bank Transfers or Cheque.

Make a donation of $1,000 or more to join The Substation Commissioning Circle.

Make a tax-deductible donation now, head to our link in bio.

Credit
• Resonance by James Batchelor , documentation by Sarah Walker
• In The Air curated by Jessica Clark , featuring the artists Aidan Hartshorn .hartshorn, Casey Jeffery , Cassie Sullivan ._, Emily Parsons-Lord , Francis Carmody , Sabrina Nungarrayi Gibson and Xanthe Dobbie . Documentation by Kieran Butler
• Oblation by Vijay Thillaimuthu , documentation by Kat Fogarty
• The Quieter You Become by Tilman Robinson , documentation by Darren Gill .gill

TICKETS SELLING FAST/ claire rousay (US/CA) + Lisa Lerkenfeldt/ Saturday 18 July The Substation Main Space, from 7pmPRES...
16/06/2026

TICKETS SELLING FAST/
claire rousay (US/CA) + Lisa Lerkenfeldt/

Saturday 18 July
The Substation Main Space, from 7pm

PRESENTED BY THE SUBSTATION AND ROOM40

claire rousay's world is one of irregular, overlooked and intimate beauty. Over the course of her ever growing array of recordings she has managed to chart out a terrain that remains utterly personal, but wholly communal in its appeal. Her music, which simultaneously holds the textures of ambient, the reflections of folks, the melodics of hyper pop and the energetic flurries of noise, exists in its own universe. It is a cosmos she has created with the simplest and most generous of offerings. Observations of the quotidian world, refocused and reshaped, to create deeply engaging sound fields where song form and acoustic zones meet. rousay’s world is one in which we are welcomed without reservation and embraced without constraint. Her songs are places, her sound worlds environments, and she invites you to join her there.

rousay is joined by Lisa Lerkenfeldt, whose endless piano and tape loop variations dissolve time through collages of decayed ambience, analogue manipulation and cyclic structure.

Early birds sold out, tickets selling fast! Book now through the link in bio.





Credit
Special thanks to staff writer for the article
claire rousay by Katherine Squier

ANNOUNCING/ECHO MAPPING/12 – 15 August,  7.30pmPRESENTED BY THE SUBSTATION & INTIMATE SPECTACLEEcho Mapping is a thrilli...
15/06/2026

ANNOUNCING/
ECHO MAPPING/

12 – 15 August, 7.30pm

PRESENTED BY THE SUBSTATION & INTIMATE SPECTACLE

Echo Mapping is a thrilling, joyful duet of sound and movement created and performed by longtime collaborators, electronic musician/composer Jack Prest and dancer/choreographer Azzam Mohamed.

Stripped back to its rawest elements: no sets, no spectacle. This is dance in its purest form, just body, voice, and live music in constant conversation.

Jack’s live score moves from subtle textures to thundering beats to ethereal trumpet, while Azzam performs both voice and body. His movement shifts from commanding stillness to fluid yet intense choreography, singing Sudanese melodies recorded, looped and manipulated by Jack into a mesmerising sonic atmosphere.

Performed in the round, Echo Mapping places you at the centre of the experience. Every breath, every beat, every movement is magnified, drawing you into a shared, visceral journey that is both deeply personal and powerfully collective.

Expect to leave transformed, exhilarated, and completely immersed.

Tickets on sale now—book through our link in bio.





“This pared-back duet is mesmerising… trance-like.” – Stephen Wilson Barker, The Conversation

“Brims over with raw, euphoric authenticity that is infectious and culturally rich." – Sydney Morning Herald, on Azzam Mohamed’s Katma

Tickets on sale now — book through our link in bio.

Credit
Victor Frankowski

This project has been assisted by the NSW Government through Create NSW. Intimate Spectacle is assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.

ANNOUNCING NEW RESIDENT ARTIST/JUSTIN ENRICO LEGASPI/Justin Enrico Legaspi is a Filipino-Australian artist, journalist, ...
12/06/2026

ANNOUNCING NEW RESIDENT ARTIST/
JUSTIN ENRICO LEGASPI/

Justin Enrico Legaspi is a Filipino-Australian artist, journalist, and youth worker based in Werribee, Naarm/Melbourne.

His interdisciplinary practice explores how identities and aspirations are shaped through contemporary objects, visual culture, built environments, and archival materials, within both diasporic and pop-culture contexts.

Across new media, sculpture, food, and writing, Legaspi draws on familial and migratory histories. His digital works engage with internet and consumer culture, with these practices occasionally intersecting and informing one another.

The Substation Residents initiative provides ongoing subsidised, long-term studio space for artists and organisations, as well as access to rehearsal and development spaces. We are proud to work with the range of multidisciplinary and independent artists and organisations currently in residence as a part of this initiative.

Credits
Provided by the artist

12/06/2026

SUPPORT AMBITIOUS IDEAS EARLY/

Since 2016, The Substation has welcomed over 300,000 visitors and engaged hundreds of artists. In 2025 alone, we presented 24 new works and supported 556 artists through our development, commissioning and presentation programs.

Your donation fuels the creative process, allowing artists the time, space and resources that spark their most ambitious ideas.

JOIN THE SUBSTATION COMMISSIONING CIRCLE/

Make a donation of $1,000 or more to join The Substation Commissioning Circle.

The Substation Commissioning Circle is designed to cultivate a donor community at The Substation, and acknowledge their vital contribution by providing bespoke engagements with our program and artists.
Annual studio visits with our resident artists
Insight into works in development, including invitations to VIP work in progress showings
Acknowledgement throughout venue signage, printed and digital program
Complimentary tickets to VIP opening nights across our year round program
By joining ‘The Substation Commissioning Circle,’ you become an integral part of our creative community. As a key supporter of our artist community, you Invest in artistic innovation from its inception and help shape the future of multi-artform experimental practice.

HOW TO DONATE/

Donate with Credit Card at givenow.com.au/thesubstation. We also welcome donations via Direct Debit, Bank Transfers or Cheque.

Make a tax-deductible donation now, head to our link in bio.

Video by Kimberly Summer .summer_
Additional archival footage provided by:
Raina Peterson .peterson.dance
Ev Morris

10/06/2026

TICKETS SELLING FAST/

Lisa Lerkenfeldt is an Australian artist and musician opening for claire rousay next month. Her imaginative process is poetic and precise; distilling new registers in the field of consciousness through electroacoustic composition, like a torchlight in the dark. Alongside classical instrumentation, she augments abandoned technologies into new hybrid forms through handcraft, digitisation and experimental digital processing. Flickering piano, tape systems, and their spatialised distortions unfold in repetitive motifs. Multilayered acoustic refractions invite perceptual shifts over durational encounters. Book now through the link in bio.

--
claire rousay (US/CA) + Lisa Lerkenfeldt/

Saturday 18 July
The Substation Main Space, from 7pm

PRESENTED BY THE SUBSTATION AND ROOM40

claire rousay's world is one of irregular, overlooked and intimate beauty. Over the course of her ever growing array of recordings she has managed to chart out a terrain that remains utterly personal, but wholly communal in its appeal. Her music, which simultaneously holds the textures of ambient, the reflections of folks, the melodics of hyper pop and the energetic flurries of noise, exists in its own universe. It is a cosmos she has created with the simplest and most generous of offerings. Observations of the quotidian world, refocused and reshaped, to create deeply engaging sound fields where song form and acoustic zones meet. rousay’s world is one in which we are welcomed without reservation and embraced without constraint. Her songs are places, her sound worlds environments, and she invites you to join her there.

rousay is joined by Lisa Lerkenfeldt, whose endless piano and tape loop variations dissolve time through collages of decayed ambience, analogue manipulation and cyclic structure.

Early birds sold out, tickets selling fast! Book now through the link in bio.



Check out more documentation of our big opening night at The Substation.– Margaret & The Grey Mare by  is screening ever...
03/06/2026

Check out more documentation of our big opening night at The Substation.

– Margaret & The Grey Mare by is screening every hour, Wed–Fri, 11am–5pm (final session 4pm) until Saturday 6 June
– A Residual Pulse by is open in our Galleries from Wed–Fri, 11am–5pm.
– Grassroots Never Dies, Worldwide by can be viewed on our outdoor east wall, parallel to the train line.

Visit our link in bio for more information about What’s On.

Photography credit
Machiko Abe

03/06/2026

FINAL WEEK/

Don't miss your last chance to experience Katy B Plummer’s Margaret & The Grey Mare, screening hourly (last session at 4pm) until 6 June!


MARGARET & THE GREY MARE/
KATY B PLUMMER/
Must end on 6 June
Open Wednesday - Saturday, 11am - 5pm
The Substation Main Space
Free Entry

PRESENTED BY THE SUBSTATION & LIVERPOOL POWERHOUSE

Margaret & The Grey Mare is an opera, a fever dream about an opera and an immersive video installation written in collaboration with a chatbot that has been coded to act as a channel to an ancient Celtic land spirit.

Anchoring the project is a sprawling hour-long video opera. The opera is composed by ARIA award-winning composer Sally Whitwell and performed by the artist, her sister Margaret Plummer (a principal Mezzo Soprano with Vienna State Opera), and Baritone Michael Honeyman. The video was filmed at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre and produced in collaboration with award-winning filmmaker and video artist Kuba Dorabialski.

Margaret and the Grey Mare is a Liverpool Powerhouse Touring Exhibition. The project has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program.

02/06/2026

TICKETS SELLING FAST/

claire rousay (US/CA) + Lisa Lerkenfeldt/

Saturday 18 July
The Substation Main Space, from 7pm

PRESENTED BY THE SUBSTATION AND ROOM40

claire rousay's world is one of irregular, overlooked and intimate beauty. Over the course of her ever growing array of recordings she has managed to chart out a terrain that remains utterly personal, but wholly communal in its appeal. Her music, which simultaneously holds the textures of ambient, the reflections of folks, the melodics of hyper pop and the energetic flurries of noise, exists in its own universe. It is a cosmos she has created with the simplest and most generous of offerings. Observations of the quotidian world, refocused and reshaped, to create deeply engaging sound fields where song form and acoustic zones meet. rousay’s world is one in which we are welcomed without reservation and embraced without constraint. Her songs are places, her sound worlds environments, and she invites you to join her there.

rousay is joined by Lisa Lerkenfeldt, whose endless piano and tape loop variations dissolve time through collages of decayed ambience, analogue manipulation and cyclic structure.

Early birds sold out, tickets selling fast! Book now through the link in bio.



ANNOUNCING/KERFEW: TESTING/Saturday 11 July, 7pm-1amPRESENTED BY THE SUBSTATION AND KERFEWKERFEW , a collective of South...
01/06/2026

ANNOUNCING/
KERFEW: TESTING/

Saturday 11 July, 7pm-1am

PRESENTED BY THE SUBSTATION AND KERFEW

KERFEW , a collective of South Asian artists, musicians and DJs founded in 2022, bring their signature underground curation to The Substation for the first time with one purpose: creating space that allows its artists, guests and partygoers to break imposed moulds while surrounded with hospitality and community.

KERFEW brings its most ambitious program yet: TESTING, an entire Substation takeover showcasing South Asian artists and performers who bridge and probe between classical, contemporary and experimental music.

Limited early bird tickets on sale now - book through link in bio

ARTIST LINEUP/
Aarti Jadu
Arsonist (DJ) (EORA) ._.asif
Bhairavi Raman and Nantesh Sivarajah
Hantu x Vinod Prasanna
Rakini Devi (NGURRA)
R Rebeiro
Vijay Thillaimuthu

Curated by Kamna Muddagouni and Saieesh Shanmugarajah.

Interstitials by kāmna and Food by MyNameChef (Ronen Jafari)

Address

1 Market Street
Melbourne, VIC
3015

Opening Hours

Wednesday 12pm - 6pm
Thursday 12pm - 6pm
Friday 12pm - 6pm
Saturday 12pm - 6pm

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