embers exhibtion
Embers is about what remains alive after everything performative, protective, or imposed has burned away. It’s about the flicker beneath the ash, the quiet, persistent glow that survives decades of darkness.
Embers is a deeply personal exhibition by artist-in-residence, Angelina Mirabito, in dialogue with video artist Scott Ross and a group of courageous workshop participants.
For Angelina, those embers represent the return of a part of herself once thought lost, a child-self: sensitive, fierce, playful. After surviving complex childhood trauma and living with the relentlessness of complex PTSD, she describes Embers as a moment of profound reconnection. A return not to the past, but to an integrated selfhood, where the child-before-the-wound and the woman she’s become co-exist in alchemical unity.
Through art, this transformation has become tangible. Her latest body of work is an act of emergence, no longer only observing from the edge, but living, contributing, and sharing.
The colours that define this reawakening, pink and yellow from childhood, reappear as rose gold, iridescent pearl, and luminous gold. These works are activated by light; their radiance revealed only under illumination. There is quiet symbolism here: the idea that what’s essential has always been present, waiting to be reconnected with and rekindled, seen.
The exhibition also features a video installation by Scott Ross, a meditative unfolding of memory and landscape, where fire flickers like breath returning to the body. It offers a contemplative anchor and counterpoint to the more tactile and abstract works on display.
This exhibition is also a dialogue between memory and resilience, between the individual and the collective. It includes the raw and intimate artworks created by participants in recent Romulus Folio workshops, individuals who stepped into the unknown which takes courage. To allow yourself to be seen is an act of bravery. These participants embody another kind of ember: the glow of community, of shared vulnerability, of small acts of artistic risk. Together, these works form a chorus of resurgences, of people allowing themselves to be transformed by art, and in doing so, becoming part of a larger creative pulse.
At the heart of Embers is a simple yet profound truth: the flame within us is never extinguished, it waits to be rekindled.
In Angelina’s words:
“Art is like a wildfire in me. Embers is the moment it catches light in others.”
We invite you to witness this glow for yourself.
EXHIBITION DETAILS
Romulus Folio Gallery
The Gladstone, 15–85 Gladstone Street, South Melbourne
Wed–Fri 12–7pm | Sat–Sun 2–5pm | or by appointment
Free Entry
OPENING NIGHT
Friday, August 15, 5–7pm
Held in conjunction with The Gladstone residents’ monthly social night.
Light refreshments provided. All welcome.
