Concrete Playground

The four artists exhibiting at Firstdraft this month transform the gallery into a science class with biological urges, refashioned flora, paranoid communications and volcanic eruptions all making an appearance.

Troy Emery exhibits a new take on taxidermy, where the craft of presenting animals looks more like your grandmother's knitted blanket than you might imagine. His aesthetic firmly situates these creatures in the realm of the fantastical, reminding us of the constant human fascination with the mythical. Malcolm Whittaker is concerned with the animal within us all and perhaps the universe itself, tracing the imperative towards new territory in unlikely places.

Responding to the recent eruption of an Icelandic volcano, Rachel Freeman's paintings seek to disconnect this violent landscape from the media representations which cling to it. Utilising colour fields, Freeman instead approaches the phenomena on its own terms. While Heath Franco's work is a departure from the physical nature of the other exhibitions: a surreal realm of chance meetings and alienation realised through multi-channel video installation.

And if that's not quite enough to drag you to the gallery already, you should certainly make the effort this weekend when Imperial Panda and Firstdraft collide and transform into a force to be reckoned with. Pick up some unexpected music trash (or treasure) at Saturday's Used Music Swap Meet, or begin Sunday with a pancake brekkie before jumping inside a camera obscura.

Image: Troy Emery, Wild Thing 3, 2010