University of South Australia’s Samstag Museum of Art is ushering in its third and final season for the year with three thought-provoking exhibitions set to captivate audiences and spark reflection.
Launching this October, the Wirltuti season (Wirltuti meaning spring in Kaurna culture) brings together diverse artistic voices and perspectives, offering visitors a chance to engage with contemporary issues, challenge assumptions, and experience art in unexpected ways.
Sean Cordeiro and Claire Healy: Psychopomp and selected works
Artistic collaborative duo and Samstag Scholars Sean Cordeiro and Claire Healy’s practice reflects a preoccupation with the dynamics of global mobility — the networks, standards and financial systems that enable and restrict the movement of people and goods in the modern era.
In this ambitious new work, Healy and Cordeiro premiere Psychopomp, a cacophonous and vibrant moving image work. Exploring the porous relationship between science and mysticism, the pair turn their attention to rocket technology and its link to spirituality.
From the way in which NASA’s Apollo, Mercury and Gemini mission names are directly inspired by gods of antiquity, to pioneer rocket scientist Jack Parson’s conversion to Aleister Crowley’s occult Thelema movement, Cordeiro and Healy identify a strong spiritual thread in the history of rocket and space exploration.
Melding Crowley’s poem Hymn to Pan, a significant historical text, with footage of farming fertility festivals in Thailand and Laos, Psychopomp explores the expressive potential of motion, technology and pagan rituals.
Psychopomp is the outcome of the 2024 UniSA Jeffrey Smart Commission. Alongside the new commission, Samstag will present a concise selection of significant earlier works by the artists.
5 STEPS FOR BETTER LIVING, MAXIMUM GAINS AND MANIFESTING YOUR MOST OPTIMISED SELF!!
For the 2025 Adelaide Film Festival, Nisa East, Anna Lindner and Yasemin Sabuncu will present 5 STEPS… This work originates from the 2023 AFF EXPAND Lab, an initiative bringing together artists and screen-based practitioners to develop collaborative approaches to making moving images.
5 STEPS… offers a satirical, critical reflection on the trends of commodified, masculine ‘wellness’ in times of existential crisis. The multi-channel installation draws on experimental performance, surrealism and dark humour to examine the way wellness subcultures can be used to promote self-centred ideas of freedom and success.
The AFF EXPAND Lab has been initiated by the Adelaide Film Festival and delivered in partnership with the Samstag Museum of Art, Illuminate Adelaide, Art Gallery of South Australia and the Balnaves Foundation, with support from Arts South Australia.
Ryan Presley: Daydreamer
In 2024, the University of South Australia commissioned Marri Ngarr artist Ryan Presley to paint a portrait of its Chancellor, The Honourable John Hill. To accompany the unveiling of this commission, Samstag will display a selection of works by the artist.
Presley’s figurative paintings weave personal and cultural motifs with art historical references. Raised a Catholic, his art practice explores religious iconography, often featuring intricate patterning and human figures set against seductive and lyrical dreamscapes composed of clouds, sand dunes and industrial motifs.
In 2022, Presley was the subject of a major solo exhibition, Fresh Hell, a co-commission by Adelaide Contemporary Experimental and Gertrude Contemporary. Last year, the National Portrait Gallery commissioned the artist to create a work for the gallery.
Presley’s exhibition is part of the 2025 Tarnanthi Festival. Presley will also be in conversation with art historian Andrea Bubenik on Saturday 18 October (3.00pm – 4.00pm).
All three exhibitions will be on display at Samstag Museum of Art – UniSA (City West Campus) from 16 October – 5 December 2025. For more information, visit: www.unisa.edu.au for details.
Images: Sean Cordeiro and Claire Healy, Psychopomp, 2025, production still – image courtesy the artists, N. Smith Gallery and MAGMA Galleries | Nisa East, Anna Lindner and Yasemin Sabuncu, 5 STEPS FOR BETTER LIVING, MAXIMUM GAINS AND MANIFESTING YOUR MOST OPTIMISED SELF!!, 2025 – photo by Nick Forde. Courtesy the artists | Ryan Presley, Marri Ngarr people, born Mparntwe/Alice Springs, Northern Territory, 1987, The Honourable John Hill, Chancellor of the University of South Australia, 2024-2025. Samstag Museum of Art, University of South Australia, 2025