“no rock no flower”
Andrea Illés
6 Sept → 25 Oct 2025
Gallery

Andrea hangs from a coil of plastic pipe that is suspended from the ceiling with chains. She is flopped on to the silver floor in front of three large screens on wheels
Andrea Illés, 'no rock no flower', West Space, 2025. Photography by Kenneth Suico.

West Space premieres no rock no flower by Andrea Illés, a Naarm (Melbourne) based artist working with experimental forms of movement, image and sound.

no rock no flower is an eight-week durational performance installation viewable in-person and on a livestream from various sites including the gallery, Andrea’s home, the hotel she works from, and other life spaces.

Across three phases, Illés tests representation with her body and our gaze in an evolving and rhizomatic exploration of,

“surveillance, abjection, (sexual) violence, desire, echo and narcissus, salmacis and hermaphroditus, my blood, my culture and my alienation from it as diaspora, my experience of the painful and magical world around me, and my love and admiration for my friends.”

During the second phase, the exhibition centres on a three-channel film, titled Dreem2, comprising a series of portraits and tasks exploring the strengths that can be found in aloneness and togetherness.

During the third and final phase, Andrea presents a series of live arrangements and invites collaborators Marcus Whale, Nelly Clifton and Stacey Collee to join her for improvisational occasions.

"Dreem2 engages with the relationship between looking and performativity and is a complex (futile) attempt to understand my body and what I experience — in public and private — and the affecting qualities of gazing and (mis) representation. It is an exploration of bodily failure; (dis) figuration; (im) balance; and the monstrous transfeminine; as modes of possibility and presence.
The camera has a physical language in that it becomes proxy for another body (or a general body) gazing at me. I instruct its subjectivity and my own status as object. I am interested in the (non) restrictive experience of self-consciousness and in making processes to overwhelm and exhaust myself - sometimes this leads towards presence." — Andrea Illés

with

Mara Galagher, Nelly Clifton, Grace Marlow, Tom Denize

and

Ahmed Coshnow, Alexander Powers, Benjamin Samadar, Brie Mayanja, Electric Vehicle, Fēi Chen, Gabriella Imrichova, katiebird, Maia Henderson, Makei Taualii, Marcus Whale, Nola Magdalene, Pris Crisis, Quinn Uncut, Stacey Collee, Tom Bridges, V Barratt, Zane Edwards

Andrea Illés: no rock no flower is a West Space Commission supported by Creative Australia and the Victorian College of Arts, University of Melbourne with mentorship support from V Barratt and consultation with Helen Grogan. no rock no flower forms the culmination of West Space's multi-part investment in Illés's practice following her residency in our studio.

Andrea hangs from a coil of plastic pipe that is suspended from the ceiling with chains. She is flopped on to the silver floor in front of three large screens on wheels
A woman hangs upside down with her hand and head dragging on the ground. She has a macro lens camera in her mouth . Behind her is a mixture of sound gear and cables.
A woman lays with her legs elevated through a suspended coil of pipes. Her arms are straight and sprawled out and she has a camera in her mouth attached to a cord
Andrea sits on the floor in front of the audience with her legs spread holding a big light shining between her legs
A woman crawls on the silver flooring of the gallery towards audience members recording her on their phones. She is in front of 3 large screens with images of her performing playing on them
audience members watch Andrea perform in the gallery. There are multiple screens that we can see the performer being broadcast on.
Andrea is crawling across the silver floor of the gallery while dozens of audience members watch her intently
Andrea's body contorts in motion on the silver floor. There are audience members watching her in the top of the image.
a woman with a grey crop top and grey skirt sits atop of a stack of mattresses talking into a microphone. She has many tattoos and shoulder length curly dark red hair.
A woman and another person is displayed on a screen. A pile of textiles from the mattress and an image can be seen in the background.
A woman can be seen through the hole in a suspended coil of pipes.
A speaker is suspended from the ceiling. A negative photo of a woman is displayed on the gallery windows.
A suspended coil of pipes is hanging from the ceiling, pile of spring structure of mattresses and two screens are in the gallery. The wooden floor is partially covered with foil mat. The windows are covered with negative photos pf a woman.
A screen, a speaker, and a microphone are hanging from the ceiling. Layers of metal springs from mattresses are on the foil mat in the middle of the gallery. A blue picture of a woman, a CCTV camera, and some towel rails are attached on the wall.
A negative photo of a crawling person is displayed on the gallery windows.
A suspended coil of pipes, a pile of springs from mattresses, two speakers, two screens, an blue image of a woman in the gallery. The middle of the floor is covered in foil mat.
A negative photo of a woman lying down is displayed on the windows of a dim room.
A woman is suspended from the roof hanging in a coiled pipe. She is sitting in the pipe, her arms are holding the pipe, and she is looking at the camera.
A woman is suspended from the roof hanging in a coiled pipe. One of her legs is in the middle of the pipe.
A coil of plastic pipe that is suspended from the ceiling with chains. A hand is holding the chains.
Andrea is standing in the middle, performing with one hand placed behind her head, the other on her back.
A woman lying on the foil mat on the floor. A coil of plastic pipe that is suspended from the ceiling with chains, a pile of springs from mattresses, and a photo of Andrea are in the background.
A woman lying on the foil mat on the floor. A photographer, a coil of plastic pipe that is suspended from the ceiling with chains, a pile of springs from mattresses, and a photo of Andrea are in the background.
A woman is lying on a pile of metal springs of mattresses. A person holding a video camera is recording.
A woman is sitting on a pile of metal springs of mattresses.
A woman is performing in the middle of the gallery. Visitors are watching against the walls. The performance is also displayed on the four screens in the gallery.
A CCTV camera and wires are attached to the ceiling. Wall text of the exhibition is in the back.

Andrea Illés is an artist working with movement, sound, and image. Her (often) durational performance based practice centres on overwhelm, agony, and awe and their co-existence with (non) restrictive performativities. Illés is interested in the interplay between stigma and embodiment and embraces abjection and failure as possibility.

Related

Andrea Illés, 'no rock no flower' (detail), 2025.

V Barratt, no rock no flower
2025

A naked woman stands in the sunlit corner of a room with her arms up holding each corner of the room. The shadows on the window shape are covering her body

“sorry I was so hungry”
Andrea Illés
9 Aug → 31 Aug 2024