“Viruses Found (2)”
2 Halves as a Whole
27 Feb → 16 Mar 2026
Window
West Space presents new work in our micro-project space by studio artists at the Yarra Youth Centre Studios.
Through their collaborative practice, 2 Halves as A Whole artists Paige Templeton and Ali Bagnato engage with questions of contemporary visual culture, identity and power.
Viruses Found (2) is a critical exhibition rejecting the reactionary fiction of the so-called “Woke Mind Virus,” a term popularised by Elon Musk to discredit social justice, collective care, and dissent. By reframing this rhetoric through the visual and linguistic logic of cybersecurity, hoax malware, and networked systems, the work exposes how power pathologises ideology to maintain control. In RabbitHole.wmv, this logic is made literal; a colourful computer “virus” infects Musk’s beloved X with dancing baloney and rabbit-infested code.
Viruses Found (2) playfully delegitimises the far-right moral panic which recasts human rights as an absurd viral threat.
2 Halves as A Whole is the collaborative practice of artists Paige Templeton and Ali Bagnato. Formed in 2022, the Naarm (Melbourne) based duo create maximalist, satirical work grounded in lived experience, using humour and collaboration to interrogate how contemporary visual culture produces identity, value, and power.
