Simon Reece’s exhibition Muscle responds to the landscapes, materials and histories of Muswellbrook. Developed during an artist residency with Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre, the exhibition brings together ceramics, photography and found industrial materials to explore the relationship between industry, environment and place.

References to freshwater mussels, believed to have inspired the early name “Muscle Brook”, connect the work to the area’s waterways and histories of habitation. Using clay sourced from local mine sites alongside mining imagery and industrial materials, Reece reflects on the ways land continues to carry traces of ecological, cultural and industrial change.