Prevailing Gales

Prevailing Gales
Maritime Museum of Tasmania, Hobart,
20th February - 26th May, 2026.

Prevailing Gales is an atmospheric and deeply researched exhibition that reimagines one of the most extraordinary encounters in Tasmania’s maritime history: the 1830 meeting between Van Diemen's Land (Lutruwita/Tasmanian) convicts aboard the brig Cyprus and samurai from Japan’s Awa Domain (Tokushima). Rather than retelling the story directly, Pedley explores how this cross-cultural moment has travelled across oceans, archives and generations.

Using handmade Awagami paper, indigo dye, inks, cyanotypes, rope, plaster and sound, the exhibition draws a tactile connection to the Japanese manuscripts that documented the encounter. These long-forgotten records were rediscovered by researcher Nick Russell, confirming the accuracy of the convicts’ accounts and revealing the Japanese perspective. Through material, memory and atmosphere, Pedley reflects on displacement, cultural meeting, and the enduring forces of the sea.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.