Botanica: Contemporary Art Outside

Artwork statement

The dreamlike multi-media installation by Christian Reitano, Lyn Nagayama and Shelby Lee, Where Are We Going? aims to enchant viewers through interconnecting natural and unnatural elements. Cinematic and emotive, this work is titled after Australian author and activist Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s haunting poem, ‘We Are Going’ (1964).

Photographs of local bushlands and riverbeds are projected onto dancer Lyn Nagayama, who dances to an urban soundscape recorded around Meanjin (Brisbane). Projected onto a screen in the Bamboo Grove, this work will enchant spectators with the interconnectedness between natural and unnatural. The artwork is asking us to consider our relationship with nature and the ways we can begin to heal the damage we have caused.

Artist biography

The emerging artists behind Where Are We Going? are recent Queensland University of Technology Fine Arts graduates: writer and photographer, Christian Reitano (@sepiavibe), choreographer and dancer, Lyn Nagayama and writer, Shelby Lee. They came together as a team of artists with the goal of decolonising their creative practices, by centring healing connections with nature and knowing this land’s story.

Image credit

Image courtesy of Bec Taylor.

Artwork statement

Like pristine natural systems, this light-based installation is impacted directly by the number of people visiting. Fusing human interaction with technology, the art will change as more people view it. The title Vestigia Arborum, resembling Latin binomial classification, refers to both ‘garden’ and ‘traces’ of something that once existed but is no more. The expansive entwined branches of the tree perform as a canvas of the work, reminding us of the living tangible and cumulative impact of human actions on this fragile and precious planet.

Artist biography

Tasmanian tech art collective Soma Lumia is a tech-art collective based in lutruwita (Tasmania) founded in 2015, dedicated to questioning the relationship between humans and nature, perception and the illusory, actual and virtual. Their work delivers considered, playful and moving experiences that help us understand what it means to be human on this fragile and precious planet. Known for its distinctively hybrid media-based arts practice, Soma Lumia investigates the boundary between what is real and what is not, what is authentic and what is counterfeit; it navigates this through questioning the relationship between humans and nature, perception and the illusory, actual and virtual. For Vestigia Aborum Soma Lumia is collaborating with composer Jim Moginie (Midnight Oil).

Image credit

Image courtesy of Bec Taylor.

Artwork statement

Slow Art Collective welcomes people of all ages and abilities into their most recent night-time iteration of the ongoing Archi-Loom project. This enormous weaving structure entices you to contribute to the evolving layers of colour. You may knot, weave, bind and connect textile strings to make patterns. Percussive instruments allow for further rhythmic and sonic experimentation.

Artist biography

Slow Art Collective (SAC) is a Melbourne-based art collective aiming to explore the new potential of public art. SAC focuses on creative practices and ethics relating to environmental sustainability, material ethics, DIY culture and collaboration with diverse cultures. SAC prioritises process-driven practices where the focus is on the act of making.

Image credit

Image courtesy of Bec Taylor.

Artwork statement

Nestled nonchalantly in the lower lagoon, Phoebe Paradise pays a gothic tribute to the ubiquitous suburban icon, a beloved and enduring feature of Brisbane’s urban environment. Built for the subtropics, the familiar forms of airy Queenslanders hold their ground on incongruously long legs. Phoebe Paradise’s houses are a symbol of historical nostalgia, a global crisis and adaptation. Phoebe visualises a suburban Brisbane lifestyle where extreme weather events are so frequent, they’ve been rendered mundane. Flickering lights and the glow of inhabited interiors communicate resilience, while still water unsettles.

Artist biography

Phoebe Paradise is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist, musician and designer based in Meanjin, Brisbane, producing illustrations, textiles, murals and public art installations that often explore the tongue-in-cheek mundanities and visual identity of her hometown.

Image credit

Image courtesy of Bec Taylor.

Artwork statement

Inspired by water lilies once in abundance in the lagoons surrounding the City Botanic Gardens, Light Lilies are interactive, modular structures combining geometry and light in a playful way. This work has the potential to be fully deconstructed and rearranged. You can play with the models on the surrounding lawns and create your own Light Lilies.

Acknowledgement

This project has been supported with the funding of The Creative Industries Fund (Netherlands). This is the cultural fund for design, architecture, digital culture and any crossovers between them. It is one of Netherlands’ six national cultural funds, financing special and innovative projects, research and activities of designers, makers and cultural institutions in the creative industry. ARUP Brisbane are also to be acknowledged through their engineering support in the presentation of this work at Botanica.

Artist biography

Noa Haim
Noa is a Dutch architectural designer, guest lecturer and journalist. She is the founder of Collective Paper Aesthetics, a studio that designs and develops audience engagement materials and STEAM education resources in a form of pop-up architecture and furnishing. Over the course of her career, Haim’s work in the field of STEAM education and resources has won numerous international design awards for its original, innovative, and multidisciplinary approach across objects, spaces and experience.

Adriann de Man
As a designer, Adriaan works on (inter)active installations where electronics/mechanics are central. In addition to this, Adriaan works as a technical support for other designers and artists with a focus on the technical part of the realization of (interactive) installations and objects.

Image credit

Image courtesy of Bec Taylor.

Artwork statement

Nestled among the branches of the Bodhi tree more than 2000 suspended porcelain leaves form a screen for the projection of microscopic waterlife from the transient creeks in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), the Botanic Gardens peninsula and the flowing Brisbane River.

Using translucent re-purposed porcelain objects and projections of microscopic water life, Flow States encourages moments of quiet contemplation and wonder, providing a chance to notice the fascinating invisible micro-worlds that are crucial parts of our everyday lives.

Artist biography

Artists Mel Robson and Ellis Hutch live and work on Arrernte Country in Mparntwe (Alice Springs). They bring their shared interest in handmade processes, materials and the layered relationships between humans and the natural world to this work. Their multi-disciplinary approach to this collaboration is a way of having a conversation with each other in the process of making the work, that then becomes a wider dialogue with the audience.

Image credit

Image courtesy of Bec Taylor.

Artwork statement

A kaleidoscope of butterflies rests peacefully on the trunks of heritage-listed fig trees. Sensing the presence of approaching visitors, the butterflies respond with fluttering wings and blue glowing light. Constructed from aluminium and internally lit, these robotic insects resemble the Blue Tiger Tirumala hamata, a regular summer visitor to Brisbane bushlands and gardens

Artist biography

Lyn Haddon is an emerging Brisbane artist, working in contemporary jewellery, sculpture, installation and public art. Blue Butterfly Effect uses Bluetooth technology to demonstrate the power of a collective group to create change in the environment. Conveying hope that small changes can make a difference.

Image credit

Image courtesy of Bec Taylor.

Artwork statement

Emerging from a realm unseen, a cybernetic creature stands tall. Scanning for signs of life, Ultra-Native Beast Sentinel seems to be a dingo evolved to survive a distant and dangerous future. This virtual deity inhabits this public space through Augmented Reality (AR).

Standing over the decorative flower garden of imported marigolds and salvias, Ultra-Native Beast Sentinel appears omnipotent. Making the invisible visible, this work subverts focus on imported garden design to signal histories embedded in Country.

Artist biography

Keemon Williams is a queer Meanjin (Brisbane) based artist of Koa, Kuku Yalanji and Meriam Mir descent. He utilises an array of mediums old and new to expand his relationships with location, personal histories and cultural plasticity. Through practice he forges belonging within all parts of the self.

Image credit

Image courtesy of Bec Taylor.

Artwork statement

Hovering over the lagoon surface the undulating forms of Hills afford a distinct, sensual contrast to the angles of Brisbane’s city skyline. This sculpture places a traditional Japanese bamboo weaving technique known as ‘kagome’ into the urban landscape. This method has a rich history in many cultures and is typically used to make domestic items such as baskets, mats and screens.

This installation is an interplay between traditional craftsmanship and futuristic structure. It speculates on the potential of architectural forms as it creates a sense of harmonious balance between the natural and the digital realms

Artist biography

Dr Dan Luo
Dan is a lecturer in Architecture at University of Queensland with a strong computer science background and expertise in digital design and fabrication.

Weixin Huang
Weixin is an Associate Professor in Architecture at Tsinghua University. He is the creator for the large-scale freeform bending active grid shell system

Image credit

Image courtesy of Bec Taylor.

Artwork statement

Theatre of Thunder’s Dream Rupture, Earth Rapture is an invitation to sense and meld the external weather of the sky and earth with the internal weather of our physical bodies. This ethereal installation is a shape-shifting monument of ecological wonder and warning in a shared dream space.

The work conjures transitory moments of the seas, skies and earthly plants and animals; deep sea vents, coral spawning, clouds reforming and volcanic eruptions; birds flocking, insects swarming, leaves and seeds swirling and falling. The elements of Dream Rupture, Earth Rapture tread softly in the Botanical Gardens; illuminated vapour-filled bubbles and ambient sound have minimal material presence.

Artist biography

Theatre of Thunder is a sonic-performance-installation ensemble, entwining Butoh-inspired movement with body-sculpture costuming, immersive music-scape and atmospheric landscape. Co-directed by Luke Jaaniste (sound, installation) and Megan Janet White (costuming, movement, choreography), they have created site-installation zones, performances and curated multi-arts zones in festivals, galleries and happenings within both indoor spaces and outdoor environments.

Image credit

Image courtesy of Bec Taylor.