Experimenta Social (Distancing) #38:
Life Entanglement
In this month’s Experimenta Social we have invited two artists whose practices explore the intertwined relationships between humans and other life forms. Fiona and Dominic are inspired by the microscopic, and the ways that technological tools contribute to our understanding of these ecologies and the interdependencies between the life forms that inhabit them.
Fiona Hillary is a public artist interested in exploring site, matter, materials and audiences both human and non-human. She draws on visual, performative and relational art practices to open up different perspectives of sites in the public realm. Dominic Redfern is a video artist whose practice is concerned with the entangled relationships between natural and social histories. He uses studies of plants, insects, microbes and human detritus to examine often overlooked elements of the environment that can tell us important things about how we are enmeshed within ecosystems.
Join us online as these artists reveal how their art practice tells the stories of diverse life forms found within our environment.
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The Experimenta Social series moves to a live online platform and continues to provide proximity to some of Australia’s most adventurous contemporary artists, researchers and creative technologists. Make sure you RSVP to receive information on how to watch online.
About the Speakers
Dominic Redfern
Dominic Redfern’s video practice addresses the entangled relationships between natural and social histories.
Dominic RedfernDja Dja Wurrung, Taungurung & Wurundjeri Country
Macedon Ranges, VIC, Australia
Dominic Redfern’s video practice addresses the entangled relationships between natural and social histories. He uses studies of plants, insects, microbes and human detritus to examine often overlooked elements of the environment illuminating important stories of how we are enmeshed within ecosystems.
Over the years his work has been exhibited at venues including the Havana Biennale; the CLIMARTE Festival; Ian Potter Museum; Tate Modern and Bristol’s FACT in the UK; Te Tuhi Centre, New Zealand; GOMA in Brisbane; Perth International Arts Festival and PICA; at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of New Art, Detroit, and Art in General in New York; Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo; at Alternative Space LOOP, Seoul, as well as Gallery Minami, Tokyo Wonder Site, Super Deluxe and Remo Gallery in Japan.
Dominic’s work has been supported by all three levels of government in Australia from various municipalities on up to the Australian Research Council as well the Australia Council for the Arts and state arts funding bodies.
Fiona Hillary
Fiona Hillary is a Melbourne based artist working in the public realm. Her passion lies in site specific practices and the human/non-human relationships that reveal themselves across time.
Fiona HillaryAustralia
Fiona Hillary is a Melbourne based artist working in the public realm. Her passion lies in site specific practices and the human/non-human relationships that reveal themselves across time. Exploring scale through publicly shared moments of awe and wonder to more personal and intimate encounters, she asks us to consider who and what we are in the process of becoming? Working with site, neon, sound, human and non-human companion species, her work has shifted from a permanent incursion in the public realm to focusing on more temporary, fleeting encounters in and of the everyday. Coinciding with Professor Rosi Braidotti’s recent Melbourne visit Fiona curated Posthuman PUBLICS, a laboratory of posthuman convergences for RMIT’s Project Space.
Fiona has made and curated permanent, temporary, collaborative, performative works for a range of commissioning organizations. Her most recent work reverberating futures will be launched with Deakin University’s Imaginarium Project in the coming months. 37°57’02.5″S 144°38’02.0″E was an immersive sound and light experience commissioned for Treatment: Flightlines at the Western Treatment Plant. Fiona curated the 10th Anniversary of the Gertrude Street Projection festival in 2017, ‘Unfurling futures’. ‘a place for gathering’ is a permanent, neon and sound work made in collaboration with Landscape Architect, Sarah Haq in Noble Park, commissioned by the City of Greater Dandenong.
Fiona is the Program Manager of the Master of Arts – Art in Public Space at RMIT University. She is a Research Lead in the School of Art research group Contemporary Art and Social Transformation. Fiona currently sits on the Curatorial Advisory Committee for the Gertrude Street Projection Festival. She is a member of the Algae Society, a global collective of interdisciplinary researchers. Fiona is completing her PhD at Deakin University.
