Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Wildlife in the City at the Performance Space

Wildlife in the City is part of the Urban Transformations series that will take place at the ClubHouse.

The event will bring scientists, botanists and zoologists together with artists who take an ecological approach to their practice.In the city, where urbanism and nature collide, flora and fauna have adapted to the developments around them. It will offer a unique glimpse into how the urban landscape acts as a backdrop to human/nature interaction, and how this is changing.

It is hoped that the meeting will inspire new works to take place in the public and urban arena.

Participants

Dr Peggy Eby
Dr. Peggy Eby is a wildlife ecologist who has spent the past 20 years studying the ecology, behaviour and conservation biology of Grey-headed flying foxes. She is a member of the research team charged with monitoring the results of the relocation of flying foxes from the roost in the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney.

Diego Bonetto
Diego Bonetto is a multimedia artist living and practicing in Sydney and is a key member of artists' collectives SquatSpace, the Network of UnCollectable Artists (NUCA) and the BigFAGPress. For the past 7 years Diego has been working with WeedyConnection, an environmental art campaign. The project involves an online resource launched in 2006 short documentary films, various site-specific installations in the form of Self-Guided Tours, cooking shows and interactive games on mobile platforms.

Free Soil

Free Soil is an international hybrid collaboration of artists, activists, researchers and gardeners who take a participatory role in the transformation of the environment. Free Soil fosters discourse, develops projects and gives support for critical art practices that reflect and change the urban and natural environment. They believe art can be a catalyst for social awareness and positive change.

Makeshift
Makeshift is a collaborative art & design practice that spans sculpture and installation, drawing, printmaking, object and graphic design, writing, teaching and curating. Their projects often appear as temporary site-responsive interventions that activate public spaces and encourage new ways of interacting with urban and ‘natural’ environments. They are primarily concerned with enabling sustainable futures through redirective practice and unpacking the various ways landscapes are contested and reshaped by social, climatic and other forces. Makeshift also enjoys building dialogue between disparate fields and envisioning new possibilities for how we might live and work together.

Paul Osmond
Paul Osmond is currently a lecturer with the University of New South Wales Built Environment Faculty, after some years looking after campus environmental management at UNSW. His teaching and research interests focus on the area of sustainable urban development. Paul’s background includes an eclectic mix of forestry, indigenous revegetation, permaculture and landscape design, offering a range of sometimes contradictory perspectives from which to observe, reflect on and celebrate Wildlife in the City.

Kim Strong
Kim Strong is a volunteer rescuer/carer for WIRES - NSW Wildlife Information Rescue and Educational Service. WIRES is a not for profit charity with a network of volunteer rescuers, carers and veterinarians across NSW. WIRES is the largest Wildlife rehabilitation organisation in Australian and handles over 50,000 animals each year.

Brendan Penzar
Brendan Penzer is a social ecological artist and arts curator based in Newtown, NSW, Australia. He is the founding director and curator of At The Vanishing Point – Contemporary Art Inc. He completed a double degree in Social Ecology (Applied Science) and Fine Arts with 1st Class Honours from the University of Western Sydney in 2004. Recent exhibitions (Curator and Exhibitor) include Breathing Space (Hawkesbury Regional Gallery 2009, The Humble Spud (Art in the Park - Maundrell Park Petersham) 2008 and the approaching BIOdiverseCITY (ATVP) 2010. Brendan won an award for his installation of a pile of rubbish (recyclables) collected over a month on the Cook River in the Baker's Dozen exhibition 2008.