Opening Night Tuesday 10 November 6pm to 8pm
Artist Talk Saturday 21 November 2pm with guest speaker Ben Cullen - a Melbourne-based conservation ecologist, naturalist, broadcaster, and storyteller. Ben is the creator and host of Finding Melbourne’s Nature, a podcast exploring urban conservation through walking conversations and audio storytelling, as well as the host of Backyard Buzz on Triple R FM (102.7).
My practice is rooted in hands-on environmental stewardship, informed by my work with the long-established community environmental group Friends of Wilson Reserve and my role as founder of Friends of Hillcroft Park. Tending to these local ecosystems—whether removing invasive species, restoring degraded habitats, protecting remnant River Red Gum grasslands, or observing native wildlife—directly feeds my studio research.
The slow, patient labour of habitat restoration mirrors the deliberate precision of printmaking; both are acts of care that seek to reveal, preserve, and celebrate the quiet micro-ecologies of the local volcanic landscape. At their core, planting and propagating share the fundamental logic of printmaking: both are processes of reproduction, generating new form from a plate, a cutting, or a seed.
Drawing inspiration from Albrecht Dürer’s 1503 watercolour Great Piece of Turf (Das große Rasenstück), Great Piece of Victorian Volcanic Turf approaches the critically endangered temperate grasslands of local volcanic plains not as broad vistas, but as intricate, teeming microcosms. Where Dürer isolated a wild patch of meadow with reverent clarity, this exhibition expands that gaze to encompass both plant and creature, honoring the living web beneath our feet.
