EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Artist Talk: Erin Coates on the Dolphin Discovery Eco Cruise Tour Boat

On Saturday the 1st of April at 1:30pm, Erin Coates and 23 guests boarded the Dolphin Discovery Centre’s Eco Cruise Tour Boat from the beach at Koombana Bay. This special event placed Erin and her art practice in dialogue with the ecosystem of Bunbury’s foreshore. As Erin discussed the development of her interest in the aesthetic potential of the depths of the ocean (as a free diver and artist), the boat cruised along the Bay, passing by the busy industrial Bunbury Port towards The Cut at Turkey Point, where the two rivers (Collie and Preston) meet the ocean, via the Leschenault Inlet. It was here that Erin’s art practice literally converged with its subject matter, as some of Bunbury’s resident dolphin population (averaging at 50, with 100+ visiting each year) approached the boat, breaching the water’s surface in perceived curiosity for the slow-moving vessel. Erin’s artwork on display at BRAG, Swan River Dolphin Bones Series speculatively examines the impact of contaminant levels of leached metals on the population of the Indo-Pacific Bottlenose dolphins native to the Derbal Yerrigan/Swan River by interweaving the depicted dolphin bones with metal-like textures and extensions. In the context of the Bunbury Dolphin Discovery Centre Eco Cruise Tour Boat, Erin’s practice and discussion on that Saturday afternoon highlighted how we might contextualise industrial activity in the local Bunbury area as already alongside the more-than-human world and how we might (re)consider industry as an equally active part of this ecosystem.

Film Screening: Scenes from the Chthulucene

The evening program for the Bunbury Biennale opening celebration was hosted by the Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre and screened two films that aimed to explore approaches to making kin with our non-human earthlings. The Tree Prophet by Tucker Marder & Christian Scheider, which premiered at the Santa Monica Film Festival in 2018, observationally portrays self-identified tree prophet David Milarch, who has dedicated his life work to re-populating the world’s decimated old-growth forests. Black Cockatoo Crisis was presented by director Jane Hammond who has created a film focussing on the threats posed, and ways humans are working to mitigate these threats, to the three Black Cockatoo species native to the south-west regions of WA. At once global and local, this selection of films initiated what Glenn Albrecht has termed, solastalgia, that is, “the distress produced by environmental change impacting people while they are directly connected to their home environment,” for many of its audience members. Unveiling many of the unseen, or ‘out of view’, aspects of environmental change caused by human habitation and industrial practices over hundreds of years, both The Tree Prophet and Black Cockatoo Crisis encourage small-scale, sustained interventions as ways to form community with our more-than-human kin.

Panel Discussion: After the Anthropocene

On Saturday 22nd April, we convened a panel discussion at the Bunbury Museum and Heritage Centre with a focus on the topic of Climate Activism in the South West. Invited guests included Wardandi Noongar Elder Bill Webb, feminist participatory action researcher Dr. Naomi Godden, and Bunbury Youth Advisory Council Mayor Mikaela Kerwin.

Facilitated by BRAG Director and social practice artist Dr. Michael Bianco, the conversation included touchpoints such as eco-justice, post-colonial futures, and environmental embeddedness. Taking the exhibition, It Woke the Town Up as the site and departure point for discussion, the panel discussion was then opened to questions from the audience.