INAUGURAL EVENT IN 2019

Knowing dugongs were listed as ‘vulnerable to extinction’, Patricia, knew she had a responsibility to bring awareness to their conservation. Inspired by the artist Nick Cave’s 2018 exhibition at Carriage Works in Sydney, the Dugong installation was created using approximately 85% second hand materials.

‘Dugong, Dugong, Dugong’ 2019 2m x 6m

Materials: Tulle, beaded necklaces and silver thread

‘Imagine, scattered around the world only the broken wings of the dragonfly or even life without dragonflies’. Sheryl’s artwork reflects her Kuku Yalanji cultural identity through both the wind teller (Wurarr-Wararr or Dragonfly) and ancestral burning practices for protecting the environment for the next generation.

‘Imagine’ 2019 3m x 4m Driftwood, Found organic marine debris.

Lurking beneath the pleasant, leafy abandoned botanical area behind the Port Douglas Community Hall lies a disused rubbish tip. Molly’s artwork is specifically sited in this landfill area, which belies the potential dangers of leachate from the disintegration of rubbish in the buried tip. Her installation of cyanotype photography prints is directly responding to the themes of natural beauty and toxicity.

‘Glimmers of Light’ 2019 4m x 6m 100% cotton rag paper, handmade in southern India from recycled T-shirt off cuts. Cyanotype chemicals, and assorted contaminates including – soda ash, ammonia, sea water, salt, vinegar.

The Nature of Blue Cyanotypes.

Bamboo Connect, concerned with ‘Sustainable Networks Resilient communities’, brings kids together to explore Renewable Energy & Materials, Tension & Compression, and Collaboration & Community, facilitating the creation of and interaction with public artworks by kids of neighbouring communities through a hands-on exploration of environmental, structural and social relationships, with bamboo as the connecting building block. 

Tanya’s installation in Rex Smeal Park, is an exploration into the rivers of plastic left behind during our day-to-day activities and the impact this has on our natural world.

‘Hidden Rivers / Silent Streams’, 2019, 18m x 1m x 1.5m
Single use plastic bottles, retrieved crab pots cardboard boxes and printed paper, led light

Jill’s salt print installation offers viewers an opportunity to reflect on how we can conserve the earth resources especially the reefs of the Northern GBR which have diminishing hard coral growth. While her large sculptural work suggests finding creative ways to re-use waste. Created using approximately 2 cubic metres of plastic marine debris, collected by Tangaroa Blue, marine debris clean-up initiative and the artist’s own beach collections, the work suggests both a wave (New Wave) and the skeletons of large marine animals.

‘Preserve/ Conserve – Invocation#2: Giving more Time to GBReef’, 2019 4m x 6m, PVC pipe and salt

‘New Wave’, 2019, 7m x 2.2m x 3.6m

Armature of aluminium flat bar and plastic marine waste, led light.

Every year it is estimated that between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes of plastic enter the world’s oceans.A significant amount of this is man-made rope, a potentially lethal by-product of commercial and recreational fishing, and marine activities. The rope, nets and fishing line tangle unsuspecting marine life, is ingested or becomes micro plastic. Rosey’s work is a response to the impact of this on our oceans and marine life.

‘Get the Drift’, 2019 175 pieces. Approximate size is 10 metres by 7 metres.Twined strands of washed up polypropylene and nylon mooring rope.

‘Where will the clownfish play?’ 2019 various sizes. Washed up dead coral, coiled, de-knotted washed up crab pot string stitched with strands of washed up mooring rope.

‘Mimicry – from the deep; 1’ 2019 various sizes. Driftwood, coiled washed up mooring rope, stitched with strands of washed up mooring rope.

Ross has appropriated ‘The Great Wave’ by Japanese artist, Hokusai to highlight the issues of global warming and ocean plastics; He sees the wave as a metaphor for rising sea levels and more frequent storm and cyclone events associated with global warming. The use of plastic lids is a comment on the insidious presence of plastic in our oceans; a wave of debris that poses a significant threat to life.

‘Homage to Hokusai’ Video 2019. Washed up bottle tops collected by the artist, Tangaroa Blue Foundation during beach clean ups and members of the Douglas Shire community. Image and photography; Ross Cummings.  Animation; Alice Royster

Asks ‘is it possible to ‘turnaround’ the plight of the magnificent coral reef? In her contemporary frieze made from carved linoleum she takes us on a six-metre journey from a healthy reef to a bleached reef with the possibility of a return once again to a healthy reef.

‘The Turnaround?’ 2019, 1.6x4x1m

Materials/technique:  Ten carved lino blocks, stained black, white ink rolled onto the raised surface. Same ten lino blocks, colour printed onto graduating blue background in reverse sequence

‘Bleached Coral Reflecting’ 2019 2019, 200 x 60cm

Materials/technique: Ten carved lino blocks printed with white and blue ink

‘Colourful Coral Reflecting’ 2019, 200 x 60cm 

Materials/technique: Ten carved lino blocks printed with coloured inks

Susan’s art practice pursues the re-purposing of found objects, making small comments on our consumer world. Her Fig Tree installation will challenge the audience to revere the tree’s beauty and joy it brings.

‘The Element of Surprise’, 2019 3m x 6m x 6m Recycled and dyed cloth.

The context of Barbara’s current body of work is the threatened ecology of the oceans, which frames complex concerns and increasing awareness of the impact of climate change, rising sea levels, coastal development, overfishing and ocean pollution, specifically plastic debris pollution.

Decoy’ 2018 35x35x25cm Found squid hooks from Far North Queensland beaches, metal, glue
‘Pelagic Cloud’ 2019 110x95x190cm Found fish net debris from Far North
Queensland beaches, metal squid hooks
‘Predacious green’ 2019 35x35x35 Found plastic objects and debris from Far North Queensland beaches, wire
‘Undercurrent’ 2019 150x250cm Video, found plastic floats from Far North Queensland beaches.

Tim’s multimedia drawings and videos are an emotional response to climate change issues and deforestation. He questions why governments and corporations have not responded to 50 years of warnings from scientists and environmental experts and why we now find ourselves at a crisis point.

Flaming Forests’ 2019, Digital Video Projection

‘Switch Power’ 2019, Digital Drawing (Giclee print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Paper) & Video Film.

Explores the decline of insect populations through her macramé and flour-print installations. She reminds us of the impact on our environment of household insecticides, the mass use of pesticides and fertilisers for monoculture farming practices, clearing land for housing and waste disposal. She speaks of the personal role we play in this process of environmental degradation and highlights the responsibility we have as individuals and as a population.

‘Tread Lightly’ 2019, approximately 3m x 4m Stencil, Flour and Potash

‘Preserve and Protect’‘Drafting paper, recycled wood, nails, glass and metal underneath

have been working collaboratively with net and rope gathered from the ocean within their own and Aboriginal and Torres Straight Island communities. Their work explores, through weaving, the devastation that dislodged fishing nets have on the ocean’s marine life.

‘Ancient Marinere: are those her sails?’ 2017 Ghost Nets and Found Beach Rope, led light

‘Reef Rambler’ 2017 found beach rope and net , hebel stone

seeks to create a sense of disquiet in her artworks to engender reflection about the kind of life (and death) we impose on sentient creatures. in an effort to foster a sustainable future for life on the planet,

Robyn’s works of art respond to the ecological crisis of the Anthropocene, the current geological age in which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.

‘Choke: Pearls’, 2019, 400 x 400 x 45 cm

Found plastic buoys used by the pearling industry, washed up on FNQ beaches, paint, rope

‘Over Consumption’  2019 220 x 80cm x 100 cm

Cardboard, bamboo, vegetation, paint

Poses a universal question about the unpredictable nature and impact of change. She notes how this is currently relevant to the impact that heavy consumption and waste have on the natural environment. As an artist and lover of nature she is passionately anticipating the ‘winds’ of positive change.

‘Blowing in the Wind’, 2019, Seven (irregular shaped) pods with varying dimensions. Overall size is approx. 3x4mx 250cm

Pandanus palm, cane, paper, shellac, acrylic paint, rope, twine, ghost net & other found natural & synthetic materials, 12 V led lights.

uses video to focus on the survival of the Great Barrier Reef , The video depicts spawning coral captured in a laboratory at the Australian Institute of Marine Science’s Sea Simulator where experiments are carried out to breed species of coral that will be adapted to global warming.

‘Great Barrier Reef corals LIVE’ 2016-2019.single-track digital movie with sound, 5:06,

comments on the ever-increasing plastic pollution of our oceans including micro plastic particles entering and contaminating the marine food chain. It is Terry’s hope that events such as The Call of The Running Tide will facilitate an increase in awareness of marine pollution and join the public platform for change.

‘You are what you eat’, 2019 2m x 3m
Beach Waste and builders plastic collected by the artist, Tangaroa Blue and members of the Douglas Shire Community.

The material for Tijn’s installation is collected from habitat/plant communities in coastal areas between Cairns and Port Douglas. The specimens are dried, isolated from their natural surroundings, selected, observed and rearranged on and against the gallery wall. The resulting work arises purely from its own content.

‘Herbarium vivum’ 2019 4m x 6m

Materials: Plant material, tape

has been in the uncomfortable position, of seeing near reefs of the Great Barrier Reef disappear in a matter of months. His video of healthy and bleached reefs remind us that our actions today will determine the fate of coral reefs for tomorrow.

‘Untitled’ Video swim-through of a healthy to bleached reef 2019 Format is 1080, 25fps, 16:9

Explores how all living creatures are intertwined. She has focused on our primal connection, with the ocean as the source of life on earth. She postulates that what affects the ocean will eventually affect us.

‘The Ujjayi’ or The Ocean’s Breath 2019

Materials: white raku clay, fired and left in its natural state

Asks us to reflect on the preciousness of the ancient and sacred environments of the Far North in which she lives. She crafts dried plant materials to further engage us by their unique patterns, textures and colours.

‘Untitled’ 2019 Natural foliage, flowers, twine, botanical dyes

is a nationally recognised artist who brings a contemporary focus to the traditional black palm and other fibre basket weaving practices from Kuku Yalanji country North Queensland. Delissa is passionate about keeping her culture alive though her weavings and the regeneration of the black palm.

‘Untitled’ 2019 1.2m x 1.2m Weaving with Black Palm

Honours the Coconut Palm and the Beach Almond as anchoring the coastal beach fringe. She notes it would be devastating without them, from both a visual and practical perspective in the face of cyclones, climate change, and particularly of rising tides.

‘The Running Tide’ 2.2m x 1.8m. Photographic prints on foam core.

‘Weeds or Not?’ 2019 4m x 5m Coconut fibre and Beach Almond leaves