On the 28th of April we will be co-hosting a picnic with Epicurean Harvest, an organic, regenerative farm in Hartley. KSCA will be showing off the work in progress of artist Mark Swartz who has partnered with farmers Erica Watson and Hayden Druce and solar scientist Bjorn Sturmberg to look at ways that solar energy can be integrated into regenerative farming operations through art. You can read about how this project has evolved here.
If this wasn’t interesting enough, we have Allan Giddy, who has a phenomenal record of working with solar technology as a medium for art making over the last 20 years. Allan began making artworks using alternative energy as early as 1992. He is one of Australia’s foremost proponents of sustainable energy systems, electronic interconnectivity and interactivity embedded in the physical art object. He is also an irrepressibly generous and energetic educator at UNSW Art & Design, where he has taught for many years now.
Allan’s work has been shown in ISEA and TISEA (International Symposia on Electronic Art), at the Tate Modern, and numerous other venues internationally, from Canada and Finland to Greece, Vietnam and Bulgaria. In recent years he has completed a number of large public commissions, in Australia, China, Ireland, Germany the UK and New Zealand. He is in the midst of touring Flow, an interactive artwork in which the voices of Aboriginal children can be heard in flowing water (if you have the right listening tool!), produced in honour of the year of Indigenous languages.
Flow (2019) is a participatory, site- and culture-responsive audio installation utilising the natural flow of water to convey the voices of First Nations children in Australia and around the world.
This represents a real coupe for KSCA, bringing together one of the longest practicing and highly regarded artists in this field to engage with our little endeavour to make art and renewable energy work for regenerative farmers. The conversation is sure to be intriguing!
If you haven’t signed up for the picnic yet, we still have a few tickets left. Please make sure you check it out and register here before the event sells out!
