Exhibition Launch and Conversation – artist Kirsten Hudson with marine research scientists Fabio Boschetti and Matt Andreotta

Saturday, 27 July 2024, 2–3.30pm

Join us at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery to celebrate the launch of Kirsten Hudson’s exhibition Ode (An Acknowledgement of Sea Country). Thesenew artworks have been commissioned to explore complex ideas surrounding scientific and cultural connections to the ocean.

Kirsten Hudson will be in conversation at the gallery with CSIRO Environment research scientists, mathematician Dr Fabio Boschetti and psychologist Dr Matt Andreotta who have collaborated in the development of this work. Stay for refreshments. 

Kirsten Hudson is a transdisciplinary artist scholar living on Whadjuk Noongar boodjar, who creates film, performance, and object-based works that visually speculate upon, human, non-human, and more-than-human embodiment. Hudson also publishes on subjects such as: maternal loss; the ethics/aesthetics of performance; collaborative transdisciplinary pedagogy; bio-art and the materiality of “life”; as well as speculative fiction. She has a PhD in Fine Art and is a Screen Arts, Cultural Studies, & Photography lecturer at Curtin University, WA.

Dr Fabio Boschetti is an applied mathematician with multidisciplinary experience, including modelling of ecological and socio-economic processes. His work is currently applied to the management of natural resources and their interaction with human activities.

Dr Matthew Andreotta is a postdoctoral fellow at CSIRO Environment. He blends social and cognitive psychology with data science techniques to identify what people believe and why they believe it. He has applied his methods to pressing societal issues, such as marine resource management, climate change, the influence of misinformation, scientific communication, and detection of research with misconduct or integrity concerns.

The artwork commission has been sponsored by the Friends of the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery.

Ode (An Acknowledgment of Sea Country) exhibition will be on 17 July - 14 August in the Harold Schenberg Study Centre at Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery.

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Campus Partnership: Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, UWA, CSIRO Environment, School of Design, UWA

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THE OCEAN PROJECT 2024

Art has a capacity to reveal, communicate and evoke complex information, emotions, images and ideas. Addressing key topical science and art themes, The Ocean Project 2024 links art with science for educational and public benefit outcomes.

The ocean is a key arena for scientific research in WA and globally; with biological, environmental, social, economic and cultural concerns and impacts.

For many years CSIRO Environment (located in the IOMRC at UWA), has been researching Oceanography and Marine Biology in WA; including marine ecology in the field, mathematical modelling and research in cognitive and social sciences; which currently has a focus on the Ocean You Want- for the UN Decade of the Ocean

A collaborative partnership between Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery (LWAG), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Environment ) the School of Design, UWA and artist Kirsten Hudson, together with staff and students of Wesley College and Kalamunda Senior High has been investigating how art might communicate and bring western science, Indigenous cultural knowledge and community science about the ocean to a wider audience - especially to students at all levels.

The Project commenced with a public discussion: Challenges in ocean research – how might art help?  that was held in April 2024.

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The project has been financially supported by the Friends of the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery

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Please note: in keeping with the University's guidelines, space is limited for this event and registration is required.

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Image: Kirsten Hudson, Ode (An Acknowledgment of Sea Country): Work-in-progress cameraless film stills. Materials: DIY bio-plastic celluloid created from Whadjuk Sea County and macroalgae, DIY macroalgae and cephalopod inks, press seaweed sustainably foraged from Whadjuk Country shoreline, digitised using a DIY optical printer.