Community of Care
Carer Team
December 17, 2024
Each for these mounds followed the Carbon_Dating mounded approach - and each had different plantings suited to their local bioregion. Sites were also supplied with the project's grass cards to allow them to conduct their own local processes of getting to know their grasses during the growing period.
Self-Portrait as a Native Grass
(by Beth Jackson)
not ancient
not worthy of veneration
always ageing and never old or wise enough
working always working
just persistent
regrowing from chewed stubbs
leaves of silicates wear down browsing teeth
keening for the green pick
knowing I'm good for it
filling gaps of all kinds
openings in forests
cracks in rocks
fire trails
following thin lines of disruption across the world
and hanging on
literate enough to make my way
hollow round stems sheathed in blades
cascading from green to gold
living and dying in halos and ribbons
memory's unbearable treasure trove accumulating
til fire breathing dragons
remind me I'm free
Hervey Bay planted Kangaroo Grass (Themeda triandra), SaltwaterCouch (Sporobolus virginicus), Barbed Wire Grass (Cymbopogon refractus) and Cushion Mat Rush (Lomandra confertifolia) which are native grasses that thrive on Butchulla Country in late 2023.
Warwick Art Gallery planted Black Spear, Queensland Bluegrass and Scented Top in summer 2023 - all endemic and suited to their local Country/bioregion.
Beth Jackson planted Black Spear, Queensland Bluegrass and Scented Top grass in late 2023, which are also endemic and suited to her local Country/bioregion.
Warwick Art Gallery was officially opened on the 18th of February 1990. In 2012 the Gallery was extended to provide a workshop and storage space. In 2017 the Gallery expanded again into the former Visitor Information Centre next door to create the Orange Wall Gallery exhibition space and Gallery shop. The Gallery's facilities support an exhibitions program that includes a mix of touring exhibitions and locally generated exhibitions. The Gallery is a Category A facility and a member of Queensland's regional gallery network and Museums Australia. They proudly present over 20 different exhibitions a year and entry is free.
Hervey Bay Regional Gallery (HBRG) is a destination gallery, featuring a curated programme hosting national touring exhibitions alongside our own internally curated shows, focusing on hyper-local themes with a universal meaning for contemporary audiences, local and visiting alike. In December 2012, Hervey Bay Regional Gallery was relocated and commenced operations in the newly purpose-built and architecturally designed Fraser Coast Cultural Centre. The facility incorporated two art exhibition spaces, the Main Gallery and Access Galleries, foyer, retail space, children’s workshop room, Theatrette multimedia room and the Fraser Coast Discovery Sphere, a static interpretive environmental and cultural display. Fraser Coast Tourism and Events partnered with Council at different stages in the management and delivery of the Fraser Coast Discovery Sphere. The site is tended by Sam Raveneau and Kaile.
Beth Jackson is the Carbon_Dating exhibition curator (Along with Jo-Anne Driessens). Beth directs the art consultancy Artfully with a focus in art for the public realm. Through an extensive knowledge of contemporary art practice and practitioners, nationally and internationally, Artfully assists artists in the development of ideas and the translation of concepts into built environments and into specific social and exhibition contexts. This occurs through an interdisciplinary approach working closely with clients, design teams, built environment professionals, community and stakeholder groups. Artfully aims to deliver projects which meet community needs and generate an abiding sense of place.
Carbon_Dating is an experimental artwork designed to seed ‘consensual’ partnerships between Australian native grasses and humans, based upon their shared need to breathe each other’s ‘exhaled’ air.
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the many lands on which we live, work and create, including our collaborators on Yirrganydji, Barunggam, Jagera/Yuggera, Turbal, Ugarapul, Jinibara, Kabi Kabi and Kombumerri Country. We acknowledge their ongoing connection and custodianship for Country. We pay our deep respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We recognise First Nations people as the first artists and scientists. Always was, always will be.
The 2024-5 Carbon_Dating exhibition tour is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts QueenslandAssisted by QUT School of Creative Arts, International Art Services (IAS), Native Seeds Pty Ltd, Artfully, and Embodied Media.
Between 2019-23 this project was assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. It was also supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF). The Regional Arts Development Fund is a partnership between the Queensland Government: Cairns Regional Council; Western Downs Regional Council; City of Gold Coast Council; Somerset Regional Council; and ArtsCoast as part of Sunshine Coast Council’s RADF program to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.
Thanks also to QUT (School of Creative Arts, QUT Office of eResearch and Samford Ecological Research Facility). NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns; Dogwood Crossing Gallery, Miles; HOTA, Gold Coast; The Condensery, Toogooloowah; Caloundra Regional Gallery, Caloundra; Native Seeds Pty Ltd and ReBul Packaging.
