Introducing the Sisters of Perpetual Plastix… The Plastic-free Biennale team meets each week on Zoom (of course!) to continue our work … Our “junior members”, artists Amber Jones (top left) and Juundaal Strang-Yettica (bottom left) are developing a plug-in performative piece called “The Sisters of Perpetual Plastix”, which involves two nuns called Sister Glitter Nullius (Juundaal) …
Author Archives: Lucas Ihlein
A date with Pangolin
The last fortnight has seen a massive shift in … well, pretty much everything! With the Coronavirus sweeping across the world, Plastic-free Biennale (like everyone else) has had to change tack. We had been planning to spend every Wednesday in our installation at Cockatoo Island as the HQ for our ongoing activities throughout the duration …
Biennial Foundation Review
This thoughtful review has been published on the Biennial Foundation website, briefly discussing the Plastic-free Biennale project among other contributions to NIRIN. Thanks to author Michaela Bear. Michaela writes: Among the 36 artists and projects displayed on the industrial Island is a space dedicated to resources on the Plastic-Free Biennale, created by socially-engaged artists Lucas …
Towards a plastic-free Biennale
Tracey Clement, and artist and writer for Art Guide Australia, has written this wonderful article about our project. You can read Tracey’s piece on the Art Guide website over here. Towards a plastic-free Biennale – by Tracey Clement. March 25, 2020 Kim Williams and Lucas Ihlein are socially engaged artists. As a practice, socially engaged …
Plastic-free Biennale on Instagram
Over the last few weeks we’ve been busy setting up our installation at Cockatoo Island. Here’s a small selection of snaps! The image at the centre (“Plastic is the only thing on this planet that will not go extinct”) is from our friends at Adrift Lab, whose powerful work is also on show at Cockatoo …
Cultural Leadership in Action
Great news! Following the recent board meeting, the Biennale has appointed Sahar (Administration & Operations Coordinator) to lead the charge on creating a new Environmental Management Plan. The Biennale is making time available in Sahar’s work day so she can put some effort into this project. Sahar has never done anything like this before, and …
Hessian in Contemporary Art?
This photo is from Belle, Exhibition Coordinator at Sydney Biennale, and Cherie, the Head of Exhibitions, who have been supporting our project. Here in the boot, Cherie and Belle are transporting some hessian to the Art Gallery of NSW. Belle told us that Brook Andrew (the Artistic Director of the Biennale) has been looking for …
At the Board Meeting
Sometimes when people ask “So, what kind of art do you do?”, I answer “Oh, mainly I make Google Docs”. This is a joke of course, but it’s not entirely untrue. Alongside making things out of wood, printmaking, growing crops as artworks, and producing videos and songs, Kim and I do seem to create a …
Grown up stuff
In the last blog post I talked about how we have been working with kids to make a song which swims around in the mess of plastic in our everyday lives. While we’re working on all that fun stuff, and preparing for the exhibition at Cockatoo Island, we’re also working behind the scenes with the …
Plastic in the House – the song
Plastic-free Biennale has a whole bunch of moving puzzle pieces. Some of them are very “grown-up” looking, like meeting with the Board of Directors of the Biennale of Sydney (to urge them to update their environmental policy) or researching the science and history of plastic. But other aspects of the project are pure fun, and …