Bundanon Unveils Thinking Together: Exchanges With the Natural World

The first exhibition in Bundanon’s 2025 program examines our interconnections with the natural world through major new commissions by contemporary artists Robert Andrew, Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan and Keg de Souza, presented alongside video works by Sorawit Songsataya and Tina Stefanou, and paintings by Martu Artists of central Western Australia.

Running until 8 June 2025, Thinking together: Exchanges with the natural world, explores themes of reciprocity and collaboration between human and non-human worlds. Each work responds to notions of community and considers the possibility that truly new knowledge may only be created through a process of thinking together, via communal making, cooperation between species, and embodying First Nations practices of knowledge sharing.

To celebrate the Opening Weekend on 8–9 March, Bundanon will present a program of artist and curator talks, an interactive art-making experience designed by internationally renowned duo Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan, live performances including Filipino and Murrawarri artist DOBBY, divination card readings with artist Caitlin Franzmann, and a guided cultural walk along the Burrawang track with First Nations custodians.

Filipino-born artists Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan are renowned for their collaborative practice spanning more than 20 years. For Thinking together, the artists have created a large-scale accumulative sculpture and drawing installation exploring the tree as a symbol of habitats and community. The Shoalhaven landscape made a strong impression upon the artists when they undertook site visits to Bundanon in 2023 and 2024 – as it did upon Arthur and Yvonne Boyd when they visited in the late 1970s – and their new work, REFLECTIONS/HABITATIONS, created an impulse to honour the natural world that is shared. This expansive commission offers a space for visitors to reflect on their own relationship to the natural environment, while sparking an opportunity for collective imagining. Visitors are encouraged to create sculptures and drawings in the adjacent gallery, to be added to the installation over the duration of the exhibition.

For her new commission Growth in the shadows, interdisciplinary artist Keg de Souza has worked with ecologists and Bundanon’s natural resources team, to explore the world of mycelium and fungi that thrive in this landscape, focusing on the expansive knowledge-sharing that fungal networks provide other species. De Souza’s multi-part installation is overlaid with a range of human design systems, including live audio biofeedback, historical scientific display designs and mind-mapping as a methodology for capturing human thought. The work reveals a small part of the vast wealth of information that humans often overlook, reflecting a complex world of connectivity and reciprocity. Her research involves the historical transport of plants during Great Britain’s colonisation of much of the globe, particularly the invention of the Wardian case in the 1830s, an enclosed design that revolutionised the transport of live specimens, influencing botanical history and the course of international economics and trade.

Robert Andrew, a descendant of the Yawuru people of Rubibi/Broome, has created a meditative kinetic work that mirrors the contours of Bangli/ the Shoalhaven River. Using drone footage captured whilst in residence at Bundanon, Andrew translates the contours of the river into a cumulative wall drawing made from materials sourced from the nearby landscape. Titled new eyes — old Country, the work’s slow but ceaseless movement, with its mark making gaining intensity over time, speaks to the connection between time spent on Country and the depth of the knowledge gained, and the incremental ways in which knowledge of Country is gathered and understood.

Providing a foundation for the three new commissions are two large-scale collaborative paintings by artists from the Martu communities of central Western Australia, from the collections of the National Museum of Australia and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. The Martu Artists’ paintings depict the desert landscape in intricate detail, mapping significant cultural, social, and ecological sites, as well as sharing geographic information and instructions on caring for Country. Kalyu was made as a protest against uranium mining exploration near Karlamilyi National Park in Western Australia and depicts a fragile ecosystem with vital underground water systems. In Martumili Ngurra (This is all Martu’s Home), the remote community of Parnngurr, located 370 kms east of Newman in Western Australia, is depicted including sacred sites, waterholes, and pathways that are integral to Martu life. These significant paintings represent the powerful symbiotic link to the natural world that has been continuous for First Nations people for thousands of years and serve an important role in the education of younger generations, ensuring culture is preserved.

Thai-New Zealand artist Sorawit Songsataya‘s Comfort Zone (2021), focuses on the kōtuku (the Eastern great egret) and their nesting grounds in Aotearoa New Zealand. A bird that migrates between Thailand and other tropical regions, they are an endangered species in Aotearoa, with these two islands marking the limit of their geographic and climatic range. What appears to be a non-traditional nature documentary, the video work weaves together footage of the nesting bird with images and animations exploring the connections between the human, non-human and celestial while questioning our sense of belonging and connection to the natural world.

Tina Stefanou‘s Horse Power (2019), similarly explores multi-species interactions and experiences of co-creation, labour and the passing of time. The artist visited retired horses at a farm over the course of several years, walking and feeding them, but also singing to them. Responding to her voice, the elderly horses became a part of her life for almost a decade, collaborating with her in this work to co-compose a cinematic and sonic performance. The video work is an expanded dialogue between humans and animals, a new means of cultural exchange.

“Thinking together is an exhibition that encourages audiences to reflect on our connections to the natural world and all that we can learn from it,” said Sophie O’Brien, Head of Curatorial and Learning at Bundanon.

“These commissions naturally arise out of the Bundanon landscape itself, based on the site visit each artist has made. The artists each have a practice that engages deeply with collaborative research, communal making or community building, alongside a desire to affect social change and to protect – and connect to – the natural environment around us.”

OPENING WEEKEND PROGRAM

Saturday 8 March

• Art Museum open (10am-5pm)
• Official Opening (11am): Smoking Ceremony & Welcome to Country – CEO Rachel Kent, Uncle Gerry Moore Keynote and Clarence Slockee
• Talk: Creating Together (12pm): A conversation with artists Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan and CEO Rachel Kent
• Talk: Working with Nature (1pm): A conversation with artists Keg de Souza, Robert Andrew, and Head of Curatorial Sophie O’Brien
• Talk: Singing to Horses (2pm): Artist Tina Stefanou in conversation with Sophie O’Brien
• Concert: The Big Jam (2.45pm): Hosted by Marley Rooney and band. Musicians and MCs can jump on stage or simply enjoy the jam session
• Concert: DOBBY (3.30pm): A live performance by the Filipino and Murrawarri artist DOBBY
• Creative Play (10am-4pm): Free interactive art-making experience designed by artists Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan
• Fortunes of the Forest (10am-4pm): Divination card readings by Brisbane-based artist Caitlin Franzmann
• Artist Supper (5.30pm): An informal supper with exhibiting artists on the Bridge

Sunday 9 March

• Cultural Walk: Burrawong Dhunna Gam Waglpa (9am): Burrawang track talk and walk with First Nations custodians Joel Deaves and Jordan Thomas
• Art Museum open (10am-5pm)
• Talk: Inspired by Rivers (11am): A conversation with artist Robert Andrew and Uncle Nook, chaired by Clarence Slockee
• Meet The Artists (12pm): Join artists Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan to create together
• Talk: Magic Mycelium (2.30pm): Artist Keg de Souza in conversation with a mycologist Ryan O’Donnell, chaired by Angus Dalton
• Creative Play (10am-4pm): Free interactive art-making experience designed by artists Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan

More information: bundanon.com.au/opening-weekend-thinking-together