Exhibition opening: Intimate Organisms

“…a powerful sense of connection between art, audience, and living organisms”. - Amy Jane Collins, Lemonade Letters to Art.

Exhibition: Intimate Organisms by Bianca Tainsh

In contrast to the self-centric over-exploits of contemporary humankind, there is an obscure underground industry of intelligence between intimate organisms. Electric impulses and chemical amalgams transmit esoteric communications. A multi-species affiliation, manifesting from primordial relationships with fungi.

At the centre of this multi-artform installation Bianca presents Myc-a, a unique bio-tech artwork creating a terra-biome of flora and microfauna, intimately connected by a network of mycorrhizal fungi.

Housed within a custom-fabricated terrarium, biosensors reveal Myc-a’s methodology of mutualism and perpetuity.  This ancient culture of interspecies reciprocity offers a compelling vision for escaping the disastrous trajectory of the Anthropocene. Through art and performance Intimate Organisms invites us to entangle with the complex agency and culture of the more-than-human sphere, to imagine the emergence of a tech-enabled epoch of nature-connection and respectful coexistence.

Open 10am - 2pm weekdays, 10am – 4pm weekends, 8-16th March

Opening night celebrations 6-8pm | Performances at 7pm

Opening night performance

Join us in a celebration of interspecies synergy as artists unite in a Ritual for Entanglement - a live performance transcending the human sphere into a more-than-human cultural exchange. In an immersive act of symbiosis, humans and Myc-a become entangled in the rhythms of co-existence. 

Guiding us into the sonic space of this interconnection, Finley Wegener (Abstract Human Radio) will perform a sound exploration resonating with frequencies that suggest enhanced mycological growth, extrapolating their harmonic and musical implications into an evocative auditory experience. 

Free event.

Bianca Tainsh is an open-disciplinary artist, based in Meanjin Brisbane and on Lake Weyba, Kabi Kabi Country. Engaging audiences in Australia and beyond, Bianca crafts transformative experiences through her dynamic multi-artform installations and captivating performances. She is an award-winning artist renowned for her ground-breaking work that transcends traditional artistic borders. Her Art+Technoscience projects seek to not only reconnect people with nature but also to formulate novel solutions to ecological demise.

Finley Wegener is an audiovisual artist and musician practicing on the Kabi Kabi lands of South East Queensland. Motivated by art’s capacity to connect audiences to their surroundings, Fin passionately crafts interactive performances that amplify and respond to environments and their ecology. Fin has presented installations and performances at SEQ festivals such as Brisbane Art & Design Festival, Horizon Festival, Yonder, and Outbound, as well as juried work in the International Symposium on Electronic Art 2024.

Performing with Bianca:

Melissa Matveyeff’s process-based work emerges as a bold critique of the unspoken—challenging societal taboos through a phenomenological lens. She confronts the elephant in the room, weaving absurdity as both trickster and guide, body and map. Rooted in the natural world as the great womb, her art unravels silences, making space for what must be seen, felt, and said.

Sara Moore Ocher Bee is a grounded, ascended and centred artist, deeply connected to the earth through her use of ochre, wood, and other natural materials. Nurturing her family's First Nations, Koorie bloodlines, along with the roots of Scandinavian, Welsh and Scottish inheritance. Her work is sometimes spontaneous, always heartfelt, often shaped by the moment, the location, and the emotional energy being expressed. Healing is deeply experienced through her personal earth rituals creations & rites.

Exhibition Events:

10am – 3pm, Sat 15 March | Unbounded: The Art of Captivating Projects – masterclass with Bianca Tainsh

This masterclass will teach you how to expand the expressive and imaginative scope of your artmaking. Draw on the vital elements of your existing practice and explore how contemporary methods and thinking can take you on new creative journeys and open new opportunities for exhibition, engagement, and collaboration. 

Limited spaces, bookings essential - book HERE

2 – 3pm, Sun 16 March |  In-conversation: Entangling Science in the Sublime

In its role as an ecological steward, can fungi become our mediator for a return to the gestalt of nature?

Through a collaboration at the nexus of art and science, an artist and a mycologist practiced conscientious connection in a quest to explore this abstract ideal and cultivate sentient biomes. In this in-conversation artist Bianca Tainsh and mycologist Dr Sandra Tuszynska revisit their collaboration and the discoveries they made by merging their different fields and their deep reverence for nature.

Free event. No booking required.

3 - 4pm, Sun 16 March |  Fungi Foray with Patrick Leonard

Join us for a fascinating and relaxing afternoon exploring the hidden world of fungi. Patrick Leonard will lead a foray through the gardens, hunting for these extraordinary organisms and sharing insights drawn from his 40-year fascination with mycology. With a keen eye and a wealth of knowledge, he will reveal the often unseen life of the forest, from delicate mushrooms to resilient wood decay fungi. This engaging and eye-opening experience will deepen your appreciation for the vital role fungi play in our ecosystems and their surprising connections to our daily lives. A perfect way to round off your afternoon in nature.

Free event. No booking required.

This project was supported by The Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) which is a partnership between the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland and Sunshine Coast Council through ArtsCoast to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.